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Biography

The Linguist

I was born in Taipei, Taiwan, but moved to Canada when I was eight. I am a Canadian citizen who holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. I completed my B.A. and M.A. in Linguistics at University of Toronto.

My areas of expertise are Semantics and Sociolinguistics, which means I pay a lot of attention to the meaning of words and the people who use them. I'm interested in how verbs and prepositions work, and how Canadian English varies from region to region.

I have taught Linguistics at the undergraduate level at University of Toronto, and University of Waterloo, Simon Fraser University. I am the Regional Director for Greater Vancouver in the Dialect Topography of Canada project, for which I am also Webmaster. As a linguist, I have also done freelance web and database design, product branding, company naming, and discourse analysis in both private and educational sectors. I am teaching Canadian English at Queen's University in Fall 2007.

The Writer

In my spare time, I enjoy reading, gaming, and writing. It was inevitable that my love of language would intersect with the joys of writing fiction and poetry, specifically in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and mystery. I recently won Second Place in the Writers of the Future Contest in First Quarter, 2006, a prestigious international writing competition. I have recently finished my first novel.

I have lived in Taipei, Montreal and Vancouver, and currently reside in Toronto. However, I miss Montreal's smoked meat and bagels, as well as potstickers from my favourite restaurant in Vancouver, Hon's on Robson.