nice to meet you...

I and the colleagues in the French booth at a conference about cats in Portugal 2004

Let me use the first entry to introduce myself.

I am a conference interpreter and translator with an MA in linguistics from Leipzig University, the second oldest university in Germany, celebrating 600 years in 2009, and from one of the most prominent philology faculties in the country.

I graduated in 1990, at a time when you might appreciate things were very much in turmoil in the part of Germany that Leipzig is in. Although I had to accept one of three offers for work from the university for the first 3 years after my degree (to repay my debt to society for getting my studies paid for by the state), the contract with my future employer was annulled unilaterally with two months to go to my finals and the defence of my thesis.

Fortunately I had already applied to all UK universities with a German department and got lucky in Keele, Stoke-on-Trent, where I was to work for one academic year as lecturer for German. So, fresh out of university, I went right back to one, and I really enjoyed being on the teaching side of the seminar room.

However, I had never wanted to be a teacher. So after the year at Keele I went to London to begin my actual interpreting and translating career. It was difficult as, coming from a socialist country which didn't allow personal contacts with the 'capitalist' side of the Iron Curtain, I didn't have any letters of reference or recommendation that would have been meaningful to any future client of mine. But in time I did establish myself in the market after spending a useful 7 month stint as project manager at a small London translation agency where I learned some of the business basics.

I have now been working as a conference interpreter and translator for nearly 18 years. My professional exprience includes work for the BBC, at No. 10 Downing Street, the Houses of Parliament, Bloomberg TV, European Union meetings and conferences, European Works Council meetings, and conferences on pretty much any subject you could think of (off the top of my head I could name aerospace, pharmaceuticals, medical, agricultural machinery, climate change, town planning, sugar.... There is much more but let's finish on that sweet note.

I have started this blog in the first place obviously to introduce myself, but also to inform about the profession as a whole, to report some funny linguistic mishaps as and when they happen, and to bring you interesting bits of industry news as and where I find them...