I have  always worked in two languages - English and French. English is my first language, but I grew up in Montreal, Canada; which is a French city, so I’m part of a linguistic minority. My French is very good, but my accent is terrible(!) because when I was very young, my teachers were all English-speaking, even the teachers who taught me French.

After a long career in corporate communications -my job was very often helping French-speakers communicate in English -, I went back to school and became an ESL Teacher, specialized in Business English. My corporate experience, my years working with a hearing disability, and my lifetime of working in his second language, have given me a special insight into the communication challenges that L2 speakers and their managers face in everyday conversation. That insight was the genesis for my TEDx Talk, From Accent to Asset: Integrating non-native English Speakers.

These days, I’m very interested in the state of the English language; how it’s evolving, how 2.2 billion English Second Language Speakers are forcing it to change, and where the future will take it.

When I’m not working, I’m out on one of my bicycles, hanging out with family and friends, or exploring the history of my native Montreal.