Human languages are more complex than most people think. What do you actually know when you speak/sign a language? Do you have a memorized list of words/phrases in your mind, or do you have some type of computational system of mental rules? What can studying language scientifically tell us about the human mind? This class will serve as a crash-course introduction to central questions in the field of linguistics and to the scientific methods that linguists use. In this class, you will learn about the various aspects of language that linguists study — sentence structure, sound formation, meaning, and more — and think through some puzzling aspects of language you may have never thought about before. Together, we will see firsthand how intricate, beautiful, and diverse human language is!