It probably helps that my background is in the sciences and I can speak the scientists' language.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
As an undergraduate, I did maths and physics. That doesn't make me a scientist. So I try to read and understand and talk to scientists.
I have expertise in five different fields which helps me to easily understand the analogy between my scientific problems and those occurring in nature.
I can usually find my own way out of whatever dicey literary or linguistic situations I wander into, but I have to work much harder at the science.
Due to these various circumstances, when I entered the Catholic University of Louvain in 1934, I had already travelled in a number of European countries and spoke four languages fairly fluently. This turned out to be a valuable asset in my subsequent career as a scientist.
I'm a school teacher, and later on, well past my formal education, I became very interested in science.
Science can promote an understanding between people at a really fundamental level.
Scientists in different disciplines don't speak the same language. They publish in different journals. It's like the United Nations: You come together, but no one speaks the same language, so you need some translators.
Using e-mail, I can communicate with scientists all over the world.
I'm a linguist. I study how people talk to each other and how the ways we talk affect our relationships.
It's not about where you were born or where you come from that makes you a good scientist. What you need are good teachers, co-students, facilities.