Hospitality and Wonder

Thor, who was named after Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl, described himself as “the guy who will be found talking passionately about vowels at a dinner party.” Like his namesake, Thor is an enthusiastic explorer of other cultures. He studied abroad in Ukraine, taught German in Lithuania, English in a Chinese city bordering North Korea, and Ger­man again in South Korea. He researched language acquisition among development professionals in Eastern Europe for his dis­sertation. Along the way, he has become fluent in English and German, proficient in Russian, French, Spanish, and Lithua­nian, and has enough Chinese and Serbo-Croatian to “get by.”

Language teaching for Thor is about two words: hospitality and wonder. For him, learning another language has a lot to do with hospitality, because when you speak a language well, people feel welcomed, even loved. “Learning a language is one of the deepest forms of respect you can extend to another culture.” But languages are also about wonder for Thor, who believes “the way language systems work is amazing” and a thing of beauty.

“There are very few jobs I could have found that tie together all of my lives and interests.” A large part of the draw in Monte­rey was the opportunity to “work with some extremely well-re­spected senior colleagues who have been incredibly helpful.” He said he could think of no better place to continue his path of growth and learning. When you add to that the many students benefiting from Thor’s passion for teaching, “perfect fit” no longer seems like a cliché.