When I was 11, my French teacher told me I had a “gift for languages”, and sure enough I ended up leaving school with three language A-levels.
Inspired by my ab-initio Spanish teacher’s time in Paraguay and her infectious love for Latin American history and culture, in 2000 I set off for a six-month voluntary placement in Mexico.
After an undergraduate degree in French and Spanish, with time spent living in Lille and Bilbao, I struggled to choose between pursuing a career in education, the charity sector or translation.
After a year working for a national charity, the MA in Applied Translation won and I found myself on an internship at the United Nations in Vienna, giving me an insight into how international organisations operate.
Next came three years as an in-house project manager and then over a decade working as a freelance French and Spanish to English translator for agencies and direct clients.