Thanks to Go Abroad Fund, I could afford my trip to Leiden to attend the 11th International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS), one of the biggest conferences on Asian Studies.

Leiden is a small and lovely city. Leiden University has a strong academic tradition in Asian studies.

I was a presenter in the panel ‘Migration Experiences, Voices and Representations Through Time and Space’. My presentation was about how Taiwanese migrants consider Singaporean Colloquial English (a.k.a Singlish). I collaborated with PhD students studying in France, Singapore and Taiwan, and we had a wonderful panel where the floor discussion was very inspiring.

It is not common to see sociolinguists in a regional studies conference, and it seems that social scientists are usually not quite interested in language stuff. Thereby, it becomes important for me to be connected with scholars from other disciplines to promote the contribution of sociolinguistics.

I also had a chance to be connected with people working on language stuff in other disciplines. It was exciting to know these rare people. I really appreciate the funding from Go Abroad Fund.

When I was in Leiden, Leiden was having a Rembrandt Festival. With the guidance of local students, I was able to learn the biography of Rembrandt, and how Leiden appropriates this important artist to market their city.

ICAS is a great conference, where you could meet people of different disciplines and learn from them. It is how an inter-disciplinary conference is always charming.  I expect to see more and more linguists involved in such an academic activity.