welcome to my blog.

Have you ever wonder what study of "linguistic" is looking into? Is it helpful in studying languages? and why linguists are considering their knowledge as a WONDERFULL field of study? 
Well, in this blog, I will elucidate these special opinion linguists have towards their field, and how it is important to every person who is studying a second language. 

Blog1: Who I am?

But before this, let me introduce my self first. I am Sana Saied and I am from Syria but I raised in Qatar. This is my fourth year as a student of English Linguistics, as a major, and Translation, as a minor, at Qatar University. I majored in Linguistics because of a doctor who touch me many courses in linguistics. He inspired and encouraged me a lot even if he didn't realize that.  By the time,  I admired my major and I have been finding it fun and useful. Also, I noticed that it talked about universal grammars which we can apply to any language spoken on this planet. My choice for studying linguistics was highly affected by the culture I raised in. I have been living in a multicultural country since I was in grade four. People in Qatar are speaking different languages like Arabic, Hindi, and Filipino, but mainly English. So, I wanted to speak English fluently in order for me to have good communication with those people. During the years in studying linguistics, my curiosity becomes bigger and I started to look at some linguistics aspects of other languages. I am very grateful to the culture I raised in; because it shaped my interests and helped me to look at languages as golden keys to build good relationships with people.

 

  My Career Goals:

I was having a career dream which any student who is studying a foreign language would like to have, which is to be a teacher. However, this dream has been changed by time. I am planning to be a researcher in the fields of Linguistics and Education at the same time. This may seem strange to you, but yes this is my future goal!
I want to change how people view language. Especially how they think about it as only a communication skill which they can learn at school in a couple of years. I did different types of researches and studies in linguistics of both Arabic and English languages in order to shape this goal. I also did different types of researches about some linguistics aspects of different Arabic dialects. In addition, I used different methodologies of collecting data, this helped me to improve my skills in doing Academic research. One of the methodologies I used called "map-task", in which Syrian Students at Qatar University were asked to mark the Syrian governorate they belong to, and then to write how do they feel towards the dialect spoken in that area. In addition to this researches, I did in my major. I also meet with students who are studying English as a second language at school, and I asked them about how they feel towards English. Most of them told me that they hate the English subject and it is a waste of time. This encouraged me to continue my master's degree in Education; because I want to change the teaching methods of the English language. My goal is to change how schools' students view the English language by teaching them some fundamental linguistics aspects of English.  

 Blog 2: Where I am going?

Choosing a major in university is highly related to your believes and interests. Many people have asked me about the benefits of studying Linguistics, and why I didn’t study a science major.

I have chosen this concentration because I wanted to explore my knowledge about language. Also, I always asked myself why schools teach us a language that is not considered to be our first language?

This curiosity about, structures, words, fluency, and rules of the English language made be super excited to study it, and I have no regrets. In addition, I faced many people who told me “the beauty of language is impeded in its use” Thus, I wanted to learn how to use the English language in a creative way.

Linguistics major has many limitations and challenges in Doha. The main and first reason is that it is not known by many people. Arabs are only familiar with the literature. They think that anyone studying a language means that he/she is studying literature. Thus, there is no specific jobs and career field for linguistics in Doha. Even if you want to be a teacher, you need to be a graduate of a college of education. Otherwise, you will not have the authority to teach in schools.

Beside all these challenges, I am still aiming to change how schools teach the English language. Also, I want to add more useful linguistics into the English language curriculum.