- Email:
- rhietpas@iu.edu@iu.edu
- Campus:
- IU Bloomington
In the summer of 2020, I completed the Dutch Summer Language Workshop course, which gave me a strong foundation to continue my Dutch studies, and in the summer of 2022, I completed a Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) at Leiden University in the Netherlands and KU Leuven in Belgium. Since then, I have taught Dutch at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the past 3 years while working on my PhD in Linguistics. My dissertation research focuses on language and identity among Dutch immigrants to the US and their descendants, and I love introducing students to how much of an effect Dutch immigrants have had on the US and American English. I also approach teaching through my lens as a linguist. I appreciate the importance of developing basic knowledge and skill in grammar and vocabulary and am good at pinpointing and explaining differences between languages, while at the same time, I appreciate both the diversity and social context of a language and culture and prioritize giving students real examples from different speakers: from the Netherlands, Flanders, Suriname, and the Dutch Caribbean, from young people and old people, from native speakers as well as immigrants and other second language learners, and from different types of media: articles, poems, videos, and memes. Every student comes in with a different reason for wanting to learn Dutch, and I am excited to learn what that is and help them foster their interest in the language and culture and meet their goals.