The Person Behind the Name

I am a state-certified translator for the English language and also hold a degree in mechanical engineering obtained at RWTH Aachen.

After my graduation I worked as a technical designer for a manufacturer of electroplating lines. Here, one of my tasks was writing manuals for lines exported to English-speaking customers. Next I took on a position as translator and technical writer at a software company. During two years with this company I wrote and translated product documentation for the US market.

In 2000 I started to work as a freelancer translating English to German and vice versa. In October 2003 I successfully took the exam for certified translators.

Translation - what does it mean?

You may think this is a strange question. But did you know that there are two totally different approaches in translation theory?

One approach advocates a translation close to the source text, translating the given text "as is". This leads to an unidiomatic text in the target language which needs to be reworked before it can be used.

In the second approach the ready-for-use text is the direct result of the translation, which idiomatically conveys the content of the source text and therefore requires more latitude when it comes to the actual phrasing.

My Approach to Translating

Clients ordering a translation provide a ready-for-use source text. They expect a text in the target language that is idiomatically phrased, not an almost word by word copy of the source text that requires the additional effort of further editing or even complete re-writing based on the information in the otherwise useless translation.

That is why translating, to me, means creating a ready-for-use text, i.e., to convey the text's contents idiomatically in the target language while keeping the target audience in mind.

To be able to meet this very high standard translators must not only have a general knowledge of the languages and technical vocabulary. They also need expertise in the subject matter.

This is the reason why I focus on the fields of:

· Mechanical Engineering/Technology
· IT/Software Localisation
· Chemistry
· Business English