International Interests

Ever since I fell in love with Germany in 1999 on my first trip "overseas", I have loved language learning. It was that trip where I first learned how to speak in another language. The interest to continue pursuing foreign language opportunities has never left. On that overnight return trip from Germany, concluding the Calvin College German Interim Abroad, I vowed to myself that I would return to Germany again, hopefully sooner than later. One and a half years later, I took advantage of the German-American work exchange program headed by Prof. Lamse of the Calvin College German Department. He arranged for me to work at Bayer AG for the summer while I lived and worked in Germany by myself. The experience I gained was incredible. I have not returned to Germany since, but the desire is still strong to return.

My senior year in college, I decided to take a full year of level 1 Spanish, not having had any previous experience with the language. I liked it a lot, but it was only until over a year later that I discovered the true meaning why God had me learn Spanish: so I could understand and learn Portuguese!!!

My journey into the Portuguese Language has been an exciting one, as my ability to speak was acquired not through formal training and study, but through self-discipline and total immersion in the language and culture. I was able to communicate in complete sentences just two-months after I arrived in Brazil for a 6-month volunteer mission trip. By the end of 6 months, I was fluent in conversational Portuguese and had even taken on the southern Brazilian accent characteristic of the region we were in.

My abilities in Portuguese and German are now quite similar because of the exposure that I have had to both of the languages. I am fluent in both German and Portuguese.