From my very first foreign language lesson at school, I loved language learning. Having a musical ear, I was fascinated by the different sounds and intonations, and the more analytical side of my nature enjoyed working out the mechanics of the different languages: the grammar, the syntax, the spelling. A language degree and a career in modern language teaching beckoned.

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After finishing at secondary school, I took a course in French with Subsidiary Italian at the University of Exeter, graduating with upper second class honours. The course included a year's placement as an English foreign language assistant at a school in Brest, France, and a month's study course at the Centro Linguistico Dante Alighieri in Rome. From Exeter, I went on to S. Martin's College in Lancaster, to study for my Postgraduate Certificate in Education.

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After a successful decade teaching French in a secondary school in Chelmsford, Essex, I decided my language skills would benefit from more of a challenge, so it was time to move on. That was when I hit on the idea of moving across into translation work. I enrolled on a translation course at City University, London, leading to the Chartered Institute of Linguists Diploma in Translation.

 

I haven't regretted my change of direction one little bit. I love the work, I relish the opportunity to put my languages to good use, and what I achieve by the end of the day is down to me alone, unaffected by all the other factors that can undermine an otherwise successful day's teaching. I've worked with a range of agencies, individuals and companies based in the UK, France and elsewhere, and the range of subjects that come along can be quite astonishing. Within weeks of launching myself as a professional translator, I had already translated a user manual for a machine that produced ladders, and an academic paper on the effects of paracetamol on pigs.

Outside translation, I'm also a part-time Lay Clerk at Chelmsford Cathedral, a professional church organist, a keen singer with a number of amateur groups, and I enjoy training hard at a local gym.

You can read about me in my CV here, or take a look at my profiles on: 

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• CIoL (Find-a-Linguist)

• Translatorscafe.com 

• Proz.com