Questions and SOP, blah blah blah
I first became interested in Linguistics while working the graveyard shift at a waitressing job at a diner in Buffalo, NY. Clever patrons would canvass me-“you’re not from around here, are you?” It’s true, I moved to the Great University from Upstate New York. “I can tell,” they would inevitably remark. “You have an accent.” Prior to settling in Buffalo, I had traveled across the country and over to Europe twice; I had been in several multicultural situations where I’ve spoken with people with varied accents in both English and in German. I knew what an accent was, but surely I didn’t have one. After researching this topic in the library, I enrolled in a few introductory classes in linguistics. All of my latent language questions were gradually being answered and new inquiries arose. (It was at that point of intellectual infatuation, like a saliva-saturated spirant, I exploded onto the language studies scene.)*
In my last three years of curriculum, I attempted to balance the demands of academic responsibility and intellectual curiosity. Alongside of coursework in German, I began taking classes in various subjects from Semantics to The History of the English Language to Syntax-each of which expanded my range of knowledge in addition to sparking new questions. I have graduated from the Great University as a linguist who has had the opportunity to work in Applied Linguistics as an ESL tutor, in addition to being an undergraduate teaching assistant for an introductory sociolinguistics class. I have been able to work in the Phonetics lab with graduate students and have elicited information from a Kinyarwanda speaker for phonology and morphological sketches in a Field Methods class. By taking over a dozen linguistics core classes and electives, in addition to obtaining a TEFL certification, I have broadened my scholastic scope while exploring new interests.
I accomplished one of my largest linguistic endeavors by creating an outline of Macedonian Phonetics completed after a semester’s worth of data collection. From the limited references that I found, contrary to previous phonemic sketches, I discovered irregular lax vowels in stressed syllables. Rather than creating a study on Macedonian phonetics, as I had set out to do, I realized that I was tracing the highly individualized speech of a Macedonian-American’s idiolect. The project suddenly became even more interesting, valuable, and difficult, due to the sheer lack of information which exists on the influence of American English on Macedonian phonemes. The language consultant lived an hour away; in between working, interning and school, I drove out to meet her to record speech samples. Every native plosive was prodded out of hours of my amassed material. This project, which remains for me a source of academic pride, solidified my confidence and dedication to the science of language as an ever-changing, living organism.
I look back on my academic career and realize that everything started with a simple question. Now that I have had the opportunity to expand my knowledge of language studies, I am eager to begin narrowing my interests into a focused area of research through graduate school. I am interested in analyzing how phonemic aspects of American English can influence the speech of first generation immigrants in their native language individually and regionally. As a product of my environment, I am also interested in analyzing the influence of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift in relation to this same topic. I am looking forward to expanding upon this or taking it in new and varied directions.
As my linguistic interests are varied beyond my past academic undertakings, I feel that I would be an excellent contributor to the Phonatics Group at Awesome University because like the current linguists in the varied research groups, I am interested in the dynamics of language and its plasticity: phonetically, syntactically and otherwise. I believe that working on any of the issues in which the Phonatics Group studies, especially the language and music correlation field, would be fascinating. I feel that I would be able to contribute greatly to data compilation and interpretation through many of the research groups, from the Language Dynamics Group to the Interactive Audio Lab. In addition to the groups and the faculty, Awesome University has an excellent environment in which to do research-I am particularly interested in the multi-talker speech production and the speech perception experimental facilities.
Upon getting a linguistics doctoral degree, I plan on continuing my contribution to both the scientific and humanities field through teaching. Language is dynamic and ever-changing; I would like to be a part of the education process as well as to continue my research in dedication to the field. With this goal, I am confident that attending Awesome University would foster my commitment to a greater scientific promise.
*I'm rewriting this sentence, but upon reading it, the one professor threw back his head, let out a monstrous guffaw, tore his glasses of and pounded on the desk. He then said that that sentence would either throw my app on the top of the pile or in the garbage. Either way, it would be done before they finished reading the rest of it! Another professor read it, looked at me, and let out this childish giggle. Followed by silence.. and then more giggling. It makes me laugh, that's why I've been hesitant to rewrite it, but I will.