Personal Statement
A conscientious and thoughtful recent graduate with a keen interest in languages, a great passion for the English language, and a desire to encourage others to take and maintain an interest in the English language.

Education
University of Manchester, September 2013- July 2017
BA (Hons), East Asian Studies, Modules include:
Japanese Language, Japanese Literature, Japanese History and Religion, Beginner’s Chinese and Beginner’s Spanish, as well as a year-long study abroad period:

Meiji University, September 2015- July 2016, Including:
Intermediate classes in the Global School of Japanese Studies Department in the Japanese language.

Achievements
- Spending a year abroad as an exchange student at Meiji University in Tokyo, and thus learning how to:

- navigate a very different culture

- put the Japanese language skills accrued over the prior two years to use while living in a primarily Japanese speaking environment

- communicate with others despite a language barrier when my Japanese ability was not sufficient

- live in a country so far away from the support network of family and friends at home.

- As part of the exchange year, mixing with a diverse range people of various different nationalities, and learning how best to communicate in English with people who sometimes struggled with the language.

- Spending a lot of time studying another language, gaining a greater insight into how the English language itself works, and deepening my understanding of it.

- Being in language classes, enjoying the environment, seeing the pleasure that can be taken in imparting the knowledge of one’s mother tongue to others, and developing an interest in doing this professionally.

- Working in groups or pairs for certain works, cementing team-working abilities in an academic environment.

Royal Belfast Academical Institution, September 2002- June 2009
A-Levels, 2007-2009
English Literature, Latin and History
10 GCSEs, 2005-2007, including:
English A
English Literature A*
French A*
Latin A

Work Experience
Crew Member November 2009- August 2015
Food service chain, Rushmere Craigavon

Achievements:
- Learning to deal with a wide range of people of all ages.
- Growing accustomed to working in a high pressure, busy environment where a cool head and ability to cope with the stress of the environment is essential.
- Developing an affable customer-facing persona, learning how to offer friendly, helpful service to people of various needs and thus helping to ensure customer loyalty.
- Dealing regularly with foreign customers, and learning how to find ways of communicating effectively with people who often had a low level of English.
- Developing good time-management skills.
- Developing a decent, professional rapport with co-workers, learning how to work well and appropriately with colleagues, especially in times of pressure.

Personal Interests
Deeply interested in languages, having studied at various points in my life: Japanese, French, Spanish, Latin, Classical Greek and Mandarin Chinese, gaining from these studies a good insight into language learning.
Writing, usually fiction and prose. I enjoy being able to play with language and to use it in as wide and creative a way as possible, to allow myself to revel in the English language.