Jacob - Cardiff tutor





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Information About Jacob:


Personal Description:

I am a PhD candidate at Cardiff University, where I research contemporary forms of subtitling. I have a Master's Degree in Translation Studies - for which I received a high Distinction and Best Postgraduate Dissertation - and a Bachelor's Degree in French and Spanish - for which I was awarded First-class Honours and an Excellence Scholarship. I have also been awarded a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in recognition of my teaching contributions at Cardiff University, where I have taught undergraduate French and Spanish language, history, and culture for four years.

I have lived in both Toulouse, France and Barcelona, Spain, where I was able to immerse myself fully in French, Spanish, and Catalan language and culture respectively. My passion for languages has very much informed my choice of career so far, both academic and professional.

I know from first-hand experience that learning a language has the most profound impact, giving the learner an insight and a pathway into entirely new cultures, perspectives, and ways of life. This is an experience that I have been fortunate to have for myself, and therefore wish to help others to discover for themselves.

Aside from work, I am a keen athlete and photographer. I spend most of my free time swimming, doing sport, or adventuring with my film camera in hand.



Teaching Experience:

I have amassed a broad range of teaching and coaching experiences in recent years. These include, most recently, preparing and delivering seminars on Spanish and French language, translation, and culture to undergraduate students at Cardiff University. This has entailed gauging and adapting to the varied abilities of an entire cohort, producing learning materials that will guide and challenge different students appropriately, and providing bespoke, individual feedback to ensure each student's personal development. I am currently performing this teaching role face-to-face, but had until recently done so online due to the pandemic. As such, I feel comfortable engaging with my students in either setting.

I am also employed as a mentor and tutor for students enrolled in an online translation course on the Futurelearn platform. This course attracts thousands of students from around the world, and so gives me the opportunity to teach and to facilitate discussions between individuals with a fascinating range of perspectives, experiences, and abilities. Again, this role requires me to find a balance between delivering a general syllabus at the right pace so that every student is challenged and fulfilled, and, simultaneously, taking the time to adapt and engage with people on a personal, one-to-one basis. Building on this, I have also tutored talented young research students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds through the internationally acclaimed Lumiere Scholarship Programme.

I am a Fellow of Advance HE (formally the Higher Education Academy), a not-for-profit organisation which trains and awards educators in contemporary teaching methods and theories, and which is universally reputed across the higher education sector. The portfolios that I have produced and the training that I have completed for these awards has honed my investment in centring EDI in my teaching practices; my primary focal points have been accessibility, student transitions, and digital literacy.

Thanks to my love of sports from a young age, I have over a decade of coaching experience, ranging from football and rugby to ultimate frisbee. While not directly related to academic learning, I have always found a valuable crossover in the dynamic between player and coach and that between student and teacher. Both involve accepting (and, I believe, finding the joy in) the responsibility you have for guiding and shaping someone else's growth. This is an aspect of teaching and coaching that I have always found hugely fulfilling and rewarding.

In my time at university, I have occupied a number of wellbeing- and support-related roles. I believe that a focus on mental and physical health is essential in any educational setting.



Tutoring Approach:

As I have alluded to, I believe in the value of engaging with students on an individual level. By adapting different teaching methods and elements of the relevant content according to the learning style and existing knowledge of the student in question, you can always find the best approach to the subject matter for them personally. In my experience, this leads to a fairly free and engaging learning environment, while also maintaining a necessary level of proximity to the syllabus.

Most importantly, though, this approach means that the student is more likely to genuinely enjoy their learning. In education as in any area of life, the best results come when you love what you do.



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Qualifications:

  • PhD candidate in Languages and Translation Studies, second year
  • MA in Translation Studies, with Distinction
  • BA in French and Spanish, with First-class Honours
  • Fellow of Advance HE (Higher Education Academy)

Further Information:

Availability:  Weekdays (all times)
Types of Tutoring:   Online
References Supplied?   Yes
Current DBS/CRB Check?   Yes
Additional Languages Spoken:   English, Catalan, Spanish, French