Language, with its power to shape perceptions and to create connections, is what makes us who we are. This fact has ignited my passion for linguistics, a flame that has only grown brighter since my early days in this department, as an undergraduate student. My aim is to ignite such passion in my students. Although I am interested in anything related to language, my specific research interests include applied linguistics, linguistic (im)politeness; (intercultural) pragmatics, and (critical) discourse studies. My research has appeared in books and edited volumes published by Routledge; Springer; and Dijlah University Publishing, as well as in scholarly journals such as Discourse & Society; Journal of Pragmatics; Journal of Politeness Research; Internet Pragmatics; Discourse, Context & Media; Language, Aggression & Conflict; Lingua; Multicultural Discourse; and Language, Discourse & Society. Additionally, I was a co-guest editor for a special issue on ‘Language as a Reflection of Social Practices and Values’, which appeared in the Journal of 'Language, Discourse & Society' in December 2023.