Haydée Menna

Question and Answer

• What is your name?
  • Haydée Menna
• Where do you live?
  • Buenos Aires, Argentina
• What made you decide to become a translator or interpreter?
  • I decided to become a translator because I like studying languages and wanted to communicate throughout the world.
• List one strength that you think sets you apart from your colleagues.
  • Adaptability to clients
• Name the one thing that you most enjoy in your translating or interpreting career.
  • Apart from communicating around the world, I enjoy the simple act of writing and speaking.
• 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 once had to transcribe a video which I was not so comfortable with, but it was useful because the subject was very interesting and I had to adapt myself to that situation.
    Sometimes we have to translate on subjects we do not like so much, and we have to be prepared. It is part of your education.
• 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 would tell myself to study Marketing and Business from the very beginning, so as to be able to have useful strategies to promote my services.
• 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.
  • I use the Internet in general to do research and networks like Linkedin and Twitter.
• What's the best book you've read this year?
  • In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote (I am still reading it).

The 1st Edition, 1st printing of the 1965 Book Club Edition of Truman Capote's masterpiece. An account of a 'true crime'. In 1959 four members of the Clutter family were murdered in Holcomb, Kansas; In April of 1965 two men were hanged for the crime. This book was published the same year as the death of the accused.