Linguistic Club Competes in NACLO
By SELASIE AMEMASOR, SAMAIYA JULY, KEVIN THANT, and MELIA THIBAULT
The North America Computational Linguistic Olympiad (NACLO) was created in 2006 to promote computational linguistics and the general study of linguistics within North America. Computational linguistics is the study of how we are able to use computers to process, analyze, and generate the human language. Recently, our very own PEA Linguistics Club members participated in NACLO this past Thursday.
For members of the linguistic club who participated in the competition, their love for languages began long before. “I’ve been in linguistic society for the last two years, and I think that language is pretty cool. I think the things you learn in languages are super interesting,” said upper Cindy Mumbo, a co-head of the club.
Prep Annie Zhu highlighted her story with languages, “Since a young age, I have been learning languages (Chinese, English, Spanish). I grew up in a bilingual environment and was constantly switching between English and Chinese. The constantly changing language environment made me curious about linguistics and the patterns of words and their conjugations. At Exeter, I decided to learn more about languages and thus chose NACLO.”
Senior and co-head Catherine Yan shared, “I first got into NACLO because I love languages and solving puzzles, so linguistics sounded like the perfect opportunity to try something new and have fun with logic puzzles.”
Preparation for the competition began long before Thursday. Mumbo explained, “We wanted to do a lot of puzzles to prepare people.” Prep Gavyn Jones elaborated, “We have club meetings every Sunday in the afternoon or late evening. We do one or two practice problems per meeting because they’re quite long. We had a lot of practice problems on the actual test, and it was around three or four hours. It’s individual preparation, but for most, it’s group preparation.”
When it came to the competition, the students had three hours to finish the exam. Jones described the test-taking atmosphere. “It was scary at first. It was three hours long, and we were given six questions and six answer sheets. You could only write your answers in black pen on your answer sheet, and you couldn’t write anything else on there. This year, they weren’t accepting answers that had explanations. For the test itself, it’s a very thick packet. You get about 12 or 13 sheets of paper.” This test is also taken at the same time across the country, with a proctor to supervise.
As for how each person did, it’s unclear for now. However, the most important aspect of the competition is the experience. “I think I tried my best and that’s enough! There really isn’t a clear way to study for NACLO except doing the practice problems, since it isn’t possible to learn every language in the world,” Zhu exclaimed. The results will be coming back soon, and then the participants will know for sure their standings. But at its core, the competition is about solving puzzles and working your brain.
Ultimately, the work and dedication put in by the Linguistic Club shined as they showed off their skill and dedication through the tedious NACLO tournament, gaining experience and showcasing their love of languages.
