I have lived all my life on three different islands. Born in Penang, I did my PhD in England, and now work in Singapore. My parents were teachers. So, it's probably not all that surprising that I became an educator, too, teaching linguistics at university. I've always been fascinated by words, the nuances of meaning and sound that form the building blocks of language. In our book THE LANGUAGE OF LANGUAGE: A LINGUISTICS COURSE FOR STARTERS, my co-author Madalena Cruz-Ferreira and I attempt to convey (why) language matters, in an accessible and reader-friendly way. And, now, there's an entire LINGUISTICS FOR STARTERS suite, including our LANG101 WORKBOOK with 460 commented exercises and activities, and our LANG101 website at lang101.com