October 3, 2002
Chia-Hui Huang, Linguistics
Spend five minutes with Chia-Hui Huang and it’s apparent why she won a 2002 Excellence in Teaching Award. Her enthusiasm is contagious and enveloping. And in no time the doctoral student will try to convince you to take a course in linguistics.
“Linguistics rocks,” she says with conviction. “Linguistics is fun, exciting, and can help you understand and be appreciative of your own language. You should take a class in linguistics. You’d be good at it.”
Language always has been a big part of Huang’s life. Linguistics came later, when she was an undergraduate.
Born in Taiwan, her native languages are Taiwanese and Mandarin. She’s also fluent in English and Spanish, speaks “some” French and Portuguese and can read Latin and Russian. As if that language smorgasbord isn’t enough, Huang also has ambitions to learn Italian, Gaelic, Navajo and Modern Greek.
She began developing her language skills early in life. At 10, Huang moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for five years where she learned Spanish. Then she moved to suburban Los Angeles where she mastered English while going to high school. From there she moved on to the University of Iowa to study French and Spanish literature and get her first exposure to linguistics. One of her professors, Joseph Levy, who taught Portuguese, inspired her.
“I told him that I wished I could find something I loved as much as he loved Portuguese and he told me I needed to find something I enjoyed, something I could have fun with no matter how hard it was,” she recalls.
Soon she took her first linguistics course and found “it was so hard and so challenging that I took more classes.” She had found her field, and afterwards, at the UW, she found her calling — teaching.
“In a group of TAs who are outstanding instructors, Chia-Hui distinguishes herself both by her knowledge of the subject matter and her amazing facility in the classroom,” says Julia Herschensohn, linguistics department chair.
“Chia-Hui is a formidably qualified teacher who involves students by using group work, problem solving and a range of original materials … She does not rest on her laurels, but continues to seek ways to improve her teaching.”
Huang has become the lead TA for the linguistics department and has taught a section of the large introductory Linguistics 200 class, as well as four other more advanced courses.
She’s successful as a teacher because she engages students and once engaged they find it difficult to avoid that fabulous enthusiasm she brings into the classroom.
“Linguistics can help you understand and be appreciative of your own language,” says Huang. “I don’t want people to take language for granted because it is so important. It is as personal as your fingerprints and tells us something about you as an individual and us as a group. Linguistics is about language, not just English. It is governed by rules and is a science like chemistry or physics.
“I’m a slow learner, but gifted because I’m surrounded by wonderful teachers,” she adds. “The faculty is so supportive and this is a good atmosphere for anyone who wants to learn. I also learn so much from students. They ask questions that never occurred to me. It reminds me on a daily basis why I’m a linguist. I enjoy seeing the light bulb coming on in my students’ minds, and I can feel the energy emanating from them. That’s the best part of teaching, what really matters.”
