Being Dutch, but having lived and studied in Italy for twenty years, (and in the Netherlands for another twenty), I dare to say that I have 2 mother tongues. I studied Italian and Russian at the universities of Milan, Moscow and Amsterdam, graduated in 1987 at the University of Amsterdam (faculty of slavic languages) and acquired broad experience in translating and interpreting for governmental, management, commercial and technical organizations, including interpreting for specialists in on-the-job training programmes.
As a certified translator (Russian and Italian) I translated texts on a wide range of subjects, including articles of association, agreements and contracts, annual reports etc. and worked as a (conference) interpreter for the business sector, the courts and lawyers.
Meanwhile I published articles in the daily newspaper De Volkskrant, the weekly Vrij Nederland and Elsevier, worked as an editor for the foreign desk of several TV news programmes and directed documentary items for the VPRO, one of the Dutch broadcasting companies.
Since setting up Business Interpreters in 1990 in Amsterdam, I have been working with a close-knit team of experienced translators and interpreters. (www.businessinterpreters.com)

Some ten years ago I developed RSI, caused by the many repetitive movements and prolonged sitting involved in my work as a translator. After struggling along for some time, shopping around for possible cures and taking plenty of exercise, with varying but certainly not very convincing results, I discovered Chi Neng Qigong. This appealed to me so much (not least because the symptoms quickly subsided) that I decided to train as an instructor so that I could share my positive experiences of this Chinese movement and meditation technique with others. I studied at the Chi Neng Institute Europe and had lessons with the Chinese instructors Ooi Kean Hin, Li Hongshi and Liu Jun Laoshi. (www.chinengqigong.org)