Hello there. My name is Katie Gerfin and I hail from outside Chicago. I've only taken one other class (at home at my community college) that has dealt with the subject of Linguistics. I really enjoyed taking the class, so I figured I'd revisit the area to see what else I could learn. I love the idea of knowing how to speak many languages, although I only have "Tourist Italian" and barely-conversational French (although I haven't taken a French class in at least 5 years.) I find it incredibly useful to study the way people use and learn language, not only because I believe it helps me to be a better communicator, but because I plan on becoming a teacher at some point in the future. On a lighter note, being from the Midwest and living in Washington has given rise to a stronger accent for me which I find rather odd. I get made fun of by my friends for the way I use language and am curious to know how I came to speak differently than say, my friend from Portland or my friend from Key West. At the end of this quarter I'm really looking forward to going back home and dazzling all my friends and family with my superb knowledge of linguistics over a hot plate of freshly deep-fried cheese curds!
