I cannot underestimate the impact of my childhood growing up in a family of two immigrant backgrounds on my desire to learn and use foreign languages. My paternal grandparents were Finnish and brought to this country by each of their families. My maternal grandparents were German and lived on a farm in the Midwest. Both sets of grandparents spoke their respective languages in the home. It wasn’t until I moved across the country to California that I realized not all households spoke foreign languages. None of my friends’ families spoke languages and sometimes it felt to me like I was missing something. I went to a school where they taught German and felt a little more like something I was supposed to be doing. We sat at a table and had a book with phrases which the teacher asked us to read or asked us to answer questions. I liked speaking German and it seemed to make connections for me with my heritage. When we moved again within California I went to a school that had me take Spanish. I realized that this class was very precious to me and I kept my handouts in a red plastic notebook to this day. In my high school I took Latin to avoid being transferred to a newly built school. This impacted the way I thought about language teaching because we had a Latin banquet in which we all dressed like Roman gods and goddesses. I liked the new approach to me of a project in learning language. We had fun and I knew this was a good way to learn language. I also took German in high school but we never did anything fun. While I took German in junior college we had to memorize our part of a conversation and act it out. I brought props and still can say the conversation about playing tennis. I took Spanish at the same Cypress Junior College and had a fascinating teacher who told us of trips he took on the Amazon. I learned it is more appealing to learn foreign language by using it than doing translations and grammar. I joined the Marine Corps after my Associate of Arts degree and wanted to go to language school in Monterrey, California by it was restricted to male Marines. I was in counterintelligence and went to Guam. There were many languages represented during my tour of duty: Tagalog, Japanese, Chinese, and Guamanian. After I got out of the military and returned with my husband to Louisiana State University, I studied English and Spanish and took education classes. I had a part time job teaching ESL to Laotian adults for a private company. I will always have fond memories for my Laotian students and them trying to find slippers for my big American feet as a gift to me. I did not always have dreams of being a teacher but I am glad I am one now. I never dreamed of a career I just had fun and realized what I was doing was what I wanted to do with my life. My view of how I was going to teach was shaped by my experiences. I saw sitting and looking at a book was not very inspiring but an activity, song, conversation and talk were the best way to learn. In one of my classes I taught in Coldwater, Mississippi, I had prepared students for a foreign language fair in which they sang “Guantanamera” a Capella beautifully. Other students danced, recited poetry, and made projects. I did this teaching before the National Standards that are currently used. I liked to teach to be able to learn. My motto is “teach a foreign language like you want to learn it not like a subject.” Language is to be spoken; it is an instrument like something to be played. I know my experiences shaped the kind of teacher I am and want to be as I continue to improve. I re-entered the MATL program since I had to stop previously because of moving and children, with the goal to learn how to be a better language teacher.