I teach in the IES program at Kansai Gaidai University. I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois and acquired two of my passions in Lake Michigan: boating and swimming.
During my first full-time job as a lieutenant in the United States Air Force, I was stationed in South Dakota. There I began to study the Native American language Lakota. I also volunteered with the Family Services Program to teach English to the foreign-born spouses of military personnel. I loved both so much that I left the Air Force and went back to graduate school at the University of Illinois to earn Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and linguistics.
The professional organization for teachers who teach English as a second or foreign language is TESOL. The theme of one of their conventions several years ago was “Teaching English: Art or Science.” I felt that they had unnecessarily poised themselves on the horns of the classic either/or dilemma. I believe that teaching English, or any subject for that matter, is both art and science. I have spent many years studying the science of teaching English and trying to improve my artistic skills. One more important ingredient in effective teaching and learning is a healthy sense of humor. As Oscar Wilde observed, “Life is too important to be taken seriously.” So I try to make my classes fun as well as effective. One of the tremendous benefits of teaching is that the more you teach, the more you learn. And I love learning from my Kansai Gaidai students. They have much to teach me.
I continue to enjoy swimming and boating. Whenever I’m back home in America, I swim in the pool that my husband built for me.
We also do quite a bit of sailing and water-skiing.
But my most favorite things are cruising on my motorcycle
and playing with my cats.
So come join my English classes at Kansai Gaidai, and we will have fun practicing English skills talking about boating, cats, water-skiing, cats, swimming, cats, motorcycling, and, let’s see, Cats!