Hello! My name is Vanja Vekić Chen, and I come from a small country in Southeast Europe called Bosnia and Herzegovina. It’s a quaint and lovely country known for having three official languages—Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian. I can speak all three. It’s not that impressive when you realize they are mutually intelligible. Does this still make me a polyglot, I wonder? In Bosnia, we say no. 

I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Banja Luka, where I studied the instruction of English language and literature. For a couple of years before joining the English department, I studied Russian and Serbian language and literature, gaining a solid linguistic knowledge of Old Church Slavic, but not the proficiency in Russian. I hardly spoke it at all. 

I chose Canada for my graduate studies for several personal reasons, but the most important one was the Department of Linguistics at Simon Fraser University. My background in linguistics (both Slavic and English) was mostly based on the teachings of linguists such as Roman Jakobson and Ferdinand de Saussure. Structural linguistics had been my basis for understanding language since high school. 

Then, I learned about M.A.K. Halliday and systemic-functional linguistics. Later, in my third year of undergraduate studies, I learned about generative linguistics and Noam Chomsky. Those X-bar trees looked fun and were fun to draw, and I was eager to learn more. Then I learned about George Lakoff and cognitive linguistics. I had gotten the gist, but I wanted to know more about all these approaches, how they co-existed, and how they could be used for something novel. This is where SFU entered my spotlight. 

After surveying several linguistics programs in Canada, I learned that most of them focus on generativist or generativist-inflected approaches. I was not looking to narrow my focus; I wanted to expand it. After a long search for a potential supervisor, I found distinguished professor Maite Taboada’s page on the department website—she was the one with a similar background to mine. I wanted her!

Oh, the delight I felt when I received the offer to join the MA program. I was one step closer to my dream. I was elated. Unfortunately, there was a slight catch—I’d been accepted to the course-based MA stream, and Maite Taboada would not be my supervisor. So, what did I do? I accepted the offer. I knew I would make my way to her once I got there. All I needed was an opportunity. 

My assigned supervisor was one of the most wonderful faculty members, senior lecturer Heather Bliss. She was eager to meet with me over Zoom before my arrival to Canada, and she offered to pick me and my husband up from the airport when we arrived. From my first moment in Canada, I knew I was in great hands. 

Heather Bliss listened to everything about my half-baked ideas and still-shapeless ambitions, and she was excited and happy to help and to offer guidance. She may not have been who I was looking for at the time, but she was who I needed by my side. 

Why don’t you do a project? She asked. But I’m not in the project-based stream, I replied, confused. One term after that conversation, I became a project-based master’s student, and my ideas were no longer half-baked. 

Oh, and I was meeting Maite Taboada in her office every two weeks—because she was my new supervisor! Heather Bliss had assured me that there was a way for me to switch; I had the drive, and no one would deny me doing what I was passionate about. I’m still in awe of how quickly and unreservedly every staff and faculty member offered me their support in making the transition. 

But, of course, catches were unavoidable. If I wanted to work with Maite Taboada on a project that only she could help me with, then I needed her to say yes. I needed her to have the time to hear me out and tell me yes. Academics don’t have a lot of time lying around! Probably not any. I needed my in, and I needed to ensure that I would be very much worth her time. What I can now say is, thank you, Maite, for all your time. 

So I had a goal, but I did not have high expectations. I approached professor Taboada after our first class together, Computational Linguistics (LING 807). I asked her if she still taught systemic-functional linguistics at the undergraduate level and if I could be her teaching assistant. I learned that she had stopped teaching that course more than a decade prior, but she was still kind enough to consider a different option for me. 

We could do directed studies, she offered. I beamed. But (this ‘but’ I saw coming, as Heather Bliss had prepared me for it), only if you find more students to join us. 

A week later, I told her that I had gathered 5-7 interested peers! I also told her that my other professor, with whom I worked as a teaching assistant, was allowing me to give a lecture on systemic-functional linguistics in her syntax class. Professor Nancy Hedberg, thank you for always giving me opportunities to be myself. You were probably the first one who truly saw me. 

During this time, it was decided that Maite Taboada would be my senior supervisor and both Heather Bliss and Nancy Hedberg would stick with me for this wild ride as my committee members. The directed studies course never came to pass. Instead it became a three-credit graduate course titled Corpus-Based Discourse Analysis (LING 810). There were thirteen students in that classroom. First ever. We had a story to tell. We still do. If you ever have the time, stop by professor Taboada’s Discourse Processing Lab. You might still hear that story! 

But this is my story. Condensed. I did other things too. I doubted myself. Thought it was some mistake that I was admitted. I volunteered. A lot. I became a Three-Minute Thesis finalist. I signed up for everything that I found interesting. I knew my time in Canada was not guaranteed. I had to try everything! I met so many people. They continue to be my valuable network, my support system, my encouragement for new half-baked ideas. 

To everyone at SFU Linguistics who was there for me during this formative and transformative moment in time—I owe it all to you! Thank you.