Linguistic Background- A short story

Well, I know it may sound slightly corny but apparently I have always had an interest in linguistics. As a child I would create my own notebook with words that sounded foreign and weird (at the time they were mostly Russian words) that I had heard on the telly or read in a book and I would spend hours on my first elocution lessons. My fascination with Russian, as intense as it was, dimmed a little when I started school and was given whole lists of totally useless words to learn. Suffice to say, I rebelled against these rules and stopped studying altogether. It was around this time when I realised my passion for English. My first attempts to learn this language were spurred by my then object of infatuation, a British actor who played Robin Hood. Funnily enough I can't even recall his name now but as I cast my mind back to those days, I was pretty determined to learn the language in hope my uncle from Nottingham would invite me to Sherwood Forest where Robin and me would together 'rob the rich to give to the poor'. Many years later I did go to Sherwood and was slightly disappointed as the famous medieval castle had been turned into a museum, the Forest was markedly smaller than I'd expected and the series itself had not even shot there. Well, a bit too late for reversing the effort I had put into studying the language, I could as well carry on.

However, in the 'good old days' the choice of foreign languages the secondary school students were offered was extremely limited, if not nonexistent and therefore the veterinary school which I attended imposed a five-year gap in my English studies, providing me with German instead. Not that I have anything against this language, but it has now been about 10 years of my futile attempts to grasp at least the basic understanding of this language but unfortunately none have borne any fruit.

Meanwhile, I did not however, cease to study the language of Shakespeare and prided myself on acquiring its exceptional command without resorting to any formal schooling and at great pace. I was lucky enough to have a British-born next-door neighbour whose interest in Poland and the Polish language and mine in her culture intermingled and led to my greatest-ever passion and fascination with the art of translation. We would watch programmes on National Geographic and other channels, prepare transcripts of those programmes in our native languages and then translate the piece followed by its verification by the other person. This commodity of having an immediate native speaker who is also fascinated by the intricacies of language, was an invaluable asset in my path to becoming a linguist. In pursuit of improvement and in hope of sharing my invaluable knowledge with others I chose the path of teaching English to what I then, naively thought was a bunch of keen and eager kids who realise the importance of English in contemporary world. The three years at Teachers' Training College happened to be some of the best time in my life in terms of having the ability to acquire knowledge of the subjects that interested me to a great extent such as English literature, its history, origins; however, it has also convinced me that a profession of a teacher is not the path I will choose to follow for my future career.

During my time at Teachers' Training College I was entrusted my first opportunity to translate written texts. These were at first personal letters and school newsletters, more for fun and self-evaluation but these first projects convinced me of translation being my future vocation. Moreover, encouraged by my affinity for languages, I decided to enlarge my foreign language 'data base' by taking up Italian as my third language, followed shortly after by Japanese. I have now been studying these languages for a number of years and am quite fluent in communication- especially in Italian, as I hold a belief that one needs to live two lives in order to master Japanese (and that is not to say that I have given up on it). With regards to Italian, though, I have not yet managed to learn this languages to the sufficient degree for it to become my translation language pair. Hopefully, it will soon though, as I am working hard on it.

Having graduated from Teachers' Training College I set off for the United Kingdom in pursuit of broadening my horizons. I enrolled at the University of Westminster for the postgraduate course in Bilingual Translation and it must have been one of the best decisions of my professional life (UoW is not paying me to promote their services on my website, I promise!). Modules included technical, legal and medical translations as well as interpreting , subtitling and editing and they were all conducted by professional translators with +20 years of experience.  It is self-explanatory that one cannot learn the art of translation within a year but this course is designed to serve more as a guideline and a somewhat cornerstone in a translator's future career. I am indebted to my tutors for ingraining in me that a text cannot be translated unless it is understood, which has since been my greatly valued motto.

While studying at the University I became actively involved in cooperation with various translation and interpreting agencies from around the world and gained their trust due to my dedication and professionalism with which I was undertaking work. Initially I dealt with projects in the areas of humanities, which I find most dear to me, but then progressed to more diversified and specialized categories, including aviation, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals etc. I have since then had regular clients (see my resume) who do not hesitate to put me in charge of conducting complex pieces of translation as they rest assured the final products will be be of highest quality and always timely delivered. I never cease to study and am always eager to meet new challenges. I am aware of the fact that my profession requires that I constantly gain in-depth knowledge in various fields and I love learning new things!