Lachlan Jackson, January, 2011, Kyoto, Japan

Transitioning from post-grad student to early career researcher can for some prove to be quite a confronting process. In some respects, it’s the time when you open up your closet and allow all those academic skeletons to cascade out. How will your work stack up next to the work of those you really admire? Can you really write? Do you actually have anything worthwhile to say?

Being one of the inaugural ALMA award recipients was for me an ideal way to broach some of these questions. I feel very privileged to have had access to both Ingrid and Kimie’s broad knowledge, down-to-earth advice, and genuine encouragement over the past year. The chance to bounce half-baked ideas around in an informal, non-threatening setting void of ego and competition is an opportunity that most of us – whether student or established academic – can never have enough of, and for this reason, I thoroughly encourage everyone to consider applying for the 2011 ALMA award.

I really appreciated Ingrid and Kimie’s input into my current research project on linguistic intermarriage in Japan, and I also profited immensely by being introduced to research blogging via the Language-on-the-move website! It’s a great way to become familiar with others’ work and perhaps even make contacts with researchers with whom your own work overlaps.

Perhaps the highlight of my year as an ALMA recipient was meeting the Language-on-the-Move team at the IGALA conference in Tokyo last September. Chatting with Ingrid, Kimie, Vera, and Jenny reminded me of just what is possible when scholars are willing to share their ideas and energy with each other. It might be cliché, but it is too often forgotten: we can all learn from each other when we open ourselves up to such possibilities!