By: Spyros Armostis
It's now been a couple of months since I officially joined the Linguisticator team, so it's about time I made my first appearance on the blog, both to introduce myself and —more importantly— to share my excitement for joining the team! Actually, I don't need to introduce myself, as Aaron has already done that for me in his previous post, so I will go ahead with the main reason of writing this post.
From the first time Aaron introduced the idea to me, I found the Linguisticator method to be a fascinating approach to learning foreign languages. To me, as a linguist, this approach really made sense. I have tried various language learning methods, but the Linguisticator approach is straight to the point —or should I say the core of language learning?
The current phase of the project focuses on using the Linguisticator method for learning English as a foreign language, something that excites me even more, not only as a linguist, but also as someone who has learnt English as a foreign language. I now wish the Linguisticator program were there all those years when I was learning English at school!
Having an academic interest in the projects I work on is always something that makes work enjoyable and fulfilling. Imagine if you work on something that is not just of academic interest to you, but actually one of your passions. They say that turning your passion into your profession is ideal; I feel that this applies to both Aaron and me right now.
But what makes working on this project more than ideal is the fact that I am working with a good friend and colleague. Aaron and I share not just an interest in the subject, but also the same passion in language learning. As Aaron mentioned in his post, our friendship goes back to our student years in Cambridge, where our everyday linguistic discussions (albeit for —some strange reason— terribly annoying to non-linguists) were proven very fruitful! Above all, working with Aaron is really inspiring for me, because Aaron is one of the few people I know that dared to follow their dreams despite all the difficulties they faced along the way.
So, once again, for all those reasons and many more, I am really happy to be aboard this project. Can't wait to see where this will take us!