Becoming a Connoisseur

If you've seen the BW series or the Unova saga of the Pokémon anime, then you've most likely gotten acquainted with Cilan, one of the main characters in Ash's company and part of the leader trio of the first Pokémon Gym in Unova. Now, Cilan is a real character; he has a lively personality and is very knowledgeable about many things, not the least of which is Pokémon. In fact, he states that he is a great Pokémon connoisseur, someone who evaluates the Pokémon compatibility and battling styles of other Trainers. Indubitably, someone who does so needs to possess a lot of knowledge. In some ways, I too can be considered a kind of connoisseur and have gone through my process of becoming a connoisseur.

Cilan states that connoisseurs have to earn recognition as such with what they know. In a similar fashion, I have gone through two processes of recognition for what I know best. If in the case of Cilan that would be in relation to Pokémon, in my case that would be in relation to languages and their related science, or better known as linguistics. Now I'm undergoing my third process of earning recognition for something that I do that is not too distantly related to languages, and when that is done, I can call myself a connoisseur of three areas related to languages. What I do is really not that much different from what Cilan does, only in my case it results in a product rather than a response; all the same, our lines of work require much knowledge.

In order to do his work, Cilan needs to know not only about Pokémon, but also people's personalities so that he can evaluate how their battle styles work for them. In order to do my work, language knowledge is important, but so is knowledge of other things. The point is that we make use of extra information to make sense of our world and to deliver results. He does it by understanding the people he evaluates; I do so by understanding how other things work. In the end, we make sure that knowledge benefits us by contributing to the grand picture (his case) or grand design (my case).

Cilan is someone that I admire not just because of the way he acts and his qualities. I do believe that I see a lot of myself in him. On the surface what we do may be perceived as wholly and totally different, but deep down there is an inherent similarity in what we do; we're both recognized for what we do and we use lots of knowledge to aid us in our efforts. It's an amazing similarity, truly. I know I would appreciate what he does if I were in the Pokémon world, and perhaps he'd do the same if he were real.