Shared Interests
There is not much people who have a degree in English literature that arenât teacher. I feel lucky to have a family where literature and arts are an important part of our education. My aunt studied English literature at the University of Montreal many years ago. I knew that, but I never really asked her what she was doing for a living. When I got this assignment, I figured it would be a great opportunity to bond a little bit more with my godmother and learn new things about her job and her life. I learned that she also did a degree in education, so that she could teach. She used to be an English teacher at the Ăcole National de cirque in MontrĂ©al, QuĂ©bec for a few years. She used to be a school tutor for the teenagers participating in a kidsâs talent show based in MontrĂ©al called Mixmania. As of now, my aunt mostly works as a translator and corrector for well known magazines such as National Geographic and Nature. She is a freelancer, which means she decides on the contracts she wants to work on and has a saying on the time she has to do to complete them. Her work gave her the chance to travel to a lot of places in the world, but mostly in the United States and in France. She says she doesnât miss being a teacher, although she did love it, but she prefers her job as a freelance translator, because she gets to work on various subjects and learn new things every time, rather than always teaching the same subject. She is also someone who prefers to work alone, so having her own office at home works best for her, instead of travelling to the same office every day. I thought it was really interesting to learn more about my auntâs life and career, and it gave us the chance to realize that we have more in common than what we thought. I found out a new kind of career that I could do after the end of my education and discovered that there is more to do with an English degree than just teaching or journalism. I really liked that moment I got to share with her and enjoyed that I got to know her better, as well as talking about our mutual passion for writing. It was a great experience to have.















