Get to know me

My name is Ghislaine Grace Ward. I was named after emperor Charlemagne’s sister, Gisela. I was born and raised in Amstelveen with my 2 sisters. I was raised trilingual because my father is English and my mother is German. My dad always taught us to value the importance of culture, travel and language, and that's why I am doing this course.

Before Maastricht..

My parents moved to Amstelveen with my older sister right before I was born. They lived in the centre of Amsterdam in an apartment and realised they were growing out of it when I was on the way. On the day I finally arrived my grandfather had a heart attack. He luckily survived but it marks my birthday as an interesting day, to say the least. 

"My sisters and I in Mauritius after receiving hindu blessings."

My connection to communication has always been different from other people. My older sister was born hard of hearing, and without her hearing aids she’s deaf. A lot of our communication in the morning was non-verbal. I luckily never had to learn sign language but some signs were and still are being used actively in my family. I never realised until a few years ago that the way I have to communicate to my sister in certain scenarios is very special. I think this is also why communication is so interesting to me. 

One of my scout leaders is also hard of hearing. So I took the opportunity to teach my co-scouts some basic sign language. To not only help out our scout leader, but because over half of communication is purely body language.

I graduated in 2024 from Keizer Karel College with a HAVO diploma. I was also awarded a special certificate because I got the highest marks in the school on the German exam. After school I was expected to go to art school.  Not only by classmates but also by teachers and other school staff. I did exams for art history and I had an exhibition final which I both passed so it could have been a possibility. But art is and will be nothing more than a hobby to me. 

I took a gap year after secondary school to work and travel. I got a job at a wholesale jewellery store. At first, I was only required to help customers and keep the shop stocked up and tidy. But as I kept working there my boss started giving me more responsibility. Right before I left, I controlled the social media, took orders and shipped them and even got to help with purchasing decisions.

"Signing my diploma at graduation."

In Maastricht..

My study

12 mei 2026 11:25

I started my higher education in September of 2025 at Zuyd University in Maastricht. The study of International Communication with Languages drew me in because I always knew I wanted to pursue an international career, in whatever shape that could be. Also it stood out because it’s the only HBO study that offers Japanese in the Netherlands. Growing up I always had a fascination with language and cultures, especially Japan, so it was a great match from the start. My parents said jokingly that it was like this study was made for me.

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My languages

12 mei 2026 11:25

I was raised trilingual by an English father and a German mother. And even though 3 languages is quite a handful for a young child, my parents encouraged me and my siblings to consume media in other languages. When I was in middle school my dad installed Korean television networks so I could watch Korean TV, and every night before bed we would watch some anime. This grew into watching Chinese dramas and Filipino romcoms as I got older. Language barriers never stopped me from watching what I wanted.

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