I didn't know about linguistics and it
was taking the introductory course where
I really discovered such an exciting
field about how we speak and the
different parts of our language and
other languages.
I thought linguistics was about language
and to be honest that's all I really
knew about it. And obviously when I came
to study linguistics I learned it was so
much more than that it was really
multifaceted. The reason I chose to study
linguistics is because I come from well
firstly I come from a bilingual families
so bilingualism is always been an
interest of mine.
You learn about bilingualism, you learn
about second language acquisition, the
history and structure of English,
semantics and pragmatics. So it's
actually quite a complex and yeah as I
said multifaceted kind of area of study.
I think the most useful thing about
linguistics is really understanding
different perspectives that people have.
So in my Japanese learning I learned
that the language is structured to be
polite and to really make sure you
convey that politeness when you're
talking to someone. Whereas it's not
necessarily in English and there's
differences between them and learning
linguistics taught me about how
perspectives are communicated in
language. You're not necessarily learning
a language from scratch you're just... it's
more about the scientific study of... you
know, various languages and really sort
of deconstructing them looking at the
structure of words, the structure of
sentences, the origin of different
languages, the evolution of languages and
yeah looking at language in different
contexts, looking at the way people learn
language from a cognitive perspective.
There's a lot to learn. I live in
Parramatta. I am a local resident and the
people are surrounding me a lot of them
are migrants and my previous working
experience I have exposure to these
people. So I'm aware the need for people
with language skills. You're learning a
language, you are also learning about
the culture and so that can help our
understanding of the world and our
understanding of people as well. So we'll
definitely agree that when you learn a
language you're also learning about the
context in which that language occurs
for sure. I want to conduct a research on
language learning in adults. Because it
is more difficult for adults to learn
language and I want to know why is that
so, and also how we can combat this
problems so we can you know we can learn
languages more efficiently and more
quickly. My favourite area in linguistics
is the power of language, and I think
that's the most interesting thing is the
fact that language has such a power over
people and society as a whole.
Now with the relationship between
Australia and China increased trade and
cultural exchanges. So they need more
people with bilingual skills. I think a
good personal attribute for somebody who
wants to study linguistics would be that
curiosity about language, so wanting to
know more about why we say things the
way we say things or you know how people
learn a language, what happens to their
brains when that happens. The most
surprising thing for me was to actually
discover that there are jobs in research.
I had no idea, I thought that scientists
studied in a lab and they were in lab
coats. But to find out that I was a
researcher and I was a scientist looking
at language was the most surprising
thing that's ever happened to me.
 
