About Me
My two main passions are languages and culture. From a very early age I was fascinated by language, and my personal development was heavily impacted by the cultural aspects of linguistics. It was this fascination that set the scene for my evolution and education. This, combined with an interest in Psychology and Sociology has given me a strong basis for my current activity.
Who am I ?
A true Berliner, with an early development heavily influenced by travel and interracting with other peoples. At age 6, I visited my Grandmother in California, which was a great introduction to the English language and the U.S. I translated song lyrics from album covers with a small English-German dictionary, before my first English lesson at school.
In addition to English, I have spent many years living in a Francophonic environment, travelling to Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Niger and Gabon.
Since 2001 I have been living and working in France.
Strategies and plans
Translating a website for the German-speaking market, or translating subtitles for a documentary/film. Each of which needs a different approach. Whatever your objectives, I can tackle your translation needs.
At the wordface - an extract from " Translation: the inside story" - So what do we translators do?
First, a little context (translators will always tell you it’s all about context!)
People around the world communicate for all kinds of reasons: to sell, advertise, educate, inform, share, tell stories and inspire.
If their message stays in their own language or culture, its reach is limited. When they bring in a translator, their message can breakdown barriers, overcome differences and build bridges.
Our work is to create connections between writers and readers.
That’s where the skill comes in, above and beyond “just” being good at languages.
It involves breathing new life into texts in another language.
On any given day, translators across the planet might be busy on a press release for a NGO, the controls for an exciting new app, the patent for a time machine, the story of Harry Potter's daughters, Mongolian subtitles for Star Wars X, the spare parts catalogue of your dishwasher, a brochure for a tourist resort on the moon, an interview with Angelina Jolie for a film festival, vital materials for making masks to combat pandemics, or the contract for an international footballer moving to a new country.
In short, the texts we work on cover the entire range of human existence...
But to do the job, we need to do more than just write their words in our language. That might work for simple lists of countries or objects, but any text more complex than that is a living organism. It needs to be carefully transformed into something that will speak naturally to its readers. To think beyond words to sentences, paragraphs and whole ideas, including, where necessary, new titles, new organisation, and new formulations.
That can mean dismantling, researching, reconstructing, rewriting, and adapting to our culture.
In other words, it’s about creating a text that looks like it was written by someone who speaks our language, and for people who read that language.
Only then will the readers be able to relate to it, and the message get through.
As translators our vocation is to ply our craft, and then disappear from the scene, leaving no trace that we were ever there.
