I always loved foreign languages and I wanted to become a teacher. So when I had to choose what to apply for at the university, the choice was clear: English and French (Czech teachers specialise in two subjects).
Then I found a part-time student job as a junior in-house translator... and I never looked back.
The world of translation got me absorbed so deeply that I quit the school after the bachelor's part (focus on languages). There was no need to go on with the master's part (focus on educational training). I found what I want to do.
I was exploring hidden corners of business-related documents, like contracts, TCs, internal and corporate communication, minutes of hours-long meetings. I was learning legalese and trying to find the balance between accuracy and comprehensibility. I was mining the internet for every detail about various technical devices and systems to understand how they work and to ensure the actual experts that work with the devices every day won't laugh when reading my words :-)
Words... People asked me how many of them translated. I stopped counting after some 2,000,000 translated and 5,000,000 proofread. That was some years ago. Now I know that after 9 years of making a living exclusively as a translator, I have seen enough to do it right. And I will! |