Background

I graduated from the University in Edinburgh in 1991 with a B.Sc. (1st class honours) in environmental chemistry. Immediately after graduating I decided to work overseas and did two back-to-back one-year contracts with the JET Programme, assisting Japanese teachers to teach English at High School level. I took up residence in Kobe in August 1991. Following this, I made contact with the Kobe City Board of Education and worked for them in a variety of roles from 1994 until 1998. I was in Kobe when a major earthquake struck in 1995, and I was able to witness at first hand not only the instant destruction of large parts of a major city but also the way in which the authorities and indeed my own Japanese colleagues and friends coped with it. This tragic event further strengthened the affection I already felt for Japan in general, and Kobe in particular. At any rate I kept up my contacts, and, more importantly, my Japanese language skills, when I returned to the UK in 1998.

Having translated in-house and worked on a number of technical and commercial projects for a Japanese chemical company in London for 6 years and for a printer consumables manufacturer in the Midlands for a further 18 months, I turned freelance in December 2005, as it had become more and more apparent to me that I was most interested in both Japan and the Japanese language as a career. Since turning freelance, I have translated around 7 million words, mostly in the field of Japanese chemical patents but also materials relating to food chemistry, automotive chemistry, cosmetics, energy and the environment.

Qualifications and Memberships

1. •Fully qualified member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (MITI)
   

2. •B.Sc. (1st class honours) in Environmental Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh in 1991
   

3. •Ames Chemistry Prize from the University of Edinburgh in 1991
   

4. •Level 1 of Japanese Language Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験) in 1997
   

5. •Level 3 of the Kanji Aptitude Test (漢字検定) in 1997