Proofreading and languages

When I learned French and Spanish at school, I expected to use them on holiday mainly, certainly not as part of my work one day. Yet in my proofreading, copy-editing and copywriting, I have been surprised just how useful my learning in these languages is.

First, there are the times I'll use the languages directly - for example, spotting a typo in a French cookery term in this week's Dummies book, or noticing a missing accent on a top bridalwear designer's name in Bridal Buyer.

Then there are the times that my French and Spanish will help me see the root of a word in Latin, and find synonyms quickly without picking up a book.

But finally, I think it's the discipline and process of learning languages that helps me most to proofread, edit and write well. My English education was actually rather lacking at school, and I have my foreign languages teachers to thank for my grounding in grammar, spelling and punctuation - in order to learn a new language, it helps greatly to know how your own works down to the nuts and bolts.

One of these days I will find the time to improve my French and Spanish, and perhaps move on to Italian. German would also come in very handy, I'm sure. It's not just the English language I'm passionate about, but language in general, and I'm pleased to see when I work on QCA material that more and more languages are starting to come onto the national curriculum. As my five-year-old niece would say, Muy bien.