When everyone at high school was busy choosing majors for their university applications, I was daydreaming about becoming a lexicographer. I loved the idea of working with dictionaries, especially English dictionaries. As the lingua franca and the language of the academic world, it was English that opened so many doors for me, liberated me, and above all, quenched my thirst for knowledge. But mastering a tool is completely different from having it as the subject of your research. I then had grown so fond of the language that I wished to study it. But as a non-native speaker, how could I make it happen? That is not to mention that linguistics and lexicography were not taught as majors at the best university in my region. Time went by, and I forgot about the little crazy dream I had.
I have a bachelor’s degree in English Studies from Can Tho University in Vietnam, a master’s degree in Linguistics from Purdue University in the USA, and now, I am pursuing a PhD in Digital Humanities at the University of Sheffield in the UK. The name of the degree may fail to capture what I really study, but what I can say is that I’m inching towards what I aspire to explore. Last spring, I even interviewed for the position of a linguistic data manager at Cambridge Dictionary. Somehow, I could complete almost all the data challenges. The once baseless dream has now been less baseless.
Continue reading “On starting a new journey”