Facilitator.
Teacher.
&
free range Learner.
Always.

Welcome! I'm Sumbella. 

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You've found my personal website, where I document and pool my creative and professional content, writing and research.

 

I take great pleasure in my work, the majority of which keeps me happily involved with teacher training initiatives across the Middle East & North Africa. Until recently I've been known in this capacity as a Professional Learning & Development Specialist for Schools, and I've been working with Cambridge University Press & Assessment, based out of Dubai. Change is afoot, however, and I am currently making somewhat of a career shift, having recently resigned. You can read more about that here.

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I am also known to my students as the teacher of Chinese who won't let them write in pinyin. In this role, I teach ab initio Mandarin Chinese to teens and adults on a private basis. I also provide training for global & non-native teachers of Mandarin Chinese. I have lots of thoughts about learning Mandarin and have written lots about this on The 'Teaching Mandarin Made Easy-er' series, over on Substack. 

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I'm an alum of the University of Oxford, SOAS, University of London & Beijing Normal University, where I did my degrees in Comparative & International Education & Mandarin Chinese (Modern & Traditional) respectively.
 

I have mixed heritage: my mum is English, and my dad is Pashtun, from Pakistan. I grew up in London but moved internationally, first to China, after my A Levels. I often write about culture, heritage and identity, among other topics like teaching, facilitation, wellbeing - and now Palestine, too - over on LinkedIn. You're welcome to connect and join in there: