Subjects

While I am happy to discuss offers of work from any area, I have a particular interest in the following subjects:

Language & Linguistics

This is one of my specialist fields. My MA in Applied Linguistics involved studying a variety of issues about language and language use:

- Language & Linguistics
- Language in Culture & Society
- Language in Human Psychology
- Discourse & Communication Analysis
- Applied Linguistics & Language Teaching

I have a good knowledge of phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax; I speak French, German, and basic Italian; and I have degree level Latin.

Law

My interest in law arose during my postgraduate studies. I wrote a paper on legal discourse in the courtroom, and my research took me from reading books and articles on the subject, to sitting in a courtroom for three days annotating cross-examination sequences for analysis. My knowledge in this area, gained from researching and writing this paper, is complemented by my experience in translating legal contracts.

Travel

I have a keen interest in travel and foreign cultures.

I spent a month backpacking in Europe, visiting Italy, Croatia, Budapest, Czech Republic, Poland, Germany and The Netherlands. It was a very rewarding experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed taking in the sights, discovering local history, sampling the cuisine and meeting people.

Other travels have taken me to Switzerland, Spain, Morocco and, most frequently, France.

I spent a year in Montpellier, France as a student, and worked in a moules restaurant for the summer. Throughout the year, I took advantage of my location and travelled to places along the Côte d'Azur, including Nice, Cannes, Antibes and Monaco.

In 2001/2002, I lived in Carcassonne, France, where I worked as a teaching assistant in two secondary schools. I now make frequent trips back there to visit friends.

Education

Having worked as an English teacher, I have a strong interest in education and pedagogy. I have taught English in France, Italy and the UK. I also completed a module in linguistics and language teaching for my MA, which looked at teaching and assessment methods.

Fiction

My interest in fiction is varied: I especially enjoy detective novels, by Ruth Rendell and, of course, Agatha Christie; World War II fiction, for example, Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut and Joanne Harris' Five Quarters of the Orange; French literature; and children's books, especially those by Lewis Carroll, Beatrix Potter and C.S. Lewis.

My love of children's literature has been usefully employed in my work. When teaching English, I often used book extracts as reading comprehensions and class discussions, with particular emphasis on the popular Harry Potter series. I also analysed Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky poem, and its French and German translations, for my MA dissertation.

I read a variety of French plays and novels during my BA degree, and continue to enjoy reading works by Albert Camus, Guy de Maupassant and Anais Nin, in their original versions and in translation.

I started reading WWII novels during my travels in Poland and Germany. Having visited the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau, I became interested in the fiction relating to the war and the occupation.

Detective novels provide a great deal of entertainment, as I enjoy the well-thought out plots, twists and intriguing characters.