My Passion for Language

The first time I was ever exposed to a foreign language was in first grade when my future French teacher, Mrs. Egbert, came and taught us some French. I obviously didn't know it then, but Mrs. Egbert would change my life in a way in which I would never have dreamed. It wasn't until I was in 8th grade and my friend Elizabeth Southers from church started to share her interest in German, which she was taking in high school. I got interested in it somehow and Elizabeth ended up starting to teach me the things that she had learned. She wrote down all the prhases she would learn on pieces of paper, like lessons, and I would study and learn them.

When I was ready to enter high school and had to pick between French and Spanish, I chose French because my sister had taken Spanish and had a REALLY hard time with it. Some people just aren't cut out for language. As I started French, I fell in love with it. It was amazing! I continued to study German from sites online and with Mrs. Egbert as she studied German in university. I took language learning to a whole other level. I would study the dictionary in the back of my French book and learn new verbs and words. I would study grammatical structures before we even would get to them. I was a bit obsessed and it definitely set me apart from other people.

My freshman year of high school I started the art of glossopoeia, which is "language creation". I started making up my own languages with their own grammars even though I didn't fully understand what a grammar truly consisted of. The summer after my Freshman year I picked up Italian because I knew Mrs. Egbert was studying it on her own. I remember calling her one day at home in the summer and discussing Italian with her. Now that I look back on it, that is a really scary thing to do. What child calls their teacher in the summer to discuss a language? I WAS OBSESSED! I must say now that I have never really picked up Italian and I've never really had any urge to learn it. I've bought a few self taught books but never really got the ball rolling with Italian, though I have a pretty good reading level of it.

My senior year of high school, I was outed as a "conlanger" (language constructer). Mrs. Egbert had gotten up to give away the "Foreign Language Honor Award" and started to tell my story without mentioning my name. She even went so far as to mention my love for making up and writing my own languages! I guess when one has a passion he must stand up to his geekiness! I was proud to get that award and I certainly deserved it. Throughout my high school career I ended up taking not only French but I also took Latin and German from other schools.

I decided that I wanted to be an exchange student to better my French. Being a glossophile, I thought France was too boring and I wanted to learn as many languages as possible so I decided I'd go to Belgium. In Belgium I learned to speak French and some what ok Dutch. My Dutch and French both improved greatly after coming home and going to university.

My obsession to language has left no stone unturned. On my book shelf I have hundreds of books that relate to language whether it be a dictionary, grammar book, verb conjugation book, self-taught lessons, etc. I have languages from Afrikaans to Zulu! My quest to study and learn about language, I believe, will never end!

When I first transferred to The Ohio State University I was enrolled into a philosophy general edcuation course. Around this time, I hear about this site called, ratemyprofessor.com, where one could go and rate their professor. I happened to look up my future philosphy professor on the website and saw nothing but very bad comments warning anyone to stay away from this professor. In a last minute panic, I dropped the philosophy course and ended up taking Linguistics 201, which is a basic introduction to the field of linguistics. I ended up loving the course and especially the TA that taught it, Anouschka Bergmann. So, in spring of 2005 I started my linguistic career. I didn't know then that my linguistic career would lead me to pursue a PhD!

Linguistics has just been one part of my passion for language. It has been a very LARGE part but I still like learning languages just like the next glossophile! I know many glossophiles who can't stand linguistics and find it quite boring. I want to be able to help the world's languages and I believe that this can be acheived through the training and in depth learning of linguistics!