A Bermudian woman fluent in three languages has found a way to use her international talents without leaving the comfort of her living room -- by setting up a company where she translates in cyberspace.

Thirty-two-year-old Julie Matthews, who is fluent in English, French and Spanish, has been living in France for the past eight years working as a teacher and an interpreter.

The former Berkeleyite set up a company last year called Global Translation Services, of which she is the sole employee.

Through this company, Ms Matthews translates French webpages into English, but also handles a number of "linguistic services'' including teaching English to business executives, voiceover work in promotional films and commercials, conference interpretation, banking surveys, resume translation and writing press releases.

Ms Matthews' skill with languages and training as an interpreter -- she studied at both Institut Superieur d'Interpretation et de Traduction in France, and Interpretes y Traductores de Salamanca in Spain -- has helped her carve a niche in an exciting and flexible career.

"If you want to be a decent translator, with the Internet anything is possible. The advent of the Internet changes the parameters -- I work in cyberspace now,'' she said.

"There are days I don't work at all, but there are days when I work around the clock -- it's certainly not an office, 9 to 5 type of job.

"What I really like about translating websites is that it's so diverse and I learn so much from every translation I do -- from aviation lubricants to cosmetics to lollipops,'' she added.

There are days when Ms Matthews thinks and speaks French, but dreams in English -- and vice versa.

However, becoming so linguistically fluent is not without its fair share of hard work.

Ms Matthews' love affair with language started when she began studying Spanish as a student at the Berkeley Institute.

She attended Dalhousie University in 1984 and studied French and German. In 1985, the department sent her to Spain to study abroad for three months.

In 1990, Ms Matthews did her Master's degree in Spanish at the Sorbonne before attending translating school.

Ms Matthews explained that there are several different interpreting techniques that she learned while studying at the interpreting schools.

Simultaneous interpretation, which is a highly specialised style, has only a short `stagger' and is usually used at large conferences and at the United Nations.

"With simultaneous interpreting, you can only work half-hour stints because it requires such concentration -- it's really exhausting,'' she noted.

"But small clients usually prefer consecutive interpretation where no equipment is necessary.

"The interpreter takes notes for ten minutes without interrupting and then gives back the entire speech.

"The advantage with consecutive interpreting is that you know the end of the speech before you start, and it gives you an extra few seconds to be creative.

"To be an interpreter or a translator, you don't have to specialise in a particular subject, but you should have broad general knowledge and follow new and current event,'' she said.

"I've studied languages all my life, so I'm not a physicist or an economist -- but you do have to translate these things.

"It's not just about translating word for word -- it's about understanding it as well.'' Becoming fully adept in more than one language is not without its fair share of difficulties, however.

One of the most difficult problems Ms Matthews encounters as a translator is separating the languages to avoid "linguistic contamination''.

Words which look similar to words in another language but have completely different meanings are called "faux amis'', or "false friends''.

Ms Matthews gave as an example the French word "volatile'', which -- unlike the English meaning of the word -- translates into "vanishing''.

And she said: "Achieving bilingualism is not just about speaking two languages, it's about being bicultural -- for example, understanding humour is extremely difficult if you have no cultural references.'' Ms Matthews said translating French websites into English can be quite a lucrative business, especially since France is lagging somewhat in terms of e-commerce.

She explained that a French version of the Internet called "Minitel'' was devised about 15 years ago, and is only used nationally.

"So if a French company wanted a website or to advertise, it has to be in English -- English is the language of business,'' she noted.

"And I love Paris...I wouldn't trade this experience for the world,'' she said.