Thirty Years On.................

After leaving Lancaster, Mark had always lived and worked in Italy, firstly in Bologna and then in Ferrara, where he spent half of his year abroad as part of the course at Lancaster.  He recently gained a Master’s Degree in Modern Languages from the G. Marconi University in Rome, Italy, the result of a two-year distance learning course specialising in two foreign languages, linguistics and language theory and international relations. This new degree comes almost thirty years after his Lancaster graduation. For his languages he chose German, for which he had already gained a solid grounding at Lancaster, and English. Choosing English as a foreign language was a far from ‘easy option’, as it did involve a lot of translating from English into Italian plus he had to take up studying English literature for the first time since taking his O level at secondary school! He did in fact complete my final dissertation in contemporary English literature, written in English, although almost all the other learning modules and exams were, of course, in Italian. He's not considering any major career moves, and will continue to work in international commerce, although he will also continue with the occasional freelance translating and English teaching. He would like to get into teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) which is fast becoming an important branch of study for foreign students in a global academic context. He's been married to wife Gloria for 26 years and they have one daughter, Emily, who is a Psychology undergraduate at the University of Padua.