Random Post 1

In my first semester of college, I took an Introduction to Linguistics class for exactly 2 weeks before I 

dropped it. The professor lost me once she started talking about phonetics. In my final year of college, 

I am once again taking an introductory course to linguistics to fulfil my general education requirements. 

Like a lot of people, I usually dread my GE classes and try to save them to the very end. For me, I don't 

really see the direct application of the content I'm learning to my daily life or to my major. But this semester,

I have decided to give LING 115 a shot and so I have been pleasantly surprised by the class. 

The course I took in freshman year mainly focused on Linguistics in America. This naturally excluded 

international students like myself, who were still familiarising themselves with all things American from 

geography, accents, to cultural norms and ambiguities. The course at USC however draws examples 

from all over the world and uses the diversity of student backgrounds to his advantage, allowing them to 

share their experiences to illustrate the theories in class. The professor himself has also proven to know 

some Asian languages and dialects.

My favourite topic so far in this class is bilingualism and how that evolves across generations. I could 

see this theory in real life through my own family. My great grandmother is monolingual in Teochew (a 

dialect of Chinese) with just enough knowledge of Thai for survival. Having immigrated straight to 

Bangkok’s Chinatown, there was not much need for her to learn more Thai than that. My grandfather 

is the most bilingual out of the four generations, he is a native in Teochew and Thai, just like the theories 

described. My mother, the third generation, is much more fluent in Thai than she is in Teochew. She 

knows enough to communicate with older family members but she has no use for Teochew beyond that. 

I am a glowing example of the Generation 4 Effect where I have fully assimilated into Thai culture and 

have retained almost no knowledge of Teochew. The applicability of this class into my own life has made 

the class much more enjoyable than I expected!