Baltic language networking: a personal ciew
ENThe term ‘serendipity’ describes an accidental combination of events which are not separately beneficial but when occurring together produce a good outcome. It has been said that successful research is about managing serendipity. In many ways, this is what happened when, in 1999, I was invited to attend the 12th World Congress of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA) in Tokyo as the representative of the British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL). There were around 5000 delegates gathered at Waseda University, engaging in an exchange on the theme ‘The role of languages in the 21st century: unity and diversity’. It was serendipity that allowed Meilutė and me to share the same dorm in a nearby youth hostel. We had never met before and I was only dimly aware of the issues that surrounded Baltic language matters at that time. Soon we got chatting about the role of languages in our societies and our function as linguists. It was at different moments, over a breakfast of steamed rice and miso soup, or when relaxing in the pristine pool, that I was drawn into her story about her country and the changes, conflicts, and challenges that she and her compatriots were facing. Here was an opportunity for possible cooperation. [Extract, p. 21].
