<p>I for one would love to hear the rant about LAC's.</p>
<p>
[quote]
You know, you can cross-register for MIT's CS and linguistics courses (both obviously very good) if you're a Harvard student. I'm also really interested in lingustics, and when I learned I can do that my choice was clear.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That was a consideration, definitely. I nearly even applied to MIT, but given the stringent math/science focus of admissions and the school's GIRs (not to mention campus culture of math/science), I decided against it, even though for my interests, MIT is a clear choice. But, upon inspecting MIT's course offerings in linguistics, I realized I didn't like MIT's department at all--it sorely lacks applied courses and has mostly theoretical ones. That, and the fact that MIT's main claim to fame for linguistics (Noam Chomsky) is now gone, and MIT's department didn't look too enticing.</p>
<p>Plus, I really dislike the fact that I have to cross-register at another university nearby to be satisfied--seriously, I'd want to go the university itself, not its neighbor. (Perhaps that's just me, though.)</p>
<p>At any rate, do you think that you'll major in linguistics? It's always nice to see someone else interested in linguistics. :)</p>
<p>
[quote]
I for one would love to hear the rant about LAC's
[/quote]
I'm sure you would....</p>
<p>I actually wasn't sarcastic, just curious.</p>
<p>I'll PM you when I get a chance to type it up.</p>
<p>I would turn down Harvard for Stanford.</p>
<p>I'd probably only consider turning down Harvard for Stanford or Princeton.</p>
<p>^going to Stanford would halve the length of your flight LOL</p>
<p>as an aside: (to kyledavid / olgita )</p>
<p>I've had a sort of lingering curiosity about linguistics-- I've always been one to dissect language... it's a weird sort of tic of mine. How do you recommend I dig deeper? It's not exactly easy to find linguistics courses at the high school level...any books you might recommend for a beginner?</p>
<p>^going to Stanford would halve the length of your flight LOL</p>
<p>Still a 6 hour flight rofl.</p>
<p>In '06, Brigham Young University.</p>
<p>BYU seems like a cool place, but</a> I fear my hirsute head may not jive with those cats. Do they really enforce that?</p>
<p>stanford, probably.
or yale XD</p>
<p>
[quote]
I've always been one to dissect language... it's a weird sort of tic of mine. How do you recommend I dig deeper? It's not exactly easy to find linguistics courses at the high school level...any books you might recommend for a beginner?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That's great! I'm the same--I love to dissect languages and see their structure (which is why the grammar units of English classes were always my favorite parts, as nerdy as that seems).</p>
<p>If you live near a university/community college, try to take a course there. Or you can take language courses there.</p>
<p>Or, as in my case, do independent study. A great book for intro linguistics (which is also used in college courses):</p>
<p>And for the history of linguistics and the great debate in linguistics:</p>
<p>Amazon.com:</a> The Linguistics Wars: Randy Allen Harris: Books</p>
<p>I'd also recommend some other language books, like The Unfolding of Language<a href="awesome%20book!%20A+%20from%20me">/I</a>, *How Language Works<a href="A++">/I</a>, *Words and Rules, *The Language Instinct<a href="take%20it%20with%20a%20grain%20of%20salt">/I</a>, and some of Pinker's other books.</p>
<p>You can involve yourself online:</p>
<p>LingWiki</a> ? Language Defined - LingWiki, Linguistics</a> Forum, Linguaphiles[/url</a>], [url=<a href="http://community.livejournal.com/linguistics/%5Dlinguistics'">http://community.livejournal.com/linguistics/]linguistics'</a>; Journal, Linguists</a> (NOT Grammarians), and many other online communities (I'd recommend you get a Livejournal, if you don't already have one, if just for the express purpose of being able to get involved in their communities), many of which you can find on The</a> largest Message Boards and Forums on the web!.</p>
<p>You can also check out all kinds of publications and journals for language/linguistics, as well as going to language/linguistics conferences. Check out Welcome</a> to the LINGUIST List for listings of all that.</p>
<p>You can join some of the linguistics organizations out there: LSA, Lojban, Esperanto, etc.</p>
<p>You might try to do research on a specific topic; that's always a great way to learn about the subject, since you have to branch out your knowledge in order to answer questions.</p>
<p>Other fun things to do for the language-savvy: learn languages. You don't have to go for the obvious ones, because the lesser-known ones (ever heard of Pashto? Laal? Khmer? Piraha?) are often the most interesting. Check out Ethnologue</a>, Languages of the World for a good database of languages/info. You might also try creating your own language--I find that fun, and I wrote my supplemental essay for Harvard on it.</p>
<p>At any rate, good luck. :)</p>
<p>kd80, did you ever compete in the NALO?</p>
<p>The NALO? No. NACLO? Yes. :) I didn't make it to the international team though, unfortunately.</p>
<p>That's another thing I forgot to mention, kafka's machine: NACLO is the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad. In other words, it's a language competition--just language puzzles that require only logic. I do them just for fun, in part because it exposes me to new and exotic languages. They really make you question your basic assumptions of language (most of which are specific, or at least present, in your native language). I started a NACLO team at my school to prepare for the competition, and we did well. Definitely check it out if you're into languages and competitions:</p>
<p>NACLO</a> 2008</p>
<p>Whoops, sorry lol. NACLO is great - I recommend everyone to try it...I wish I had (might have done work in it)</p>
<p>Did you just find out about NACLO too late or something?</p>
<p>Are you interested in languages/linguistics as well?</p>
<p>Yes and yes...linguistics is what I call "the sixth science" so naturally I find it engrossing.</p>
<p>Sixth science? Care to elaborate?</p>
<p>Linguistics is what I call "the best science" so naturally I find it engrossing as well. :)</p>
<p>(And to those who think it's a humanity: it isn't. It's a social science. Go away.)</p>