I was born and raised in a bilingual family. In my country, Iran, various ethnic groups live in harmony across different parts of the country and speak their own native languages at home. However, thanks to the common language of Iran, which is Persian (or Farsi), all Iranians are able to understand and communicate with each other regardless of their native language. As someone born into an ethnic minority family (Azeri Turk), I also grew up speaking one language at home and another language at school. Often, people ask me what it was like growing up bilingual, but I seldom have an answer. I do not remember much of my early years, and everything seemed to progress fluidly. However, I do clearly recall that some children had a harder time learning to read Persian in school. Now that I reflect back on it, I think it may have had something to do with our bilingual upbringing, as most families do not teach their children Persian until school age.

Up until entering university, I had no idea there was a scientific way to study language. In fact, I studied Natural Sciences in a very competitive high school, hoping to become a medical professional (like most Iranian children). However, I failed to obtain a high enough score to enter medical school, and my next best choice was studying English Language & Literature. I had somehow picked up English in my adolescence by playing video games and immersing myself in English content. To my dismay, this method has proven very hard to implement with other languages now that I am an adult, and I am extremely thankful to my younger self for putting me through that rigorous period in my life. Anyhow, I figured that as someone who was able to use English very fluently, I would have no problem obtaining my degree, and that life would be smooth sailing. It was around this time that I learned about "Linguistics" and the different principles that fall under this term.

I found myself immersed in the science of language. I felt as though new doors had been opened, and I knew that I wanted to become a researcher who studies language. I had a high enough GPA in my BA program to enter an MA program in Teaching English without having to take an entrance exam, but I wanted to try harder and study abroad. It had always been a dream of mine to visit Japan, and it was around this time that I learned about the MEXT scholarship offered by the Ministry of Education in Japan. I tried my best to email professors at Japanese universities and build a solid foundation before applying to this competitive scholarship program. I was able to win the scholarship, thanks in no small part to my MA advisor's support.

My MA supervisor, Koji, helped me immensely even before I obtained the scholarship, and it was thanks to his guidance that I learned about statistics and modeling linguistic phenomena. To this day, I am still striving to learn more advanced techniques and modern approaches to modeling linguistic phenomena.

My experience as a bilingual child (I should perhaps also mention that now I am able to use four languages in a relatively fluent manner: Turkish, Persian, English, and Japanese) and someone who was exposed to many languages during the earlier years of life has inspired me to study how language is processed in the brain. I feel that by studying language in the brain, I am doing useful research that will contribute to our general understanding of humans, and perhaps be of some help in improving humanity's quality of life.

Thank you very much for reading!