Back in our schooldays, our teachers would tut-tut if we ever used the expression “very unique”. “Unique” is an absolute, they’d say, with no degrees of relativity. Well, having spent an hour in the delightful company of Ana Laila Hagen, I beg to differ. “Very unique” is the perfect way to describe her…

Andrew Morris

In our younger years, our dreams of what we’ll do when we grow up can vary wildly. Firefighter? Astronaut? Sports star? Or perhaps increasingly these days, the most common aspiration is merely to be famous…

Now picture a young Bart Roelands growing up in the southern region of the Netherlands, not far from Eindhoven, feasting on TV series featuring famous lawyers such as Perry Mason or Matlock, and planning to follow in their footsteps, valiantly convincing judges with the sheer force of their arguments. Or alternatively reading One Hercule Poirot novel after another (in English, if you please), being transfixed by David Suchet’s definitive onscreen performances, and harbouring hopes of one day being a great detective.

Andrew Morris

All around the world, translators go to bed each night haunted by an existential question that keeps them awake into the small hours. No, nothing to do with pandemics, impending ecological doom or financial meltdown – it’s far more serious than that. At issue is how you pronounce “ProZ”.

Andrew Morris

Some translators are born into cosmopolitan, international households. Others have linguistic aptitude in their genes because of a long family history of learning and speaking foreign tongues, along with copious amounts of travel and exposure throughout their childhood and adolescence… and still others appear out of nowhere, landing like alien beings in a family with neither an interest in nor a history of languages, inexplicably showing up with the language gene. And not only that, but going on to make a living out of it.

Andrew Morris

For some of us it’s the first magical encounter with an exotic culture on a childhood holiday, or an (imaginary) love affair with a faraway star singing in a foreign language, but for the young Simon Barnes, it was the quiet presence at home of his father’s French and German books that provided the first gateway to a new world. There can’t have been many shelves lined with such books in the small Leicestershire town of Market Bosworth (the scene of a defining battle in a civil war that marked England’s history), but then again his father had started out as a French and German teacher, before leaving to work for Rolls Royce.

Andrew Morris

Like a trail of breadcrumbs in a fairytale, we can trace Elke Fehling’s love for languages all the way back through the decades. Her mother, who had been an au pair, was keen for her daughters to learn to speak other languages, so she encouraged them to watch Sesame Street from a young age (in English with German subtitles, which the 4-year-old Elke couldn’t read). Along with family trips to Italy and Spain, that early exposure sowed the seeds and inspired a sense of the magical properties of foreign languages.

Andrew Morris

In some ways, Jonathan Downie’s journey to the prominent position he now occupies within the interpreting industry occurred against the odds. Being born on a working-class council housing estate in the West of Scotland to a father who worked on the country’s railways, and a mother who took on various jobs over the years, didn’t exactly point straight to a degree, a Master’s, a doctorate, and a career in languages, with extensive research work and the publishing of two acclaimed books along the way.

Andrew Morris

When Donika Nasto was growing up in rural Albania, chewing gum was a scarce luxury, and you could only sink your teeth into an orange at New Year. The only bread available tasted so bad it needed toasting to be palatable. And the clothes you wore were likely to be hand-me-downs from older cousins…

Andrew Morris

In the age of digital nomadism, upping sticks and seeking out a new place to live, along with all the novel experiences that go with it, is an option open to all. But perhaps as translators, armed with our language gifts and proven cultural adaptability, we are particularly well-suited to such a choice. We can look at a map, stick a pin in it, and pretty much decide where we want to make our new home. Which is exactly what Emilie Himeur did one fine day. As a French native speaker working from English, she indulged a deeply felt longing to live by the sea, coupled with a need for some sunshine, a beautiful language and a quality approach to life (not to mention an economic context less challenging than those of France or England) … and decided on Genoa.

Andrew Morris

The answers ranged from “None whatsoever” to “I would not be able to function without it”. But what was the question? 

Andrew Morris

It takes a certain flexibility to be able to completely change the backdrop of where you live and make the effort to fit in with your new surroundings. Moving between countries is the most obvious example of this for translators – but even within countries there are often stark contrasts between the capital and the provinces, large and small towns, and city and village life. And with stints in San Sebastian and Barcelona under her belt, not to mention life in a small rural Spanish village of fully 27 inhabitants, followed by a return to a slightly bigger village in her native Czech Republic, Mira Dornakova has experienced a real variety of backdrops in her life.

Andrew Morris

A translator with a cat is nothing new. Or a dog. Even a couple of each. But it’s safe to say that providing a loving home to a mix of no fewer than thirty-two stray animals is pretty remarkable by any standard. And indeed, it’s not all that’s fascinating about German and English translator Christine Strobel.

Andrew Morris

Throughout history, the general direction of migration within countries has been from the rural areas to the city. The imperatives of escaping labour on the land or seeking work and a regular wage have driven millions to pack their meagre bags and set out for their national or regional capitals.

Andrew Morris

There are many within the translation and interpreting community who live far from the land where they were born. We pack our bags without too much difficulty, learn new languages, assimilate new cultures, make new friends. But even among such a well-travelled and cosmopolitan community, some stories stand out as unusual, and that of Yalda Hamidi, an Afghan interpreter now living in Ecuador, is remarkable.

Andrew Morris