Hi everyone, I’m Ash. I’m a first year (going into second) linguistics students, and I’m running to be Secretary of Ling Soc. I’ve had such a great time in my first year studying linguistics and being part of the society, and I want to keep that good time going for everyone.
I know we’re a relatively small society compared to others, but that’s what makes us so great. We’re a close community of linguists, and that’s something I love about us. I want the next year of Ling Soc to be even better, I want to hear what people have enjoyed this year and continue that, as well as improving and adding new things.
I want everyone to have a say in our society, that’s why I want to implement regular feedback forms; let us know what you love, what you’d like to do as a society event or a social, or what you’d rather not do again. A society isn’t a good society if its members aren’t happy.
I want to increase the number of socials, both linguistics related (linguistics quiz anyone???) and not, whether that’s something like chilled out drinks at the start and end of semesters, sober chats and events, or nights out, I want everyone that comes to Ling Soc to have fun, to forget about work and other responsibilities for a bit and enjoy themselves. Even if I’m the only one there, I’ll organise an event to discuss conlangs (I have like 5 on the go right now), I just think they’re fascinating, and a great way to get even more involved in linguistics.
I’d like to give members the opportunity to talk about linguistic things that they enjoy, I want everyone to feel that their interests, however niche, have a place in Ling Soc. Using those feedback forms, I’d like to get to know everyone’s interests and organise times where members that share interests can meet up and discuss them (we love a good yap) or do something academic with them, like a research project or a presentation. I’d also like to have more talks from staff about their interests and areas of research; not only are they interesting, but they can also open students’ eyes to new areas of linguistics (speaking from experience there).
Over this first year, I’ve noticed how we don’t really have much time to get to know each other beyond lectures. I want to make sure that everyone from all years of the course get to know each other at Ling Soc, making new friends and connections throughout the years beyond our own. Hopefully, us first years can get some sneaky tips for those syntax and phonetics exams next year that we’re all stressing about already (we’ve not even done the OTLA for Meaning and Use yet, let’s pray guys). Whether its advice about modules, a short 3-hour long yap, or even if you’re struggling personally, I want to make sure that everyone in Ling Soc is there for each other.
I’d like us to have a more active presence on the Ling Soc Instagram page. Other than events promotion, I’d like to showcase things like language fact files, lesser-known IPA sounds and symbols, and morphology facts.
I hope you’ll consider voting for me as Secretary, I know that together we can make Ling Soc even better. I look forward to hopefully working with the other members of the committee to make sure that Ling Soc remains active, welcoming to everyone, and, above all, fun.
