LiA: Field Journal Week 5
I started off this week on a wonderfully positive note; I met up with some other Laidlaw scholars—Bhadra from Trinity, Bianca from EPFL, & Matthew from Durham! We visited a couple of places, with the standout being a chili crab dinner at the Newton hawker centre.
Everyone had such interesting research & LiA projects, and I was so chuffed to truly realize the scope of the Laidlaw foundation's impact. The global community that it brings together is so welcoming, passionate, and unique—I really couldn't have asked for more!
Beyond that, I spent this week mostly sending fundraising emails for our various ad-hoc and Children's Day programmes. I specialized in outreach to food & beverage companies in the hopes of securing a Children's Day partnership. Although one hasn't been locked down yet, I still feel fulfilled from the sheer volume of outreach I managed to accomplish this week!
My coworkers—lovely as ever—also took me café-hopping this week. We went to Joo Chiat, a gorgeous neighborhood in Singapore with cake-like houses that reminded me a bit of a slightly more ornate version of the Painted Ladies in San Francisco.
Over the course of these few weeks, I truly feel like I've built an irreplaceable bond with the culture here, my coworkers, and the community we serve. I'm so grateful to have received this opportunity, and I wouldn't have changed a single bit of my LiA!
I'm a rising junior at Columbia University studying Linguistics, Economics, and East Asian Languages & Cultures.
I am the coordinator for an EFL program near Columbia. My current research interests revolve around how to make language education more effective and accessible, and how to utilize community resources to make the economics of free language programs feasible.
My research interests include literary histories, the linguistics of poetry, sociolinguistics, the economics of language, and how governments shape linguistic communities. Outside of academia, I spend my time reading a lot of fiction & poetry (especially in translation), playing Stardew Valley, and cooking (and eating) my heart out :) I'd love to connect with you all!
