I have pursued two parallel interests in my professional life, allowing me to use and share the Arabic language that I love. One has been translating and editing Arabic texts into English for publication (and often proof-reading the original Arabic). I began translating documents for a UNDP development project on Higher Education in the Arab World and for Amnesty International UK (voluntarily) which led me to pursue a masters degree in Development Studies. I have since gained eight years’ experience as translator, editor and quality assurance co-ordinator for Turath Publishing, working on a range of non-fiction, including history, biography, theology and political commentary as well as poetry.The second love of my professional life to date has been teaching. Having trained and worked as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language as a student, I discovered my passion for communicative language teaching and recognised the potential for applying this to teaching Arabic. I became very involved in my local supplementary school, Al Bayyinah, as teacher and then Head of Arabic Language. Here I strived to tailor course content to the needs of the local community, including authoring a series of innnovative Arabic language text books and digital resources. I went on to hone my pedagogic skills and eye for detail as IGCSE exam moderator for both Cambridge Assessment and Pearson.