I've been interested in languages all my life, born to a Dutch mother and a father born in Brazil. I grew up fascinated by travel and have spent much of my adult life working in the travel business, leading tours globally and interpreting and translating when necessary. My degree was in politics and I worked in journalism before training as an English language teacher and teaching English in Latin America, and later working in travel. I am native English but bilingual in Spanish, and lived in Cuba until a month ago with my Spanish-speaking husband and bilingual 3-year-old. For over 20 years I have been translating from Spanish and Portuguese into English in various work roles. Most recently, I have been in-house translator for CubaPlus magazine, produced in Cuba for the North American market with a readership of 200,000.