A long time ago, I took an undergraduate elective course in linguistics at a Canadian university. I remember something strange happening when the professor taught the sounds of the human vocal tract. He introduced a system of classification that left me feeling almost spellbound. In fact, I found it so interesting that I considered pursuing the discipline further. Those musings never went beyond the realm of thought, however, and, for me, Linguistics seemed destined to become a road not taken.
Fortunately, the road I did take led to Hong Kong. It was early in 2007, while working as a native English teacher here, that someone placed a pamphlet on my desk. It advertised a part-time Masters programme in linguistics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In filling out that application, there were many things that I did not know, that I could not have known at that time. Here is a partial list of those things:
I could not have known that I would be accepted to the programme.
I could not have known that, over the course of two years, I would need to listen, repeatedly and obsessively, to the recorded ranting of a precocious, rambunctious, bilingual three-year-old girl.
I could not have known the deep respect that I would come to feel for L2 English speakers who must use English in order to study at the graduate level.
I could not have known that I would pursue not one, but two degrees in the department of Linguistics and Modern Languages at CUHK.
I could not have known that, although there are many things you can do with syntactic trees, you cannot chop them down.
I could not have known that my studies would give me the opportunity to present research at conferences around the world: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Malaysia, Japan, and even my home and native land.
I could not have known that, ironically, my studies would lead me to seriously doubt the validity of the aforementioned system that classified human sounds—I mean the same one that got me interested in linguistics in the first place.
I could not have known the inspiration that would be elicited by the encouragement of many kind professors.
I could not have known how it would feel to be the only native English speaker in a classroom where the chief concern is the grammaticality of English sentences.
Finally, I could not have known the gratitude that I would one day feel towards the faculty and students in the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.