I completed a 40 week full time intensive Translator/Interpreter course (Indonesian) at the Royal Australian Air Force School of Languages, Point Cook Australia in 1983, which included a hands on trip to Butterworth Air Base near Penang, Malaysia for more culture awareness training and exposure to the Malay language.

The lexicon was about 10,000 words i.e. 50 new words to be memorised each working day, and a translation speed of 250 words per hour, Indonesian to English and English to Indonesian.

After graduation I worked as an Indonesian Linguist in the Royal Australian Air Force. I completed a further 2 week Refresher/Re-Qualifier course at the same school in February 1986.

I lived and worked in Indonesia (Bali, Jakarta, Padang, Palembang, Banjarmasin) from 1991~1993. In addition, I was selected as an Interpreter/Translator by the University of Indonesia (Universitas Indonesia) after a series of practical tests for the 10th Non-Aligned Movement Summit Conference in Jakarta, 1992 but was unable to attend due to work/travel commitments. I was considered at Native Speaker proficiency level by the University staff.

I did however translate the 50 page Security Procedures Manual for the Conference for the Indonesian Army Intelligence Service (ABRI/BAIS) from Indonesian to English well before the conference for the Delegates.

Taught Indonesian at the Western Australian Institute of Applied Linguistics and also at AIC High School in Perth, Western Australia.

Since then my most recent work in Indonesian was an Undergraduate Degree at Griffith University (Brisbane, Australia) started via distance education in 2006 with an Indonesian Language component at an associated University - Charles Darwin University, Darwin Australia) where every submitted translation and recorded speech assignment received a High Distinction grade, with the highest mark being 97%, lowest was 90%.

I have also completed Mandarin Chinese language training at Soochow University, Suzhou China. Currently living & teaching English as a Second Language in Suzhou, China since early 2003.