Georgia Southern double major earns bachelor’s in anthropology and Chinese fueled by a lifelong passion for ancient languages and cultures

December 19, 2023

Austin Gasiecki has a passion for ancient languages and for the study of people and cultures around the world. When he crossed the stage at Allen E. Paulson Stadium in Statesboro on Dec. 14, Gasiecki received bachelor’s degrees in both anthropology and Mandarin. The new Georgia Southern University graduate dates his love for both subjects to his childhood as a home-schooled student.

“I was always interested in languages,” Gasiecki said. “I started learning Latin when I was 5 out of an elementary school Latin book. I was always curious where words came from and why they were what they were.”

Gasiecki, who grew up in Statesboro and neighboring Metter, Georgia, enrolled at Georgia Southern University as a dual-enrollment student to earn college credits while still in high school. His initial choice of anthropology as a major was driven by his desire to become a professor of historical linguistics, teaching classes like comparative linguistics, philology and ancient languages such as Old English and Old Norse.

“Anthropology is useful because one cannot study a language without also learning about the culture of its speakers, and anthropology gives you a useful framework to use when thinking about and interacting with people from a culture different than yours,” he stated.

The addition of Chinese language as a second major came later, after he had completed most of his anthropology classes. Studying Chinese culture, he said, is as interesting as the more well-known Asian cultures like Japan or Korea. 

“I began self-studying Chinese with someone who was a graduate tutor here,” Gasiecki explained. “That tutor referred me to Professor Zuotang Zhang and that is how I was introduced to the Chinese program at Georgia Southern. Chinese is both an ancient and a modern language that appeals to my curiosity about historical linguistics and is an incredibly useful language in the modern world.”

The coursework in both disciplines proved demanding but never hampered his love for learning languages and studying unfamiliar cultures.

“Anthropology is a challenging discipline because it requires you, as the common anthropologists’ proverb goes, ‘make the familiar strange and the strange familiar,’” he stated. “This means that you have to be prepared to come face-to-face with other ways of life that may seem strange to you and study them objectively.”

In describing his course in Chinese, Gasiecki said, “Dr. Zhang’s advanced-level Chinese classes do not use textbooks. They use news articles and movies that require you to learn how the language is used in real life. This was very challenging to deal with as a beginner, but over the course of study it resulted in me being able to speak reasonably natural-sounding Chinese.”

The avid learner found numerous opportunities to apply his language skills. One highlight included his research collaboration with Professor Zhang. The project surveyed how students learn Chinese in and out of the classroom with a focus on their at-home study habits. The research paper is awaiting peer review for publishing in the “Coastal Review Journal.” As for one of his most rewarding undertakings at Georgia Southern; it occurred when he helped teach summer classes in Chinese.

“It was the experience that made me realize I wanted to teach Chinese as a career,” he said about his goal to become a middle or high school educator or even a Chinese translator. Outside of his classes, Gasiecki enjoyed participating in a myriad of activities including the Fencing Club, Baptist Collegiate Ministry and the Chinese Cultural Society. He also led Chinese Conversation Hour meetings which focused on helping students improve and practice their conversational Chinese. As a student, Gasiecki compiled a 3.85 GPA and thanks to scholarships is leaving the University debt-free. Approaching graduation, the scholar expressed his gratitude for what he accomplished at Georgia Southern and how it prepared him for the next chapter in his life.

“This university has been a good source of both education and direction, helping me to figure out what I want to do with my life and how to start doing it,”  Gasiecki concluded. “I have learned where my true interests lie, and I have been put on a course to translate a real passion of mine into a great career.”