Sepandar Moeenii

Question and Answer

• What is your name?
  • Sepandar Moeenii
• Where do you live?
  • Tehran, Iran
• What made you decide to become a translator or interpreter?
  • After years of gaming and watching series I decided to put the experience on action and earn some money from it. According to my 8 year dream, I prefer interpreting and want to have a successful career in this path.
• List one strength that you think sets you apart from your colleagues.
  • general knowledge
• Name the one thing that you most enjoy in your translating or interpreting career.
  • The variety of topics in translation and the adventures in interpreting.
• We all have worked on those not-so-perfect assignments. Write about one such assignment that was not ideal and what you learned from it.
  • Biography programs in media translation. It was boring and time consuming. Made me realize why I like interpreting more than translating. They value your time more in interpreting.
• If you could go back in time to when you were just starting out as a translator or interpreter, what advice would you give to your younger self?
  • I don't regret my past and I like my advance towards success.
    • read more books about interpreting and vocab.
    • listen to audio books anywhere at anytime.
• Name one resource – such as a phone app, CAT tool, website, and so forth – that you find especially helpful in your translating or interpreting work.
  • apps: Babylon 8 (PC)
  • web: Wikipedia
• What's the best book you've read this year?
  • the one from this site: Intepretation-Techniques and Exercises

Madelise Blumenroeder

Question and Answer

• What is your name?
  • Madelise Blumenroeder
• Where do you live?
  • Reunion Island
• What made you decide to become a translator or interpreter?
  • The contact with 3 different cultures and languages: french, american and senegalese. Playing with words and cultures in three languages (French, English, Wolof) opened new perspectives.
• List one strength that you think sets you apart from your colleagues.
  • Field experience with international development (one of my specializations) in West Africa.
• We all have worked on those not-so-perfect assignments. Write about one such assignment that was not ideal and what you learned from it.
  • I translated some articles for a French Business School, a field I was not comfortable with, mainly because they keep a lot of english words in french. I was inclined to translate those management words into french but realised that it was not in line with the school's style. After that I decided to stick with fields I feel comfortable with.
• If you could go back in time to when you were just starting out as a translator or interpreter, what advice would you give to your younger self?
  • Adopt a positive attitude towards feedback.
• Name one resource – such as a phone app, CAT tool, website, and so forth – that you find especially helpful in your translating or interpreting work.
  • SDL Trados Studio
• What's the best book you've read this year?
  • Révolutions by JMG Le Clézio

Luisa Berlim

Question and Answer

• What is your name?
  • Luisa Berlim
• Where do you live?
  • Brazil
• What made you decide to become a translator or interpreter?
  • I like a good challenge!
• List one strength that you think sets you apart from your colleagues.
  • Thinking outside the box.
• Name the one thing that you most enjoy in your translating or interpreting career.
  • Finding simple yet elegant solutions to hairy problems.
• We all have worked on those not-so-perfect assignments. Write about one such assignment that was not ideal and what you learned from it.
  • Sometimes a poor source can make us fret like nothing else. Learning to see the context and understand how to create a better target can be a big challenge.
• If you could go back in time to when you were just starting out as a translator or interpreter, what advice would you give to your younger self?
  • Never accept peanuts!
• Name one resource – such as a phone app, CAT tool, website, and so forth – that you find especially helpful in your translating or interpreting work.
  • Microsoft Language Portal
• What's the best book you've read this year?
  • Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China

A New York Times Notable Book
An NPR Best Book of the Year

In 1852, at age sixteen, Cixi was chosen as one of Emperor Xianfeng's numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a coup against her son's regents and placed herself as the true source of power—governing through a silk screen that separated her from her male officials.
Drawing on newly available sources, Jung Chang comprehensively overturns Cixi's reputation as a conservative despot. Cixi's extraordinary reign saw the birth of modern China. Under her, the ancient country attained industries, railways, electricity, and a military with up-to-date weaponry. She abolished foot-binding, inaugurated women's liberation, and embarked on a path to introduce voting rights. Packed with drama, this groundbreaking biography powerfully reforms our view of a crucial period in China's—and the world's—history.

Antonio Muñoz Barragán

Question and Answer

• What is your name?
  • Antonio Muñoz Barragán
• Where do you live?
  • China
• What made you decide to become a translator or interpreter?
  • I love languages and building bridges to make easier understanding each other.
• List one strength that you think sets you apart from your colleagues.
  • Knowledge of very different languages.
• Name the one thing that you most enjoy in your translating or interpreting career.
  • Learning. Learning the translation process itself as well as from the text I am working with.
• We all have worked on those not-so-perfect assignments. Write about one such assignment that was not ideal and what you learned from it.
  • I was bit more boring for me to translate administrative texts. The experience brought me the clues about many technicalities and idioms of the fields related.
• If you could go back in time to when you were just starting out as a translator or interpreter, what advice would you give to your younger self?
  • Getting the text in the target language as if was the original text.
• Name one resource – such as a phone app, CAT tool, website, and so forth – that you find especially helpful in your translating or interpreting work.
  • At the momento not for professional reasons but in order to learn the language, but I find LINE really helpful when translating from Chinese.
• What's the best book you've read this year?
  • El lector de cadáveres 'The Reader of Corpses', by Antonio Garrido.