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A Podcast series from the PGR Community at the School of Language, Literature, Music, and Visual Culture, University of Aberdeen.
Speaker 1: [00:00:03] This podcast is brought to you by the University of Aberdeen. [00:00:06][2.7]
Speaker 2: [00:00:23] Hello and welcome to another episode of From the Old Brewery, a podcast that focuses on the work of researchers from the School of Language, literature, music and visual culture. I'm Shalini and I'm a second year Ph.D. scholar, doing an interdisciplinary research, combining creative writing and sociology. As always, we've got a great researcher with us today whose project is really interesting, and I'm really looking forward to speaking to her. We have with us today Aqeel Kariuki. Welcome to the show, Jackie. [00:00:53][30.2]
Speaker 3: [00:00:54] Thank you, Shalini. [00:00:54][0.3]
Speaker 2: [00:00:55] Eki is in the third year of a Ph.D. Studies in language and linguistics under the supervision of Professor Robert Michael Miller and Dr. Agni kohner. She holds a first class honours degree in English and Literary Studies from Niger Delta University, Nigeria, as well as an M in English language and Linguistics from the University of Westminster, London. She's previously worked as a phonology and communication skills instructor at the Institute for Chartered Accountants Nigeria and as a lecturer at the Federal University Otuoke in Nigeria. Her research explores the interactive behavioural aspects of Pidgin Creole language use, focusing on Nigerian Pidgin to examine the concept of social identity, which she considers to be a social construct rather than purely a linguistic one. She has attended and participated in several conferences and published some academic papers outside of her primary research. She is interested in intercultural communication, as well as girl, child development, education and literacy, particularly in developing countries, which is her research area, which she hopes to be an advocate of in sometime. So I'm really looking forward to speaking to you, Vicky. Welcome to the podcast. [00:02:08][73.5]
Speaker 3: [00:02:09] Thank you, Shelly. [00:02:10][0.4]
Speaker 2: [00:02:10] So could you tell us a little more about your academic journey so far and how you came to Aberdeen and took up this BSD? [00:02:20][9.4]
Speaker 3: [00:02:21] I had my first degree in Niger Delta from Niger Delta University, assisted Nigeria. I studied English and literary studies. And upon graduation in 2009. Usually we do this compulsory one year service where you need to like give back to society. So that that's called National Youth Service Corps. So I did mine in a different states in the east of Nigeria, precisely where I taught in the secondary school for a year. And after that I returned back to Bayelsa State where I got a teaching job with a British corps. And then basically what I did was to teach. I taught phonology there and after like those in 2012, because I finished my service in 2011 and then I got a job with the federal university or took in the Department of English and Communication Studies as a graduate assistant first. Then after a year between 2010 and 2014, I apply to the University of Westminster to do a master's degree in English and the English language and Linguistics. Then after that, I returned back to Nigeria in 2016 and I think in 2010, when I started thinking about my doctoral steady, I had a friend here already high juniors w high juniors now, and I asked him like, What's Aberdeen like? What's the university culture like? What's the, you know, what's just the experience. Yeah, like, and well, I got really good feedback from him and I told him like, what I was interested in doing at French. It was a code switching between English and the language, which is actually the language of immediate community. And I also so and that's like the also the language my parents speak. So that was what I was interested in. And he asked me to, Oh, have you heard about Perso with Mila? Mm hmm. Well, I'd been reading about him in books. [00:04:43][141.6]
Speaker 2: [00:04:43] Okay, I. [00:04:44][0.5]
Speaker 3: [00:04:45] I was excited. Said, Oh, well, I'll send him a proposal first to see what he thinks about my research. And after that, if he gives, like, a greenlight, I'll go ahead to apply. So I did that, and I was actually shocked at how fast he responded. And, well, that was it. I applied, got admission and came here 2020, and we're still here. [00:05:10][25.6]
Speaker 2: [00:05:11] Oh, excellent. Really fascinating sort of thing. Your amazing journey. There's so much you've done. You've you've been part of the services, you've taught, you've taught at university and, you know, school education and then you're sort of whole journey is really fascinating to hear. And and you mentioned about a lot of aspects of code switching in English, which we will come to as we go on the use of dialects and evolving language. As you mention, your parents language and things is an area of great interest in just sort of understanding societies and understanding people. So it would be really great for our listeners here of the podcast to know more about, you know, this aspect of understanding societies and dialects and evolving language in relation to your research. However, to begin with, for those of us who may not be very familiar with this term, could you please tell our listeners a little bit about the Nigerian Pidgin, which is the focus of your study? You could probably give us some examples as well of. [00:06:10][59.2]
Speaker 3: [00:06:12] Nigerian Pidgin, like most contact languages, evolved out of a language contact situation. By language contact, I mean like a situation where people from different backgrounds congregate at a particular place. Let's say, for whatever reason. What's in this case? Mm hmm. Um, you know, slave trade activities, like from colonial past to interact with each other in that kind of environment where people do not have a particular language to communicate with each other. Yeah. The they, like, you know, try to accommodate themselves. So that kind of thing. So since they couldn't speak like the colonial masters or, um, you know, could you speak each other's language? They looked for it. We communicate. So that's initial medium of communication. Mm hmm. The first pidgin like. Yeah. Just simplified words. You know, you. You pick terms and you just. Yeah. So from that stage. From just an initial communique to form. Yes. Restricted. It's. If it continues being used by and people will continue to interact with each other, it moves to like, let's say, a restricted form of pigeon. But the first form, like the initial pigeon. Yeah. And this one, like the. They can go as quickly as he came. Yeah. If people don't continue to use them because he's just for a specific purpose. Now when you have people still using it. Yeah. For prolonged periods and it begins to acquire functions. Yes. Beyond just restricted use. Mm hmm. It becomes an extended pigeon. For people like beca, you'd see pigeon crew. That's a it's, it's now a language for wider communication. Yeah. It has more functions. Social functions. Yeah. And at the same time, it also has some native speakers like first speaker. So a Nigerian pigeon falls into and a pigeon crew or an extended pigeon in a sense that it's not the language of the whole country. Mm hmm. Like the first language. Yeah. But it is the first language to song. Yes. And at the same time, he does acquire functions even beyond the restricted environments, like informal settings. People. People use it now in formal situation. English, like it was formerly excluded. Okay. So when I talk about Nigerian pidgin, I'm talking about it's more developed states. Yeah. Not like you experience, like the broken form, what people used to think. So it's more developed. Yeah. So that's what I mean by Nigerian. [00:09:11][179.0]
Speaker 2: [00:09:12] That's really, really interesting how a language is sort of developed and, you know, it moves on from its initial usage to be embraced more by people and perhaps becoming a form of their identities and what they think is their own. [00:09:29][16.5]
Speaker 3: [00:09:29] Yeah. And I would also say Nigerian Pidgin is an English lex ified language. So but what it means that English is a major contributor of its links. Okay, old Lexis, that kind of thing. Words, major contributor. But at the same time we have this off street languages as indigenous languages, you know, mixture. [00:09:52][22.6]
Speaker 2: [00:09:53] Sublime into. [00:09:54][0.5]
Speaker 3: [00:09:54] Its words, you know. [00:09:56][2.3]
Speaker 2: [00:09:56] Yeah. That's excellent. Could you perhaps. I don't know. Would you. Would you like to give us some examples of words? Yeah. [00:10:03][7.1]
Speaker 3: [00:10:05] Oh, for instance, when you see a sabi, right? Uh huh, Sabi actually was. It's from Portuguese. Okay. Like I know how to write. Uh huh. Well, you see, I want to. I want to. [00:10:21][16.1]
Speaker 2: [00:10:21] It's okay. [00:10:21][0.4]
Speaker 3: [00:10:22] Because I just like the the basic basic ones. Okay? Although right now, like, it's the way most persons use it in society, it's developed beyond. [00:10:35][13.1]
Speaker 2: [00:10:36] Like, that's interesting. I want choppers. It's. [00:10:38][2.3]
Speaker 3: [00:10:39] Yeah, well, excellent. [00:10:39][0.8]
Speaker 2: [00:10:40] Yeah, it's. It's really interesting how. How you use of your study is sort of focusing on and it's going to then now contribute towards you know vision becoming something and the development of vision perhaps. So your research really studies an aspect of social identity. So tell us a little more about your project and how it's developed so far in your first couple of years. [00:11:03][22.5]
Speaker 3: [00:11:03] Okay. When I arrived in 2020, like I, I wanted to do a project on this region and in between each on English language. However, two months into the program, I discovered there was a similar project that had been done by someone else. So I, I spoke about this with my supervisor and, you know, I started reading around and I came across reviews on Pidgin and Creole languages, specifically by Bickerton and then Professor Magee and well, and I started like I remembered during my time in investing Westminster, I had this lecturer, Dr. and then Seer, and he, he taught us what English is. And I remember there was this paper we did Should Pidgin or Creole languages be used as the medium for teaching literacy? Mm hmm. Especially in situations where up to 80% use these languages. And that was the first time, like I. Yes, I speak Nigerian pidgin, but I hadn't, like, thought about it from that angle. That people used it for education, because back home we just, you know, used it as just for interaction. And then gradually I began to see it in books. Right. And and the rest of it. But after I did that assignment, I really started developing interest in this thing because I found it interesting. And, well, when I decided to change my project topic, I thought, well, why don't I just go for pidgin? And as I said, I read and I said as in like not much had been done on synchronic language, contacts, languages at specific time and how, how in to be to to be a certain way as affected the language. Oh is that how it does impact on the language. So I discussed it with both Wilbert and we, you know, just write something and see like what happened. And so I, I did that. And for my first year progression, I did a literature review on it and then for the second year methodology collected data. And then right now, I'm actually I'm doing my analysis and, you know, writing, writing. [00:13:44][160.7]
Speaker 2: [00:13:44] Excellence. Fascinating. When you say methodology, I'll come back to it, maybe like you've been mentioning and you sort of reading about it in our initial chat, you speak about vision being an aspect of identity. You speak about chord shifting and the evolution of vision to form sort of a distinct identity of pride. And you mentioned appropriation. So would you like to elaborate on sort of code shifting, etc. for our listeners? [00:14:09][24.3]
Speaker 3: [00:14:10] Well, like I said previously, the the tradition in most sociolinguistics or like in social linguistic literature has been, you know, this sort of attempts to prove the autonomy of Creole languages. But that's like the argument that Kriol wasn't in or the English language or whatever. Lexical languages try to prove that they're two separate systems are not same. So the tendency is that people or researchers like try to place this language is are two extremes. The standard and non standard. Mm hmm. And it's sort of like comparisons. Mm hmm. So in in in my own case, like such comparisons to, say, like constriction, you tend to look at two separate grammatical systems. People are just using English for a specific situation, maybe formal and Nigerian pidgin for informal, but yet I'm not looking at it in that sense. Mm hmm. I'm looking at code switching and code mix in, like, freedom of linguistic movement. Okay. That's highlights hybridisation. Okay. And so what I mean by appropriation is that linguistic assignment of this language forms either force structures, okay, or just elements of different languages into Nigerian pidgin and conversations for the the for for fulfilling socio social functional needs. Okay. Of the situation. Does that make sense? [00:16:05][115.4]
Speaker 2: [00:16:06] Yes. It is beginning to. Yeah. [00:16:07][1.4]
Speaker 3: [00:16:08] Yeah. Socio functional needs of a situation. Now I came across appropriation from post-colonial discourse and there's usually the argument for appropriation and abrogation by abrogation. Those who are postcolonial writers, they can argue with the from Kenya. Mm hmm. Who advocate for the application of English language. Yet his arguments is that like doing away with English and let's write stuff in indigenous languages. And those who advocate for appropriation, like the Nigerian writer, deletes Chinua Achebe. Mm hmm. He's. He says, Well, I haven't given something. Yes, from a painful past, but I have been given something and I intend to use it. It's not a question of what happens, why we recognise history. Yeah. What's what is happening now? Yeah. It's that we've been stuck in the past. Yeah. What's. What can we use this language for to do? Yeah. So particularly in context where it's like multilingual context where people don't speak in particularly. Language. We need a lingua franca to communicate. You cannot. We, we, we. This language will be chaos and confusion. So in our context, we cannot see where Abu gets in the language. So what's a probation simply means for me? Well, I don't know. Looking at it from from the negative aspects of the ex colonial, it's like trying to use up in cultures and the rest of it. That's that's not it. I'm looking at SIDS positively as a strategy. That's because of Nigerian Pidgin used to modify. Yeah, the English language or forms that developed out of colonial experience to to to communicate or express or to bear the burden of your cultural experience. Yeah. In contexts. [00:18:17][128.6]
Speaker 2: [00:18:18] Yeah. It's really interesting. And you mention some of your some of the writers and things. I have read a book, Lonely Londoner recently by Sam Selman, who uses sort of this sort of language throughout the text to translate the experience rather than use, for want of a better term, standardised English to convey the experience of, you know, people who are using it as, as a marker of their identity. So this is really interesting hearing you speak about how your research approaches this. So as as this progresses, I mean, aside of the academics, there are people who probably are using it as part of pop culture. I know from my own research. One aspect of this, it's social, social media interactions and how people use different aspects to form their identities. And I drew cently last time we were at festival, had an interview with a social media person who uses bite sized content to become really popular, who uses this sort of language to sort of convey childhood experiences. So is there anything you'd like to add on in terms of popular culture and how how sort of any other strands of this and how it's been evolving? I mean, I remember you mentioning something around hoodlum speech. [00:19:39][81.4]
Speaker 3: [00:19:40] Yeah. Now hoodlums speech. It's it's part of this awful long, doesn't carry this negative sentence or its original, you know, traditions like, you know, troublesome behaviour. And the rest of it, I say, is a social construct now because it's just a way to position oneself in context. And this particular speech form is, as I came to understand from this, because themselves is associated mainly it's males, young males in and in my answer and what I've done with the language is because it's, you know, it's open certain speakers and close interaction with English. Mm hmm. Now they take lexical like elements. That's what it is called, mixing code shift in school. What I'm looking at see those shifts in identities? Okay. By shift and like, a way of being. Yeah. And this movement going on, like, in conversations like this, this mixture is just a way of positioning yourself, like, in context. So hoodlum stage is a way for young males to identify with what's the, the, the immediate environment that's, you know, queer, but also the world apart from it. Yeah. So the idea to construct an identity that distinguishes that distinguishes them from the rest of the population, a group like the older groups or females. Yeah. In society. So hoodlums are just a way of being. Yeah. Context. It doesn't crystallise identity. It's just one aspect of the social experience. So I'm looking at that aspect, like in form of projections of alignments, social alignment. Mm hmm. [00:21:52][131.8]
Speaker 2: [00:21:53] Is this something that is hoodlum speeches ever taken on board by females or, you know. Yeah. [00:22:01][8.0]
Speaker 3: [00:22:01] This is not just. [00:22:02][0.3]
Speaker 2: [00:22:03] Does it have a gender real specific gender context. [00:22:05][2.5]
Speaker 3: [00:22:05] Associated actually as a gendered practice or gendered behaviour in that it's it's in diverges from the social cultural interpretation of. Femininity. Like what? You know, respect for femininity or adult form. Respect for speech should be like. But the thing is, these people who tend to carry these connotations. I think it's because of the fact of incomprehensibility, father. They cannot comprehend, like what's going on with the language currently. So, for instance, I think I came across let's, let's use like an example, like you recap anyhow. [00:22:54][48.2]
Speaker 2: [00:22:55] Okay. [00:22:55][0.0]
Speaker 3: [00:22:56] The World Cup, we know, you know, in camp. Okay. What's on the head? Mm hmm. What's cup in that context now Mean to talk. [00:23:05][8.5]
Speaker 2: [00:23:06] Okay. [00:23:06][0.0]
Speaker 3: [00:23:07] Are you speaking carelessly? [00:23:08][1.2]
Speaker 2: [00:23:09] Okay. [00:23:09][0.0]
Speaker 3: [00:23:10] What's in everyday usage? You have stuff like. Why? Why does the integration. I just didn't wait to talk anyhow. Mm hmm. And then you come to English or Nigerian? English. You speak carelessly. Okay, That's that kind of thing. So there's this, like, gradual change of some hoodlums, which is just a way to position oneself in context and is influenced, I'll say, hip hop mixture of hip hop and African-American hip hop style and then local hip hop, then militancy culture in the region. It's it's it's it's not a he didn't he didn't stuff like this advocacy for resource and oil control that kind of central the language of this group like you know kind of infiltrated into. [00:24:01][50.7]
Speaker 2: [00:24:02] It's really interesting because there's so much in terms of sort of power whether it is, you know, in a historical context, as you mentioned, of evolving in, you know, colonial context to it, again, of power and the moving away from that. Also, when you mention your masculinity and femininity also, that is the social power structure that positions, you know, and decides how masculinity and femininity should be performed. And it's interesting to hear how language and dialects and how languages are spoken and adapted. On an agenda, context can, can become performative elements. [00:24:36][34.4]
Speaker 3: [00:24:37] Yeah, actually. [00:24:37][0.3]
Speaker 2: [00:24:38] It's I mean, so far it's been it's I'm sure like myself, a lot of our listeners are finding all of this quite new terms like good sitting because you're a linguist but not not everyone is so familiar with this. And it's it's lovely to hear about the amount of work that's going on around in terms of understanding people and cultures and, you know, hybridisation. And you mentioned your PhD is funded by the special research grant, a tertiary education fund. Is your project an extension then, I wonder of a conversation that you may have had with sort of educational policymakers, because you've mentioned you've already started some kind of work back home and then that's sort of progress towards this. Could you tell us a little more about your trust fund? [00:25:23][44.6]
Speaker 3: [00:25:24] Yeah, it's a show education trust fund. An engineer at Newsweek, like just now in charge of academic staff training. Mm hmm. And so usually what happens is if you submit a proposal and it's, you know, it's something you can relate to and think it's what funding you, you know, put in your application and you get that grant. So the first time I accepted the grant was for my master's to come to University of Westminster and then subsequently for my PhD. Well, what I have submitted before, as I mentioned earlier, was about code switching because I was doing like a I was continuing from waste, stopped my master's. I also do that. But like I said, due to the Brexit vote, as of, you know, sort of out of my control, I had to change my topic. Yeah. And well, and Andrea, what is done is basically just the arguments about still this. No more tradition of comparisons. Yeah. You know, somebody who's received the language, the the national language and then others see See, No, it's a is a bad form. Mm hmm. I think it prevents children from performing better in school and is sort of back and forth argument. And so. Well, I only, I, I, i, you know, pitched my idea to them like, I'm not coming from this angle of, you know, the regular arguments. History. Yeah, we already know what happened. Yeah. I'm going to look at the language like what's happening now. And if people are advocating for making this language a national language, I we actually spoken to those who use the language yet because you cannot get an objective reality outside the experience of those who live in that culture. And so, you know, that's kind of like the conversation, huh? You talk to these people. How is the language evolving and what are people doing with the language outside of this ambivalent attitude? I tend to be portrayed in literature. Mm hmm. Where you are saying pidgin language to the lower culture or lower class. And in the English language, to the self-imposed elites, politicians. And then see, you know, people who, like, read this literature. Of course, these things actually, you know, feed these negative attitudes to what people write and the rest of it. So when I. When I spoke from this angle. Mm hmm. So, like, they voted on right now, what, At every stage in the research, I have to report, but little back to them. Okay. And so it's that kind of interaction right now to see what is the, you know. [00:28:45][200.9]
Speaker 2: [00:28:46] Jakes, how you could take this forward. So it's really exciting because research adding to knowledge is one thing. And then advocating this to sort of bring about some change in future. In terms of education, this is really exciting that you already sort of have a conversation with government bodies and education policymakers and that the work that you're doing is already positively going towards making bringing about a change. So I'd be really excited to, you know, know how. [00:29:15][29.4]
Speaker 3: [00:29:16] And you know, there's this thing about when you just clamour for standardisation and instrument ization, there's so many factors you have to for a country that just that big. Mm hmm. Different regions speak does uniquely. Yeah. We don't all speak in the same way, even though we understand the everyday normal pidgin. You're learning this stuff of codification. What voice did you use? Yeah, I going to be flexible in terms of variability. Yeah, those, those kind of stuff. So there are so many things involved. Yeah. If, if, if you make this language like just for everybody you need to consider it speaks to different aspects. People need to agree and what should be used so that that kind of stuff. So you cannot just focus on the linguistic aspects. Yeah, you need to look at the social aspect of this language. Social life. Yeah. What the language means to these people who use it. Yeah. So that's the kind of thing. Yeah. Used to be Marine of if this is a skeleton, if linguistics is like the skeletal part of it's the social parts is going to be like the flesh too. You know, there has to be a marine. Yeah. [00:30:27][71.1]
Speaker 2: [00:30:28] Absolutely. I mean, and then sort of standardised forms are imposed, especially in children's education. It can have a huge impact on how, as you mentioned, sort of the imbibe education and sort of the their approach towards learning. Yeah, perhaps. I mean, how is is are they learning it in a language that they are easily able to relate to or is this something that is imposed on them? So it's, it's really interesting. So you also mention your particular interest in the development of education of girl child. And, you know, our listeners would love to hear some more about your initiative on that aspect, even if the whether or not it's part of your research. [00:31:07][39.6]
Speaker 3: [00:31:08] Now, actually, it's not it's not like something the focus of my research, but it's something I'd like to pursue like, you know, girl child education. Well, I, I became interested in that, like back home sometimes in most in some situations, you see not everyone can afford, you know, to go to school. And because of the economic situation. And then there's this this cultural thing going on in some into communities where parents just feel females are just there to procreate. Mm hmm. And partly male child. Mm hmm. And, you know, leave females to just get married. And so, you see, sometimes you have a conversation with these young ladies. Yeah. I mean, they can. They express themselves so well, Like, they can be better than, you know, what's what. What is important for. Yeah, Yeah, what? [00:32:12][64.1]
Speaker 2: [00:32:13] The resources are being made available to them. [00:32:15][2.7]
Speaker 3: [00:32:16] Yeah. So. I just feel for me it's a way to just break out of that non that fixed that box, that place where they've just been. [00:32:26][10.3]
Speaker 2: [00:32:28] What's normatively accepted and expected of the girl child and risk limiting perhaps. [00:32:34][6.4]
Speaker 3: [00:32:34] That kind of thing. So a way to just make them think expunging always on like just make them useful to themselves that kind of thing. [00:32:44][9.3]
Speaker 2: [00:32:44] So try and explore what are the avenues they can sort of personally develop. [00:32:49][4.4]
Speaker 3: [00:32:50] Yeah, that, that kind of thing. So personally, I, I that as speaking like with my investee and you know, you have like 15 students, it's not a formal like I haven't formally registered anything. It's just a way for me to give back to, to society. So it's something I'll like to after my PhD. You will I hope to, you know. See, that's. [00:33:18][28.8]
Speaker 2: [00:33:19] Before this other. Yeah. This is really interesting and I'm sure a lot of people will agree with your sort of idea and and a lot of people might relate to this because as you mentioned in Nigeria, a girl child education initiative. As far as I know, I grew up in India. My childhood was there. So it is a huge thing perhaps for a lot of countries who may have been sort of ex colonial historically to have, you know, different initiates. So it was is but of course the sort of power structure in yeah, gender based power structures within society is not something that is only yeah, it broke perhaps more pronounced in certain areas which needs more work but we you could have this conversation everywhere. Yeah. Because these sort of gender norms needs to continuously be addressed whether it is you could look at it from any lens and depths of trying to bring about more egalitarianism. That's sort of bringing the conversation back to begin. I, I know you mentioned Chinua Achebe. Are there any other writers whose work, you know, particularly influenced by who you're looking at in terms of your Ph.D.? [00:34:40][80.2]
Speaker 3: [00:34:41] Well, I'm not really looking at literary looks to see the angle. I'm looking at literary works, as has the writings of these people, like postcolonial It does in Nigeria. Has it affected attitudes towards Nigerian pidgin representations? Have they represented people who use this language? So I'm going to be looking that's kind of goes yellow, yellow as well, actually said within Bayelsa, the Niger Delta area. And it's just basically about, you know, this relationship between expatriates, foreign expatriates and the women and children born out of that relationship, mulattos like how they navigate society and that kind of thing. So I'll be looking at how how like these attitudes are portrayed in writing. [00:35:41][60.0]
Speaker 2: [00:35:41] Okay. So you spoken about how, you know, your study came about and what you've been doing in terms of your first year like in your work and how this relates to education policymaking? It's been really interesting. I'd like to know in terms of a public engagement here in Aberdeen, have you been doing anything in terms of making people aware other than, of course, our podcast? Is there any any kind of similar work that you find, you know, in terms of public engagement? Is there anything you've been doing? [00:36:13][31.6]
Speaker 3: [00:36:13] Well, that's it's the tradition first. Yeah, I know Conference, MVC conference. I did mine in 2021 where I spoke about contextual applications of Creole. And then it was this conference in Cote d'Ivoire, talked about, you know, what a stage was, then it just talked about methodology and what I hope to achieve and, and several the conference okay, I, I participated in the conference in excess and in Dallas last year. Okay. But I do indeed look at my project I looked at English as, you know, a lingua franca. Yeah. There's this thing about, you know, education. How how can it how is using second language context to teach attitudes and. [00:37:16][62.2]
Speaker 2: [00:37:16] Yeah no I mean. Initially, I asked you in terms of public engagement, what came to my mind was the Mother Language Day, which is celebrated in Aberdeen every year. I think in association with multi-ethnic Aberdeen and Grampian Regional Equality Council. [00:37:32][15.6]
Speaker 3: [00:37:32] So that. [00:37:33][0.6]
Speaker 2: [00:37:33] Yeah, they actually celebrate a lot of languages across the globe, dialects and cultures and people coming together. It's really it's, it, it's beautiful to see that celebration. [00:37:44][10.5]
Speaker 3: [00:37:44] Have you attended. [00:37:45][0.4]
Speaker 2: [00:37:45] I attended every year, actually. So that's, that's why I have a personal interest. But this is what came to my mind when I asked you the question around public engagement so that anything around that sort of area or that you'd like to share with us. [00:38:02][16.7]
Speaker 3: [00:38:03] Well, what I haven't done what you ask, like in that line, I'm going to be like teaching Creole and crystallisation in the next semester with profs. Well, let me let so excellent, that kind of thing. So that's something that is very related to my projects. So. Yeah. [00:38:29][26.6]
Speaker 2: [00:38:30] Excellent. I'm really excited for you. So you've you've really told us a lot about how and I can see already how beautifully you know, you, you have you planned it out for the future. But as such in terms of, you know, following your history because you're in your third year, are there any other plans for postdoctoral research or is it just sort of taking this back to policymaking? [00:38:53][23.1]
Speaker 3: [00:38:55] Well, I hope to do I hope to total time postdoctoral. I started speaking about it with my supervisor, you know, advice and, you know, I'll see how it goes. [00:39:06][11.0]
Speaker 2: [00:39:07] Excellent. Yeah. So it's been really lovely speaking to you. And I've certainly found out a lot about, you know, your area of research and about things that I've not been familiar with. Oh, good. Shifting and pidgin itself and the use of it. It's really interesting and I hope people, you know, get interested in your research and it goes really well and all your future plans work out brilliantly. So thank you for speaking to us and sharing your research with us. [00:39:36][29.2]
Speaker 3: [00:39:37] And thank you, Shalini. [00:39:38][0.6]
Speaker 1: [00:40:05] This podcast is brought to you by the University of Aberdeen. [00:40:05][0.0]
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