Personal
Information
I was born in Tönisvorst, Germany, and grew up in a small village
in the Rhineland called Glehn. Glehn has about 6000 inhabitants but is
located in a rather densly populated area with big cities like
Düsseldorf and Mönchengladbach in close proximity.
My parents still live in Glehn, so this is where I spend
my time whenever I'm back in Germany.
I received my university education at the Heinrich-Heine Universität in Düsseldorf
finishing with the 'Staatsexamen' in English and mathematics in June 2000. The 'Staatsexamen' is more or less
equivalent to an MA degree in these two subjects. I like the Rhineland area a lot, and I really miss my friends.
I feel deeply rooted in this area, and I haven't given up the hope that I might return one day.
However, in the summer of 2000, I decided to pursue my graduate studies in the US and first got another MA degree, this time in
linguistics, from the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. I enjoyed my year in Milwaukee a lot
since I had a great advisor (Fred Eckman) and wonderful friends.
I loved the cold winter with all its snow, and Milwaukee's nice pubs. I also very much
appreciated the good coffee from Stone Creek and the excellent rolls from City Market.
Good coffee, nice bread (rolls) and tasty beer are very important to me.
After completing my MA in linguistics at UWM in May 2001, I went to Hawaii to pursue my PhD
in the Department of Second Language Studies. I found the SLS Department with its approximately 15 professors, all dealing with
some aspect of second language acquisition, a great place for getting thorough training on second language acquisition.
However, living in paradise did not agree with me so very well (I guess I'm just not an angel!). I found the
humidity rather difficult to deal with and it was very hard to get good bread--I actually had to start baking myself.
But I survived the time in Hawaii rather well--which I owe to the great support of my 'Doktormutter' - Bonnie Schwartz- and
the great group of friends that I was lucky to be part of.
For the final year of my PhD studies I had to follow Akira to Maryland, though, which was a wonderful experience for me. The
Lingusitics Department at the University of Maryland in College Park not only hosted me as a visiting scholar
but also gave me the opportunity to teach an undergraduate course on second language acquisition. This year was definitely
the intellectually most stimulating year I've experienced in my life, and I'm particularly grateful to Colin Phillips for
challenging my thinking and for pushing my intellectual and academic development. Unfortunately, I was so busy with
finishing up my dissertation during this year that I didn't even try to find good places for beer or bread. So
I guess I will need to go back there frequently to make up for that.
Since August 2006, I'm an Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina, which is located in Columbia. I think I have great colleagues and nice students, and I find Columbia to be really easy to live in
(once the humid summer is over). So far my favorite pub is
'Hunter's Gatherer'. I discovered that I can buy good coffee beans at "The Fresh Market", but nice bread is still a problem. I
guess I need to search harder. So far, I'm back to baking my own bread.
My major interest is lingustics, and my friends only know too well that I never get
tired of talking about syntax. But I also have a few other hobbies. I like to play both
tennis and table-tennis, I love to dance (in discos as well as contra-dancing or Irish set dancing),
and I enjoy skiing very much, even though I haven't been skiing in ages. I just love baking but
also enjoy cooking--though I'm not particularly good at it.
I'm not really actively doing a lot of sports at the moment. But I do follow German soccer when I find the time.
My favorite team is Borussia Mönchengladbach, and right now I'm pressing my thumbs and crossing my fingers that they'll make it back into the Erste Bundesliga at the end of the season.
I also like baseball but ever since my favorite player (FE) retired, I stopped following what's going on.