For over a decade, I have been deeply involved in linguistics olympiads, serving in multiple capacities. A significant aspect of my life involves devising linguistics puzzles and promoting the education of linguistics.

What is the Linguistics Olympiad (LO)?

The Linguistics Olympiad is a competition for secondary school students that challenges them to tackle intricate problems related to linguistics and language. Among these, the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) stands out as the largest and is one of twelve internationally recognized science olympiads. To qualify for the IOL, participants must first succeed in the selection rounds of their national competitions, such as the Korean Linguistics Olympiad (KLO). There are also regional/continental Linguistics Olympiads, such as the Asia Pacific Linguistics Olympiad (APLO) and the North American Computational Linguistics Open Competition (NACLO).

See more

You can read more about language puzzles in this Guardian article by Alex Bellos or this webpage by Princeton Linguistics Club.

My IOL Participation History

  • Contestant
  • Team Leader of Korea
    • IOL 2016 Mysore, India
    • IOL 2017 Prague, Czechia
    • IOL 2018 Dublin, Ireland
  • Organizer
    • IOL 2019 Yongin, Korea
  • Jury
    • IOL 2021 Ventspils, Latvia (held virtually)
    • IOL 2022 Castletown, Isle of Man
    • IOL 2023 Bansko, Bulgaria
  • Observer
    • IOL 2024 Brasília, Brazil

Problems I have written

Organizing Committees I am involved in

  • Member of the IOL Board since 2018 (Website Coordinator)
  • Co-founder and chair of the APLO Board since 2019
  • Co-chair of the KLO Organizing Committee since 2019

Problem Committees I am involved in

  • IOL Problem Committee since 2020
  • APLO Problem Committee since 2019
  • KLO Problem Committee since 2018

Websites I coordinate