While English is my native language, German was my primary language from mid-1987 through mid-1994. For much of that time I was the owner/operator of a Mexican restaurant in Peine, between Hannover and Braunschweig in Germany. What an exciting time to be there! It was amazing how our restaurant took off when the wall fell, since we were quite close to what was then the East/West German border.

Talk about immersion in a language! What better opportunity than the day-to-day operations running a restaurant, from running the bar, being the hostess, waitress, and cashier, to improve language skills. We had a loyal clientele from our community and the surrounding area, plus friends and relatives in other parts of Germany, so I had exposure to numerous dialects and idioms from around the country.

In addition to running a Mexican restaurant in Germany, I also worked off and on in my father's dental practice for about 15 years and taught high school German, English as a Second Language, and social studies for several years.

I'm excited to put my German experience to use again providing idiomatically correct translations.