“Look it up.” This was a common response from young Matt’s librarian mom in response to his questions about maps. As a child, Matt was fascinated by geography, cartography and languages. His inquisitiveness – a primary quality fostered by his parents- is what propelled Matt into his career as university instructor and professional linguist.

Matt’s childhood wonders manifested into a life of far-flung travels and multi-linguistic pursuits. He earned a B.A. in German, with a Latin American certificate and a Master’s in Agricultural Economics with a certificate in African Studies. As a graduate student, he won a Rotary Fellowship to study in the Netherlands. Matt’s dedication to his language education certainly earned him the title of “polyglot”: he is proficient in Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch and French and taught some of these languages at the University of Florida where he has had the distinguished honor of being named “Teacher of the Year” for Spanish. Matt treats language learning as a sport: practice and staying current. In fact, he has 23 years of translation and editing assignments in his repertoire, which amounts to nearly 4,000 assignments.