Undergraduate Student Series: an interview with Ruby Mineur

Catherine Roberts

Ruby Mineur is an undergraduate student majoring in Linguistics and German at the University of Melbourne. She’s the president of the Melbourne Uni Linguistics Society, a French and German Peer Mentor, and she plays the trumpet.

Catherine interviewed Ruby Mineur about her experiences as an undergraduate during the COVID-19 pandemic, getting involved with the SOLL community, and defining success.

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I understand you’re studying a bachelor’s at the moment, majoring in Linguistics and German. What drew your interest to these areas?

I went through the Latin to linguistics pipeline. I started learning Latin when I was in grade 8 and I really liked the grammar. My teacher noticed this, and he sent me a paper that had been published by Alice Gaby and Lera Boroditsky about spatial representations. I didn’t really understand much of it, but I was just so enchanted by this idea that different cultures can have such extreme differences in how they express things.

Linguistics is very scientific, but when you’re a child I think you see more clearly that it’s just magic. I was just delighted by the complexity, beauty, and intricacy of language.

My family moved to Germany in 2011, and by that time I was interested in syntax and morphology. I love how German was structured and complex. Now I’m motivated by my love of German modernist poetry and classical composers.

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So, the majority of your bachelor’s has been throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. How has this impacted your studies?

There were a couple of positive things. First, the pandemic amplified the conversation around how we can make work and study more accessible. There are people who are immune-compromised, or have anxiety, or are on the autism spectrum that find online learning more manageable. Second, it showed us the limits of technology. During Lockdown I had to attend a funeral online. It’s not a replacement for physical presence and the connection that comes from that.

I did my second and third year online. The difficult part was the lack of connection with my peers. One of the main things that you get from your degree is the brilliance of the people around you. It’s so valuable encountering people who will challenge you and inspire you. I know my peers are doing amazing things, but I don’t know the details because we didn’t get to talk much. So that’s a shame.

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But despite the challenges you faced, I understand you’ve been incredibly involved in the School of Languages and Linguistics. Can you tell me a little bit more about these experiences?

The most wonderful thing I’m involved with is the Melbourne Uni Linguistics Society. I started as the educational representative and now I’m the president.

I was also involved with Linguistics in the Pub, which is a monthly meeting of linguists and language activists. Each meeting someone gives a presentation, and we have a discussion afterwards. Listening to brilliant scholars and activists talking about their work is inspiring.

I also do French and German Peer Mentoring and assisted study sessions, on top of some internships.

What connects all these experiences is that none of them had a rubric or assessment. I wasn’t being graded. I learned the most throughout my whole degree by doing things that didn’t involve me submitting an assessment.

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So, for new undergraduates who are interested in getting involved in school life more, how do you find these opportunities?

Just knock-on people’s office doors! Or go along to consulting hours on Zoom. Introduce yourself. Hand them your email address and ask them to let you know if they hear of opportunities. Otherwise, nobody’s going to know that you want these opportunities.

I’m quite an anxious person so knocking on someone’s door was scary. But the people who work in the Babel building want the best for undergraduate students. They want us to succeed, and they want us to be engaged.

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Work-life balance is something we often talk about at a graduate researcher level, but I don’t think the importance of balance is really highlighted for undergraduates. What do you do to maintain a healthy balance between work and life?

A lot of the students would say “Oh no there’s no support available!” but we regularly get email newsletters telling us about resources. I went to a lot of free study skills and academic skills workshops. There’s help out there, but people just aren’t aware of it.

When you’re in undergrad there’s this perception that you haven’t really started your career yet. So people have this idea that good work-life balance comes later. But actually, the present moment is already your life. You’re already at a stage in your career. The behaviours and routines that you cultivate now will most likely be what life looks like in the future.

I think it also depends on how you define success. In first and second year I had an unhealthy way of studying. I would stay up super late studying and wake up early to start studying again. I was obsessed with empty markers of success, such as grades and subject prizes.

Now I would define success as doing well enough. Well enough grade to progress to the next stage. Well enough to get into honours. Success should not compromise your health, your enjoyment, or your relationships.

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How do you see linguistics and languages developing as a career for you?

I would love to have a career in academia, and I’m really interested in phonetics and neuroscience. I know there’s a lot of work with that in Germany. But for now, I’m looking forward to this next year, doing honours, because I really enjoy writing and researching. I’m just taking it one step at a time.

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What’s the one thing we’re not talking about, but we really should be?

The value of part time study. My peers and I have been talking about it but there’s not really space to talk about it within the university. I noticed that a lot of my peers are going through burn out. There’s still this feeling you must keep going; you must keep studying full time. I do think it comes back to this idea of how you define success. Is success getting through your degree as quickly as possible so that you can move on to the next degree? Or is it truly learning and enjoying and growing as a person?

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Thank you so much for your time, Ruby. It’s been a pleasure chatting with you.

Thanks so much for contacting me. It’s lovely to meet you. I’ve been a fan of the blog for a while now. It’s helped me with my motivation to hear about what PhD students are doing and what the possibilities are in my field.