EDUCATION

I read Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at the University of Oxford and then gained my PGCE from the Institute of Education, University of London. I hold a CETELFA from International House London and I am also an official OET Preparation Provider.

I have worked successfully with people from dozens of countries and professional backgrounds.  Over the years, I have focussed on helping international scientists and researchers hone their skills in English writing and presentations. 

British-born and raised, I understand the challenges and rewards of working outside my native language and culture, thanks to 15 years of working in Tokyo, Japan. 

Since December 2019, I have been an official OET preparation provider, based in my native Essex, and offer online lessons to individual or small groups of healthcare professionals preparing for the test. 

WHY DO I WANT TO HELP YOU PREPARE FOR OET? 

First, my own family has been helped by dedicated doctors and nurses in London hospitals. Many of these HCPs began their careers in another country and made an incredible professional and personal journey to serve in the UK.

A few months into settling back home,  I discovered the inspiring and friendly preparation providers, test organisers and teacher trainers that make up the OET community. I believe it is a test that is grounded in the needs of practitioners and is always evolving as healthcare itself evolves.

Now healthcare systems around the world are changing in response to the challenges of the pandemic and the opportunities given by telemedicine. Strong communication skills matter more than ever. Candidates preparing for OET success will learn more than how to pass a challenging high-stakes English test.  They will become more efficient, empathetic and empowered clinicians. 

I would like to bring my skills and experience to support you in this endeavour.

INTERNATIONAL BEGINNINGS (London, UK)

My first school in Haringey, London where over 60 languages were spoken, gave me a taste for international experiences and an interest in teaching English as an additional language. Of all the countries in the world, I decided to explore Japan because I had learned judo as a child!

BUSINESS ENGLISH (KANAGAWA PREFECTURE, JAPAN)

I moved to Yokohama in 2003 and spent the next ten years working with Japanese professionals on their business communication skills. Japanese salarymen and women in increasingly globalised companies (Hitachi, Hilti, Nissan, Panasonic, NEC) needed my help. 

They had studied English, but it was now long ago, and their classroom memories had faded. I helped them bring the English from their schooldays into their professional life, into skills they used every day. 

Together, we practiced again and again. We rewrote emails, held practice phone conversations, rewrote reports, rehearsed negotiations and more. I found a niche in presentation training and was often requested to help clients prepare to speak to international audiences. 

ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (TOKYO, JAPAN)

From 2014-19, I was engaged as an adjunct lecturer at two national universities in Tokyo, TITECH and GRIPS. 

English for young people in white coats who didn’t like English....

Some of my happiest teaching hours in Japan were spent working with young adults at Tokyo Institute of Technology, one of the most prestigious and competitive universities in the country. 

Like my business clients, the undergraduates had studied English at school. However, English grammar and vocabulary had not been as interesting as maths, science and time in their laboratories. We sometimes needed to go back in time and review the basics. I gave them clear direction, encouragement and lots of supportive feedback. 

...and what made them want to succeed. 

As well as delivering TOEFL and IELTS preparation, I also designed my own curricula for intensive courses (Using technology to alleviate poverty, Humans and other animals, History of Science). 

My students stayed motivated to improve by having more than information about language and grammar. By giving them resources that were relevant and engaging to their interests, I helped them feel valued participants in the conversations in the classroom. 

Academic writing with inspiring policy researchers...

In my last two years in Tokyo, I taught small groups of post-graduate and PhD students at the Center for Professional Communication at GRIPS, Japan’s only post-graduate national university. I helped them to present and write up their academic research clearly and confidently. They were passionate about key issues for our world today - international relations, public health, development, security, biodiversity - and their commitment was inspiring. 

To be taken seriously in other researchers, intergovernmental bodies and their supervisors, they needed to meet exacting standards of writing. I delivered English for Academic Purposes (EAP) with a difference: students used smartphones and shared online writing spaces to learn from each other and get fast feedback. This innovation helped students to learn from their mistakes and write more logically and gracefully. 

They also had more fun along the way! 

...My students stood out in seminars 

I delivered two speaking classes: Pragmatic and Passionate Presentations and Discussion and Debate. In addition to teaching pronunciation, intonation and English for public speaking, students practiced key people skills, the so-called ‘soft skills’. 

In fact, they found the soft skills to be the hardest to learn and practise because both language and culture play a huge part. 

...by getting good at vital soft skills 

I helped students from a wide range of countries in Asia and Africa expand their repertoire of tools for communication.

These tools included building trust with the other person, listening actively and taking the lead with confidence. As a foreign woman living in Japan, speaking and interacting in my basic Japanese, I needed to develop these skills. I could empathise with my students and teach them what I had learned first hand about getting on with people from a very different culture.