As a current year 3 student of BALT, I have gained not only professional knowledge but also support in various areas. The first two years of study have provided us with a robust foundation of knowledge for our future development, as well as the opportunity to explore different options in life. BALT always supports the various needs of its students, providing us with many opportunities for exchange, internship, and research, allowing us to find our true interests through these precious experiences. More importantly, we have very kind and patient teachers. They always answer our questions carefully and are willing to help us with our research projects, future development, etc. I feel delighted and lucky to spend my four unforgettable years at BALT. 

CBS not only provided us with a variety of course choices to explore our interests and achieve all-round development but also an extremely encouraging learning environment! Looking back on the past four years at PolyU, I met numerous inspirational and supportive academics, who kept stimulating me to explore all the possibilities and challenge myself. But without their endless encouragement, I would not have had the courage and confidence to participate in multifarious extracurricular activities and initiate a service project delivering mental support via meaningful quotes among the PolyU community, as well as to compete for scholarships and awards.     

Although the pandemic has caused quite an impact on our teaching mode, the endless support from FH and CBS remains. When all plans for physical academic exchange were upset, I am grateful for still having enormous opportunities for enriching my university life through local internships at St. James Settlement and Hong Kong Film Archive with the assistance of CBS under the Work-Integrated Education (WIE) component, which enabled me to consolidate my academic learning and earn practical work experiences.    

I believe that if you enjoy studying language subjects and are keen to strive for personal growth, CBS is definitely one of the best choices! 

What can I say other than that I was repeatedly wowed by the opportunities that the department offers throughout the four years of my study? The options to internships, research, service learning, and countless other possibilities are tremendous and should not be overlooked by prospective students of the BACBS programme, this is not without mentioning that one of the ambitions of the department is to stimulate students to involve themselves in learning activities overseas, a vision which I have taken advantage on several occasions to conferences and events in foreign lands. 

The programme structure facilitates a study path smooths a way for a highly personalized study path: I, for one, have taken upon myself a minor in a field vastly different from my major, Computing, in a collective with a rider in Linguistics, although my love for translation persists. Given the scope this programme, my experience is only one of the innumerable outcomes it provides. Outside of academics, I have also played a role in the founding and the growth of the Hong Kong Linguistics Olympiad, a linguistics-oriented competition for secondary school students. 

After four years, it is to my delight to inform you that the value of this programme is greater than its sum, but this visceral epiphany can only be appreciated when experienced, rather than told. Treat this as an invitation to this amazing programme if you may. 

Looking back on my study in CBS, I’m grateful to have so much wonderful memories that I will cherish forever. If you are like me who are enthusiastic about humanity but also attach great importance to its integration with modern technology, this programme will be a perfect choice. Studying linguistics is not just spending the whole day in library studying obscure sentences, as many may have imagined; but more fun. For example, we were taught to recognize the anatomical “landmarks” of our body that are essential in speech production (by looking at the real corpse!). In the psycholinguistic course, we also tried to design a simple behavioral experiment using a computer program and tested it on our friends. Gradually, I discover how languages should be viewed scientifically and how its integration with technology can benefit human life. 

It is also worth mentioning that the faculty of CBS is especially nice. As a non-local student, I never felt neglected. On the contrary, I always received warm help when in trouble. Once, I was a bit worried about my study, so I turned to Dr. Yao Yao, who then scheduled an individual meeting with me to help me. I’m very thankful to meet such good faculty at this important stage of my life.  

Linguistics. What a nice word to chew over. 

Three years ago, Google returned, “the scientific study of language”, which enlightened me with nothing more than I already knew about this discipline, nor did peeking into linguistic branches help. In fact, the Greek-rooted Jabberwocky terms (syntax, phonetic, pragmatics…) only added to my confusion. 

Freedom to explore within the CBS curriculum finally lifted the veil of linguistics and drew me deeper. One theory after another, the lecturers brought us closer to what is on our tongue tips or fingertips every day. The topics flew from explaining why does “lo” as a Cantonese sentence-final particle elicit much more annoyance than its fellows, to why I always mispronounce certain English sounds. Come to think of it, what CBS teaches about is less like mere language than the language creators and users, which are all of us.  

Countless times I have replied at family reunion dinners, “Yes, I study about language. No, I don't study every language.” But the unspoken second half is — I do know more languages than I was in freshman year. Knowing linguistics definitely smooths the journey of language-learning, which in my choice is German from minoring in European Studies, and shows me a world outside the net weaved by Chinese and English. Meanwhile, the major study surprised me with computer languages. As scary as it initially appeared, the lines of code have proven to be our friend and even a perfect fit with the humanities perspective we trained to have, not nemesis as villainised by the arts/sciences binary.  

Charlemagne once said, “To have another language is to possess a second soul.” That very much sums up what we do in CBS — dancing around souls, questing after whatever it is under the pearly white.