My early memories of being a learner are very pleasant.

I always enjoyed going to

school, being at school, and actively participating in class. I sat in the front row, and yes, I was
always the one with my hand raised, the volunteer for answering whenever a teacher asked a
question.
I have always loved to help people. Early on, it was my dream to be a translator/
interpreter for the United Nations, or work with Mexican migrant farmers and their families in
California, to help them have a better life through development of language and cross-cultural
skills. One pivotal moment in my education was a comment made by a classmate at college. She
said: Lina, I always learn so much from your questions. At that moment I realized my
penchant/affinity for learning was contagious.
The public school system on Curaao, where I was raised, mirrors the Dutch educational
system: classified according to a student's intelligence level, based on standardized test scores.
At the age of 10 or 11, a student takes this test (at the end of 5th grade) and the results determine
whether they will go to a 'good' school, or not. To my parent, this system was defective, thus
their decision to invest in my private education. My brother and I attended the International
School of Curaao, the only alternative at that time, for our elementary, middle and high school
careers. Because of this and because we spoke only English at home, I consider English to be my
first language. I also think, feel, dream and love in English. My next door neighbors were Dutch
and therefore I grew up listening to many arguments and other types of conversations, and just
picked it up. The members of my mother's side of the family are from the island, and I would
hear Papiamentu during the weekends, and whenever I had play dates with my cousins. This is
how I picked up the local language. Next, the only TV station that we got was from the antenna,
which only picked up one station from Venezuela. As a child, I would watch Spanish cartoons
after school, which is the basis for my Spanish. As I result, I was BIC'ed
1
in these 4 languages by
the time I was 5. For all of these languages, there was a very low affective filter and I do not
have any recollection of consciously studying these languages. After this, I them became
CALP'ed
2
in English, and because I have an affinity for languages and communicating, it was a
natural choice for me to study languages in college. I majored in Spanish and took several Italian
classes, and an intensive 'full immersion' Italian summer school at Middlebury College.
In addition to higher education in the US, I also studied in Spain (my junior year abroad in
Madrid), the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland. While I was at college in the Netherlands, I took
formal Dutch classes, and so CALP'ed myself through this. When I moved to Germany, I
continued my language acquisition and took German classes, though I found it to be such a
difficult language, that I only achieved BIC level. (It was my goal to become CALPed). During
this time, I lived with two Germans for a year, and asked them to speak Germany with me as
much as possible, effectively creating my own low affective filter.
My journey to becoming an English teacher was not clearly marked. I like to say that the
profession chose me....After my first Bachelor degree, I followed my heart across the Atlantic to
the Netherlands and started my second degree in Business Administration. After I completed this
degree, I moved to Germany with the intention of working in Marketing. I kept getting the same
answer: We do not need a Marketing Assistant, but we do need someone to teach our employees
English.so after taking the CELTA certification course, I started working as a freelance
English teacher for several different language institutes around the city of Hamburg, where I was
residing. This catapulted me to the front of the classroom and I have been hooked ever since,
except for a brief period when my teaching career was temporarily interrupted by a stint in the

1
BIC: Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills
2
CALP: Cognitive Academic Linguistic Proficiency
business world. I worked in off-shore banking and in a pharmaceutical company as an inventory
manager. I did not feel like I was using my talents and personality to the best of my ability and
teaching was calling to me.
Despite the fact that I wanted to prove to myself that I was able to work in the corporate
world, but try as I may, I was unsatisfied and always looked back on my years of teaching in
Germany with fondness. I realized that I had a natural affinity and talent for teaching, that I was
able to establish an excellent rapport with my students, and that was what I wanted to do. I am
excited to continue my journey as an educator and am thrilled at the possibility of moving
overseas to begin my next cultural-linguistical adventure.