Project: Foreign Languages
Learn Mandarin, Spanish, and German.
Background: In this increasingly globalized world, English may get a person far in the West, but it is quite absent in a number of promising emerging economies. Two languages stand out to me among the rest with respect to business and political value for new markets: Mandarin, to reach most of the billion+ Chinese, and Spanish, to connect with South and Central America, Mexico, and the growing Hispanic population in the US. In addition looking towards our established partners, German distinguishes itself as a major language of trade; knowing it can open a number of additional opportunities in continental Europe.
From a technical research perspective, I am also interested in knowing multiple languages for work on natural language understanding (NLU). The Neural Theory of Language research group to which I belonged during my doctorate premised its work on the idea that NLU problems benefit from neurally-plausible solutions. With the brain capable of understanding multiple languages, neurally-plausible NLU systems should be language-independent. Personally understanding multiple languages would assist me in designing and evaluating true language independence in cross-linguistic systems.
For these reasons, I'm interested in learning Mandarin, Spanish, and German. Since Spanish and German are thought to be much easier languages to pick up than Mandarin, classes and native speaking partners are more readily available, and since I was going to China in January 2006, I chose to first focus on basic Mandarin, utilizing the top-notch East Asia Languages department at Berkeley.
Status: I am restarting my study of Mandarin. (I completed Mandarin 1A back in the fall of 2005.)
Get involved: I am interested in language exchange or language practice scenarios. With respect to Mandarin, it is important to me that I reinforce good pronunciation habits of the various Mandarin phone/tone combinations. Interested in group study? Contact me!
Related Projects:
Travel - opens up new areas to travel to
MOT China - China trip in January 2006
Question Answering Research - good background for NLU research
Background: In this increasingly globalized world, English may get a person far in the West, but it is quite absent in a number of promising emerging economies. Two languages stand out to me among the rest with respect to business and political value for new markets: Mandarin, to reach most of the billion+ Chinese, and Spanish, to connect with South and Central America, Mexico, and the growing Hispanic population in the US. In addition looking towards our established partners, German distinguishes itself as a major language of trade; knowing it can open a number of additional opportunities in continental Europe.
From a technical research perspective, I am also interested in knowing multiple languages for work on natural language understanding (NLU). The Neural Theory of Language research group to which I belonged during my doctorate premised its work on the idea that NLU problems benefit from neurally-plausible solutions. With the brain capable of understanding multiple languages, neurally-plausible NLU systems should be language-independent. Personally understanding multiple languages would assist me in designing and evaluating true language independence in cross-linguistic systems.
For these reasons, I'm interested in learning Mandarin, Spanish, and German. Since Spanish and German are thought to be much easier languages to pick up than Mandarin, classes and native speaking partners are more readily available, and since I was going to China in January 2006, I chose to first focus on basic Mandarin, utilizing the top-notch East Asia Languages department at Berkeley.
Status: I am restarting my study of Mandarin. (I completed Mandarin 1A back in the fall of 2005.)
Get involved: I am interested in language exchange or language practice scenarios. With respect to Mandarin, it is important to me that I reinforce good pronunciation habits of the various Mandarin phone/tone combinations. Interested in group study? Contact me!
Related Projects:
Travel - opens up new areas to travel to
MOT China - China trip in January 2006
Question Answering Research - good background for NLU research
First Published: 8/1/2005; Last Revision: 6/1/2010