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Get in touch!
I'm Raymond
After more than a quarter-century in the sector...
🎓 I come highly qualified
🔭 I like to look deeply into the issue
🎙️ I believe in clear communication
💡I always come up with innovative and practical ideas
👌I never end a task without having made sure it's ready
🎨I believe in setting the right tone, whether in business, training, editing, or translating
Feel free to give me a try!
So how did I get into this? 👇
A SHORT HISTORY:
I was born with hip dysplasia and spent my first years at home. My mother encouraged me to read, and before I had even ditched the nappies, I was looking at newspapers and the World Atlas that sat on our coffee table.
That led to my interest in geography, which fostered my love of languages, and that in turn bore out my wish to work in an international environment.
I took French and Russian at bachelor level with Czech and European History as minors, and at the beginning of the 21st century, I departed for Belgium, where I found myself giving language advice to senior EU officials. I also held a vast number of courses for European civil servants and private sector employees in the Brussels area.
Later on, I moved to Luxembourg to continue my work in the same sectors, and after 2 decades, it became possible to carry out my work remotely.
After 2 years in Valencia I moved to a farmhouse in the Republic of Ireland, where I spend my time writing books, articles and scripts, and editing, proofreading or translating.
Language & culture
Learning a language is not just picking up a few words to use on a Friday night in a foreign restaurant. Nor is it simply a means to be understood at a trade fair.
It is so much more than that.
It is a portal into the soul of a nation. Understanding how the speakers view words and their connotations goes a long way to developing an affinity with the people.
It is also a means to discovering another side to yourself - speaking another language brings with it a new personality.
It allows you to grasp cultural and historical contexts, and embrace the mindset of the speakers.
A language is not just a means to an end: it's the electricity running through the population. Take it away and it doesn't work any more.
If you need some linguistic advice in whatever field, feel free to
"Raymond doesn't hold back - he'll tell you straight what needs to be done and then put a plan into operation to bring you to where you should be. Not a single moment is wasted in his consultation sessions!"
Lawyer-linguist at an EU institution (Luxembourg)
"I had an extremely tricky speech to give to my counterparts working on the same project in another country. He ran through the whole 45-minute speech, making constructive suggestions and asking if I really meant to say something that way. Then he prepared my delivery: tone, intonation, pacing, everything. Despite the sensitive topic, I was congratulated by several attendees for my handling of the affair, and I wouldn't have been able to do it quite as well without him. Raymond's know-how and insight make the task at hand easier to perceive."
Vice-President of an international organisation (Paris)
Words
Over the years, I have accumulated a fair bit of knowledge, but my number one specialist subject is etymology. Origins of words, no matter what language, fascinate me in ways that are hard to describe.
I believe in the power of words - their meanings, their connotations, their consequences - they allow the reader or the listener to gain much more information about the writer or speaker.
Just from the way we tell a story or describe an experience, we can come across as optimistic, or frustrated, or confused, or delighted, or frightened, or proud. We can entertain, motivate, disgust, inspire, shock, or summon up nostalgic feelings in our audience.
My mission is to make sure I hit the perfect pitch. I do this on a daily basis with a high level of satisfaction.
"I've come to Raymond for numerous reasons over the last decade or so, and he always delivers the goods. He's never satisfied with plain adequate, he'll go over scripts several times, fact checking or perfecting the text before he hands it over."
Owner of a media enterprise specialising in cultural documentaries (Amsterdam)
High-end coaching
The learning curve gets flatter at the top, and although there are no more new tenses to learn and all the necessary vocabulary is acquired, there is still some distance to go to reach perfection.
This could be honing an accent, accumulating more synonyms, learning to read between the lines, practising writing more naturally, learning regional differences, understanding someone speaking at high speed, and many other elements.
My job is to bring you to the highest level you can reach, and enable you to function effortlessly in your professional environment.
"I thought I knew everything about the English language. Nope. In fact, I would even say I came into the sessions with very low expectations. After the first session, I realised how much of the iceberg I still had to explore!"
Interpreter, body of the European Union (Brussels)
"Thoroughly informative, in an entertaining and easy-to-digest style. By the end of the course, I had a renewed passion for language and a better understanding of etymology."
Head of Public Relations, Diplomatic Corps (Prague)
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