For the last 30 years, we have been lucky enough to be able to combine our interest in culture, travelling and languages by living and working in 6 different countries. My working life has included teaching language and literature, curriculum development and teacher training. I have spent 10 years in secondary schools, three years at a government language teaching institute, one year as a trainer and tester and the last 13 years in universities. 

Since 1995, I have worked at the Department of International Studies, University of Kochi, where I am a Professor specializing in language teaching, curriculum development and intercultural communication. 

Before coming to Japan, we spent more than eleven years in Qatar between 1984 and 1995. The last five years in Qatar were spent teaching English in the English Department at Qatar University and researching in local secondary schools for my PhD in curriculum studies. I coordinated an intensive one-year language course for new entrants to the English B Ed Programme and taught writing courses, phonology, advanced linguistic grammar, the history of English and academic study skills. Before that I worked for the Ministry of Education firstly in secondary schools as a teacher, then at the Language Teaching Institute, where I became head of the English Department. After finishing my MA in TEFL at CALS, Reading, I moved to a Ministry of Education post as Testing and Training Coordinator at the English Inspectorate where I spent an interesting year before taking up an offer to teach at the University.

When we were younger, we spent less time in each country. Two years doesn't seem like much now, but when you are 28 it seems like quite a long stay. There is a brief summary below.

1981 - 1983  Ethiopia.  Head of English and French, Sandford English School

There were students of 40 different nationalities at this school in Addis Ababa. During these two years, I decided to qualify in TEFL and stay overseas. I started the Trinity College Licentiate Diploma in TEFL, which qualified me to go to Qatar with British Council backing.

1979 - 1981  Germany  Teacher of English as a Foreign Language with the Centre for British Teachers at a German Gymnasium, in Herdecke.

The aim was partly to improve my German to have a second language to teach on my return to England. Instead, it led me into EFL and a life overseas.

1976-1979   England  Teacher of French, Language and Literature Harvey Grammar School, Folkestone.

1973 -1974 France English Assistant in Dieppe.

Teaching Conversational English at Lycée Jehan Ango, Dieppe, as the compulsory year overseas for BA language undergraduates.

University Experience in England. University of Reading Summers of 1990 & 1991
Intensive three-week summer courses for foreign undergraduate students or recent graduates in English language and culture, including some options in literature (Jane Austen and J.B. Priestley).