| self-description
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I got interested in linguistics quite early. When I answer the question of "why linguistics" I say that it matched the logic found in my previous interest -Mathematics,(all the possible elementary school Maths contests as a memory) with the possibility of exploring other cultures. One day, at the age of 14, I decided that I should be someone who can compare languages (meaning the three foreign languages I was learing at the time) and I rushed to check in an encyclopedia if the word I had just "invented", a “linguist” (“języko-znawca”) existed. Bingo! Since that moment very little has changed. Now I study historical and German (applied) linguistics at a university with a group of students who seem to be genuinely in love with their subject (who else plays with PIE reconstuction on a saturday night party?). I also discovered the existence of many non-indo-european languages with their interesting features.
My current linguistic fascination is the study of the native American languages. I am discovering the beauty (and ease with which one can learn and use it!) of agglutination. My course of study at the university has also almost convinced me that I would like to work in the field of historical linguistics (historical linguistics of native American languages?), but my adventure with linguistics has just started and I would like to gain more comprehensive overview of the field before confining myself to one of the more specific branches. If the first field of linguistics I tried to study in depth interests me so much, then maybe the others will as well! Therefore I would like to take some courses in other fields and the introductory courses at the egg are a great opportunity for that. To be honest (and informal), the overview of courses seems to me like a cimema program for "100 greatest movies ever" and I am sure i will have a hard time choosing, or not choosing some clases, since I believe it might not be possible to attend them all.
One other, equally strong , if not stronger, reason of why I would like to participate in the summer school is the opportunity to meet and make contacts with linguists (also young linguists, students) from other countries and I have encountered very few opportunities of that by now. I went to an international school(The Mahindra United World College of India) and can appreciate the benefits of an international group of people studying together and the contacts made. I am hoping to see how linguistics is studied on an international level and what better way to do it then to take classes at a international summer camp! |