I studied German Philology and Music at Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, and - after the fall of the Berlin Wall - continued my studies at Humboldt University and Freie Universität Berlin. I came to the UK as a Teaching Assistant at Bury Grammar School in North Manchester before I completed my MA (Distinction) in Recent Trends in German Literature at Nottingham University. After a year of teaching in secondary school I worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Nottingham University whilst pursuing my interest in the author Uwe Saeger (MPhil). In 1998 I moved to Manchester and worked as Lektor at University of Manchester Institute for Science and Technology (UMIST), developing a keen interest in translation and translation studies (Diploma in Translation Studies and MSc with Distinction). I started my work as subject leader for German at the Language Centre at Warwick University in 2003 and have since been teaching on a variety of specialist, for example German for Historians, and non-specialist courses in the centre. Over the past few years I have been involved in setting up on-line collaboration projects for my students with the Medienhochschule Stuttgart and the University of Potsdam (Germany). I am currently external examiner at Sheffield University and UNILANG examiner for the UNLANG certification scheme.