Karen was born and raised in Newcastle, in the North of England, before moving to Edinburgh to study, and where she spent many years thereafter. She gained an MA (Hons) in TESOL from Heriot Watt University. Karen first fell in love with Barcelona in the winter of 1984 and returned many times before finally settling in the city in 2005. She has taught in various locations including Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and more recently, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq where she spent 3 years teaching Academic and General English in private schools and universities. She is a certified speaking examiner for Cambridge and IELTS and particularly loves working on her students’ pronunciation – despite her Geordie accent. In her free time she enjoys travel, the cinema, opera, reading, walking the streets of Barcelona and meeting friends for good chat over dinner.
Karen Stigant
