I was born and raised in Gwangju (also spelled as Kwangju), one of the major cities of South Korea located in the southwestern region. (Gwangju literally means 'a town of light' and my name means 'agile/brilliant pearl'. So even though each word contains a sound approximating 'ju', they mean quite different things.)

I came to the United States in 1997 and attended the University of Arizona and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst between 1997 and 2004, earning two MAs and one PhD in linguistics. I joined the faculty of Texas Tech in 2005, previously having taught at Northwestern University as a visiting assistant professor of linguistics.

When I was little, I wanted to become a bakery owner, a singer, an actress, a creative writer,  and/or a Supreme Court justice. And back in college and graduate school in Korea (Chonnam National University), I majored in English education and English literature. So becoming a linguist was something I didn't quite expect early on. But this accidental path has taken me to a place that I'd call a utopia (well, most of the time!).

People like me do linguistics largely because it's fun. But the more important reason is that only humans are endowed with creative linguistic ability that is unbounded in scope. So by studying human language scientifically, we can have a better understanding of the human mind and ultimately what it means to be a human in ways different from other species.

Incidentally, I should note that many linguists are actually pretty good at baking, singing, and even acting, not to mention writing, arguing, and judging. So living as a linguist has turned out to be not exactly incompatible with my earlier dreams.