Master and Apprentice

What could someone learn from being my apprentice? It’s a difficult question to answer, because I feel that I have never stopped learning myself. It also depends on whether the knowledge to be passed on concerns being a good role model or practical skills. If it is the former, then I would like to think that someone could learn the value of being a kind and positive person from me. I would try to impart upon my apprentice the importance of thinking about others before thinking about themselves. The world could be transformed overnight if more people put others before themselves in even the smallest ways, such as holding doors open for others.

In terms of practical skills, I could share my love for the sport of cricket with my apprentice. I was a solid club cricketer for twenty years back in Australia, and was a technically correct opening batter for most of that time. Cricket is still an unfamiliar sport outside of Commonwealth countries, and requires a different skill set from other sports. One doesn’t necessarily have to be the most athletic sportsperson to play the game effectively, but requires instead a calm, strategic and focused mentality. Indeed, cricket is perhaps the professional sport that most resembles chess, in the sense that batters and bowlers alike have to anticipate their opponents’ next move or even their next several moves.

The next topic I would be qualified to share my knowledge about would be philosophy. I studied the subject for more than ten years at university, and finally graduated with a PhD. Philosophy is such a broad subject that I would only be able to share my knowledge of the contemporary analytical tradition. A more interesting aspect of the subject to share with my apprentice would be the tools that are used for philosophical thinking. Philosophers use structured arguments to present their views, and, in a similar manner to cricket, need to be able to anticipate how their opponents would object or respond to their arguments. This dialectical structure of argument-objection-response dates back to the beginning of Western Philosophy in ancient Greece.

Finally, I would be able to pass on a certain amount of knowledge about photography. My father is a professional photographer, so I have experienced being the apprentice with regard to this subject. Photography is a subject about which one is constantly learning and refining one’s methods and techniques. A testament to this is the fact that I try to avoid taking obvious, “touristy” photos of familiar places these days. When I look back at the photos that I took when I first arrived in Japan in 2011, many of them seem indistinguishable from the kinds of photos that many other people would take of the same places. In contrast, I would like to think that my current images bear a more unique stamp.

In summary, if someone were to become my apprentice, I would like to think that they could learn about how to be a decent person, as well as some skills and knowledge relating to the topics of cricket, philosophy and photography.

Ming

Vocabulary

impart (verb) – to give something such as knowledge or information to someone
contemporary (adj.) – modern, or relating to the present time
dialectic (noun) – a method used in philosophy to try to discover truth
indistinguishable (adj.) – lacking identifying qualities; not unique