Simon Prentis was born in England in 1953. Initially accepted to study Chemistry at Oxford University, he graduated in 1978 with an MA in English Language and Literature before travelling to Japan to study Aikido. There he taught English and began studying Japanese while training for his black belt – gaining an RSA Diploma in TEFL along the way, and completing a course at Simul Academy, Japan’s premier interpreting school. After returning to the UK in 1986 he was recruited to present a Japanese-language satellite news service for NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster – but left after two years in front of the camera to set up his own bilingual production company, Simon Prentis Associates. Over the next 25 years he travelled the world working on more than 250 programmes for Japanese television, while continuing to work as a freelance translator and interpreter for a select clientele – about which you can discover more on his website: http://www.simonprentis.net