"All humans are artists, all of us... Our greatest masterpiece of art is the use of a language to create an entire virtual reality within our mind." (Don Miguel Ruiz, 2012)
I am excited about the role I can play in my students' lives, making them open their eyes to this fascinating reality. Next to being creative with the languages they know, my students are also encouraged to go out into the world, to get immersed in different cultures, and to build bridges with the linguistic skills they have acquired. Linguistics is the science of language, and it is great fun to see students understanding more and more about the God-given processes that are in place when we use language. Some of them become so interested that they want to create an individual studies major, including programs such as "Linguistics & Genetics" and "Interdisciplinary Linguistics."
Further, I often get requests from community members to sit in on one of my a language classes, to translate family documents for them, or to help them plan their vacation trip to Europe, especially the Netherlands. I also translated several volumes of sermons by Charles Spurgeon into modern Dutch in order to help raising funds for an inner-city missions organization.
In addition to my language interests, I'm also passionate about church music, all sorts. I am on the worship committee of a local church and serve as organist for three churches in town. I am a certified church organist, won a national organ competition in the Netherlands, and played at weddings of former students, both at home and abroad.
Degrees obtained
- Ph.D. - Education (Capella University, Minneapolis MN), with a specialization in postsecondary and adult education (second language acquisition)
- Doctorandus - Dutch Linguistics (Leiden University, The Netherlands), with a specialization in modern language variation
- Doctorandus - English Literature (Leiden University), with a specialization in medieval literary analysis
- Kandidaat - English Linguistics & Literature (Leiden University)
Courses taught in the past 4 years
- CORE 100 - Kingdom, Identity, and Calling
- CORE 283 - Dutch Culture & Reformed Worldview (3-week summer program in the Netherlands)
- Dutch 101/102/201/202 - Four semesters of Elementary and Intermediate Dutch
- Dutch 251-258 - Dutch Conversation
- English 208 - World Literature II
- French 101/102/201/202 - Four semesters of Elementary and Intermediate French
- Latin 101/102/201/393 - Four semesters of Elementary and Intermediate Latin
- Linguistics 201 - Introduction to Linguistics
- Linguistics 301 - Applied Linguistics
- Linguistics 393 - Individual Research Projects