The world has changed immensely in ten years, and so have I. My children, whose language acquisition adventures provided much fodder for this blog, are now in college and arguably more articulate than I am. I've also learned a lot about language and society, from embracing the singular they to trying to rid my vocabulary of ableist metaphors. Reading over my previous entries, I no longer stand by everything I've written, and that's okay. It's a reminder to myself and others that we are dynamic beings capable of growing, learning, and unlearning.
One thing that hasn't changed, however, is my love for language and languages. I continue to be awed and humbled by the power of language to hurt and exclude, as well as to connect and inspire. I've worked as a natural language processing engineer for many years now, which affords me the opportunity to explore how technology affects the way we employ language and are influenced by it. I'm immensely grateful for the resources to be able to indulge this lifelong passion of learning and using languages.
As for my personal language studies, I've finally managed to get my Mandarin up to a level I'm reasonably happy with (in future entries I'll share how I did it) while mostly maintaining my Spanish, German, and Taiwanese. I still have aspirations of expanding my language abilities in both breadth and depth, but with the equanimity and experience that comes with age, I'm no longer frantic about mastering as many languages as I possibly can, choosing instead to go where my spirit and energy direct me. I'm looking forward to sharing some of these endeavors as I go.
Hello again, blogosphere, my old friend. It's good to be back.
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