Hi everybody, Im Lizet van Knippenberg, 23 years old and born in Amerfoort (the Netherlands).

In 2005 I started a Bachelor in Modern Greek Language and culture at the UvA, which I just finished. At first I wanted to study Life Sciences or Biomedical Sciences, but because I did not attend maths B courses, physics and chemistry in high school, I could not begin a study Life science. However, I still wanted to start studying directly after high school, so I decided to study Modern Greek, given my love for the Greek language and my regular visits to Greece.

While I was studying Modern Greek I noticed that some people learn a language much faster than other people. I wondered why somebody can learn a language in two years and speak it fluently after four years and why other people will never reach that level. What happens in the brain when a person is learning a language or learning something in general? Are there clear differences in the brain of fast L2 learners and slow(er) L2 learners? Is the language learning process the same as other learning processes? What is learning in general, is it just chemistry?

These are questions that crossed my mind the last two years. That’s why I attended the whole minor ‘Psychology of Language’, which I finished with a scientific research paper. The paper dealt with the effects of background music (familiar or non-familiar) on second language word learning. I also attended the whole Basic Programme Brain and Cognition and some courses in statistics like SPSS and Methods and Techniques. Next to these courses, I also attended Psychopathology, Psychophysics, Psychology of Development etc.

In the future I don’t really know what I want to do. I want to learn a lot more about the brain and the idea crossed my mind to do another BA in psychobiology. If I could make a desicion again, I would have studied this. I want to know a lot more about fMRI and PET scans etc, that’s why I’ll follow the courses, brain development, plasticity and repair & Neuroimaging 1.

Except all this study shit, I love to Dance (almost everything, jazz, modern, musical, ballet, but mostly hiphop and streetdance). Right now im not doing anything, but I will again before december! I also like to sing and to walk in the mountains. And the last couple of years I visited Greece a lot of times, I just love it there, the language, the people, culture, the eat habits, way of living.