About me

As a child, I was lucky enough to grow up in a melting pot of people from many different countries and, believe it or not, that place was, and still is, the Costa del Sol.

It never seemed strange to me that my neighbour Katrina was Finnish, or that one of my best friends was from Munich.

From the age of three I learnt German, the language of my school, the German School in Marbella.

I loved being there, even though some years it took me over an hour each way on the bus (it wasn't that bad: once I started getting homework I did it on the journey, and then I could devote myself to tennis, another of my passions).

When I was 11, one of my dreams came true: I made my first trip outside Spain.

My grandmother, a true gem and ahead of her time, decided we should visit my aunt, her daughter, who lived in Freiburg. 

She didn't speak German, so she invited me to come along and act as her “translator”.

On the way there I proudly translated everything we needed, and we made it to my aunt's house without a hitch.
We spent a wonderful few days with the family, and I got to stuff myself with apfelstrudel.

But on the way back we went through French-speaking Switzerland, where people spoke a very strange language that sounded forced to me and that I couldn't understand. 

That made a big impression on me.

When we got to the airport, there was some kind of problem.

I don't know if it was the tickets or if the man just wanted to tell us what he'd had for breakfast. All I know is that I was really frustrated at not understanding a thing.

I thought we were lost and would never get back to Spain.

But my grandmother, who as I said was worth her weight in gold, started speaking French without batting an eyelid, and she was someone who blinked constantly.

I was speechless, gazing in admiration at “Bubu” (as I always affectionately called her), who was going to get us out of that land of barbarians and take us safely home.

On the way home she told me that as a girl she had gone to a French boarding school in Cestona, and she clearly got by very well.

The truth is, I felt useless, lost in a language that made no sense to me.

So much so that as soon as I got home, I stubbornly insisted that my parents sign me up for French lessons, so I would never feel that helpless in another country again.

Thanks to this passion for languages and curiosity about other cultures, I have been able to travel and communicate without borders all over the world.

I studied International Business at ICADE (Madrid) and ESB Business School (Reutlingen).
It was an incredible experience that shaped my next direction after working at KPMG, where I felt far removed from what my heart was telling me.

So, as soon as I could, I went on to take my second degree, in Translation and Interpreting, at the University of Granada.

That set me on the path to the company I founded almost two decades ago.

But not before a spell at Peking University, where I enjoyed total immersion in Chinese culture.

My passion for kung fu was so great (I had been practising seriously for several years) that the ICO offered me a scholarship to study at the best “uni” in China.
Afterwards I stayed on for another year, until the frenzy of Chinese society got the better of me (a phenomenon expats know as “Beijing burnout”) and I returned to Spain.

That is where what is now Learndix Language Experts began.

I work with more than two hundred language professionals: translators, interpreters, coaches, teachers and au pairs, with leading experts in every sector.
We have offices in Madrid, Málaga and Frankfurt, and we solve language challenges for the whole world.