Kim's Bio

Kim's Bio
Hi there!I`m Kim, just turned 22, and I`m currently in the Cognitive Science track.

In 2005 I started my bachelor in the English Language and Culture at theUniversity of Amsterdam, because I wanted to become a teacher. I loved reading the literature, especially Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Lolita, poems by differentauthors from the Romantic period and more. However, I was really intrigued by the linguistics courses. After taking the course Language and speech development I was convinced that I was a linguist. Therefore I did a minor in Linguistics/Psycholinguistics, and I wrote my Bachelor thesis on Second language learning and working memory.

After my Bachelor I decided to start the Master General Linguistics at the UvA. I was interested in language development in children, second language acquisition, acquired language disorders and developmental language disorders. I developed a strong interest in the mental lexicon and that's why I wrote my master thesis on the mental lexicon. My master thesis was called: Second language lexical processing in less proficient and proficient bilinguals: An evaluation of three bilingual mental lexicon models.

In addition to the General Linguistics master I took two extra courses that were part of the Research master Brain and Cognitive Sciences: Hot topics in Linguistics and Psychoneurolinguistics. I loved these two courses, and that's why I decided to start this master.

I am looking forward to learn more about the brain, "how it works" and how language is "fitted" into it, since I am very interested in the relation between language and the brain. The courses I will follow next are: Brain development, plasticity and repair and Advanced topics in language and memory.

I am still not sure what I want to do after this master. I wanted to become a teacher, so hopefully I will be able to do research and teach at the same time. However, it would also be nice to do research on aphasia to get more insight into it, and work at a rehabilitation centre for aphasics.