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Monthly Archives: January 2013

What’s Language Got to Do with It?

16 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by polyglossic in languages, linguistics, linguists

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

graduate school, language, languages, PhD comics, research, Sherpa, sociolinguistics

If any of you are currently suffering through graduate school, I hope you have at one point or another come across the delightful PhD Comics.  It’s good to be able to laugh at the things that are currently making all your hair fall out, and to know that there are plenty of smart, sleep-deprived people trudging on right along with you.

Recently the folks behind the comic started posting a series of videos to their youtube channel called “Two Minute Thesis.”  Their most recent one features a linguist from the University of Melbourne discussing her work with Sherpa children!  If you’ve ever wondered what linguists do “in the field,” what kinds of things sociolinguists research, or how language and culture relate to each other, here’s a nice introduction in a few short minutes:

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New Year, New Challenge

04 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by polyglossic in ancient languages, Applied linguistics, language learning

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

ancient languages, applied linguistics, classical languages, Greek, language learning, languages

If all goes according to plan, at the end of this coming semester I will hold in my hands a bright, shiny new Master’s degree with my name on it!  My last requirement is a practicum, and the Fates must be smiling on me, because I’ve worked out a way to fulfill that requirement while also…studying ancient Greek!  Somehow timing and patience and a few lovely professors have given me a two-for-one deal.

This is exciting, and also, I must admit, just a little harrowing.  I took three semesters of Greek two years ago, so I’ll basically be picking up right where I left off, except for that unfortunate, you know, complete lapse in studying.  I’ve dabbled here and there but it has certainly taken a back seat, especially when I became a full-time graduate student.  And since I’m supposed to be assisting with the course, not merely attending, I don’t think a fake-it-til-you-make-it approach is going to suffice.  Classes start in 11 days, so I have joined the ranks of probably countless generations of budding scholars – I’m cramming for Greek.

Greek student

This reviewing/learning process presents some unique challenges, and unique opportunities.  As part of my “assignment,” my Greek professor has asked me to keep a detailed journal of my process, something I was interested in doing anyway.  She says that there’s a hypothesis, purely anecdotal, that she and most of her Classics colleagues have: if you stop studying a language, you can pick it back up pretty easily after a year; it starts getting harder after that; and after two years, you’re toast.  Square one.  Considering I am right at the two year mark, almost to the day, it should be, as she put it, “interesting.”  🙂  I’m the subject of my own applied linguistics research!  (Do I get extra credit?)

I’ll be posting occasional updates over the next few months as to how things are going.  In the mean time, wish me luck!  And Happy New Year!

 

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© Allison Taylor-Adams and Polyglossic, 2012-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Allison Taylor-Adams and Polyglossic with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Copyright notice

© Allison Taylor-Adams and Polyglossic, 2012-2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Allison Taylor-Adams and Polyglossic with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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