Tanja Baeuerlein is a graduate student at the University of Wuerzburg, Germany and attended UT as an exchange student from 2009-2010. She is pursuing her masterís degree in English Linguistics and American Studies, as well as her teaching degree in English, Spanish and German. In her first semester at UT she took a class about Texas-German with Hans Boas, which immediately sparked her interest in this dialect, its history and features. Working for the TGDP was not only interesting, but also important to her because she intends to write her masterís thesis on certain linguistic peculiarities of Texas-German. During her exchange year in Texas Tanja also taught German at a middle school in Austin and worked as a research assistant for the project ìDynamics of Hunter-Gatherer Language Change in Amazoniaî at UT. Her other interests include traveling, reading, arts, languages, movies, music, as well as cooking and spending time with her family and friends. Ultimately, she hopes to get her PhD in linguistics and continue researching or to teach languages, especially German, abroad.
