I think it is very difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when I fell in love with languages as it is something that has's grown very slowly. A very important moment was for sure when my secondary school organised an exchange with a school from Tricarico, Italy. After two weeks in Italy, I was already able to speak some basic Italian. Immersion really helps to pick up a language. More importantly, it led to me starting Italian lessons after university and me moving to the country when I lost my job during the 2008 economic crisis. Suddenly I had loads of German colleagues and started with their language while living in Italy. 6 months later a Portuguese colleague and one who had lived in Brazil helped me to study Portuguese. I think that was probably the moment where it hit me that I would be studying languages for a very long time. Thanks to Corona, I came to the realisation that I want to breathe languages whenever and whereever I can. I have been using Italki as a student for over 6 months now for Danish, Catalan and Afrikaans and in Juni I started my adventure as a teacher of Flemish/Dutch, English, French and Italian. As one of my Catalan teachers told me the other day: "You are living the polyglot dream." And he was right.

Dutch/Flemish tongue twister: Zeven Zelzaatse zotten zwommen zeven zomerse zonnige zondagen zonder zwarte zwembroek. "Ze zijn zij zeker zot?!" zei zotte Zulma, ze zullen zeker zinken! Veel geluk ermee!