Speaking of writing about studying another culture and having humility, check out Toranosuke’s excellent piece on the moment when you realize you how much you don’t know about your field over on A Man with Tea.
Whenever I’ve heard (or read) people say things like “the more you learn, the more you realize how little you know,” I always used to think it referred to a breadth and depth of detailed knowledge. The more you learn about Japan, the more you realize how little you know about England, the Netherlands, or Korea (not to mention Botswana or Guyana); at the same time, the more you learn about any given aspect of Japanese culture or history (for example), the more you realize just how many other castles, samurai lords, artists, events & incidents, works of literature, or whatever it may be, that you still don’t know about. Plus, even within any given topic, the more you know about Hokusai or Danjûrô or Saga Castle, for example, the more you realize just how much more about that same topic you still don’t know. That’s all certainly…
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The Lobster Dance 
Thanks for this: it really struck a chord!
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I know the feeling. I had the same throughout my PhD. It feels a little better when you are eventually forced into squeezing what you know or think you know into something your students will have to learn. Transmission is a necessary stage of the learning process. Hopefully we will be given more than one chance to express our knowledge.
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