I'm frequently asked why I decided to study Altaic languages and then why I quit it; and have been avoiding answer it to satisfy other's curiosity.

It was a kind of time well-spent while I was at it although lots of grudge still haunts me. Many colleages and friends I met there still drop me lines saying that I should keep in touch with them for more professional relationship even if I don't want it much.

I found it challenging and rewarding, but decided to get into (and more precisely go back to) applied mathematics and computer graphics field where I was active before getting into Altaic languages, where there's more challenges and rewards, and where I was more appreciated and recognized.

Mongolian, Manchu, Tibetan, Turkish, Uzbek, Kazhakh, Hungarian, Uyghur, Sanskrit: Where am I gonna use those Altaic languages learned which I spent all of my early thirties? I haven't read in those languages in recent years and am forgetting many of the words rapidly :-(

Whatever I wanted to work on, it's becoming things of the past, and it's regrettable that those rare valuable language skills are not going to be utilized at all.

While I was at it, reading Buddhist canons and East Asian histories leveled up my viewpoint and understanding. Looking back, I'm wondering whether I need to know that much.

As I'm not gonna go back there, I think it's useless now to show thesis proposal and some miscellaneous papers on what I wanted to do.

(April 15, 1998)