Julian Preece

I began learning French at primary school at the age of seven as the UK prepared to join the European Economic Community (now called the EU). I started German when I was 12 and developed my fascination with both languages through school exchanges with Hamburg and family holidays in Normandy. In my teaching of German language and European literature and cinema at Swansea I try to convey my enthusiasms for communication and for finding out about how people have lived and thought in Germany and neighbouring European countries through the tumultuous and often painful period of the twentieth century. I am a traditionalist in my approach, believing that there is no substitute for close reading and philological study, but also (I hope) innovative in my willingness to embrace new ideas and to explore unusual material.