Julie Sullivan

Question and Answer

• What is your name?
  • Julie Sullivan
• Where do you live?
  • Paris
• What made you decide to become a translator or interpreter?
  • I have spoken and read French most of my life, lived 20+ years in France, & learned German when I moved there in 1984.
    I decided to go back to school to get a translation degree because I wanted to be paid instead of just doing translations for free! It's also a job I can do in any time zone from anywhere
• List one strength that you think sets you apart from your colleagues.
  • I'm a professional copy editor, writer & proofreader & have always read unusually widely, which helps a lot in translation
• Name the one thing that you most enjoy in your translating or interpreting career.
  • learning new things
• 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 do not enjoy technical (or legal) translation and do not want to do it professionally, but in my translation school there was so much of it that I learned a great deal about how to find the right term. It's challenging but rewarding to know you've done a good job.
• 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?
  • Start younger! Get recommendations from everyone you work with. And get your professional photo taken ASAP–you're not getting any younger!
• 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.
  • Wordfast–I have a Mac. In Chinese (which I don't translate from officially, but use every day) the Pleco app is absolutely awesome.
• What's the best book you've read this year?
  • Les rois maudits