Versatile, highly talented, multilingual native English speaker (American) with superior linguistic, observational, research, deduction and analysis skills.
I speak, read and write Japanese fluently. Read and write both Mandarin and Cantonese to a high intermediate level but my speaking skills still need a substantial bit of additional work to reach the same level as my ability in Japanese.
Excellent working knowledge of Russian, Spanish, German along with some Arabic, Turkish, Farsi and Hebrew.
Basic functionality in a wide variety of other languages, including most European languages, several Slavic languages and a few others.

Extremely well-read, fairly well-traveled and fortunate enough to have received an excellent and comprehensive education.

My previous language learning, language teaching and practical language use experience is substantial, lengthy, broad and relatively diverse. I have taught English in Japan (Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, Osaka), in Belgium (Brussels) and several places in the U.S. (primarily Seattle, Washington D.C., and Baltimore) over the last twenty eight years. I have also taught various levels of Japanese, from absolute beginner to the upper intermediate level, over the last twenty three years or so. Previous school, work, travel and / or private (self-funded) relevant experience includes: Japan, England, Belgium, Iceland, the Netherlands, and both coasts of Canada along with nearly every state in the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii.

In 2000 I was employed as a courier, aide and security consultant for a wealthy private individual in Belgium.

Most recently (2003-2005) I taught ESL / TESOL to some of the top student athletes in the country at Loyola College in Baltimore, MD U.S.A. From 2005 to 2007 I taught Japanese and after a relatively brief stint in security-related work I have returned to teaching Japanese once again.

In addition to all of the above, I know quite a few basic words, various phrases and useful expressions in, quite literally, dozens of common and uncommon languages which is a great help when it comes to things like answering KudoZ questions, travelling around the world and aiding the hopelessly lost (wherever they may be).

If I were to describe my overall language abilities I would simply say that I can correctly identify more languages than I can read and I can read more languages than I can speak. Despite this apparent limitation I still have a solid working knowledge of five or six major world languages. Whatever I may happen to occasionally lack in linguistic "depth" I frequently make up for with a certain amount of interdisciplinary "breadth" along with a very substantial amount of useful, practical, relevant, real-world experience in a wide variety of interesting fields. If you think that I can help you in any way (linguistically or otherwise) please feel free to contact me through my page on ProZ. Will Matter.