Informacion Personal

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1. You did a bilingual primary school, so you started to speak English very young. Was it this to give you the first interest for languages or it's something you developed later?

2. I started learning English at 5, playing. I think I began to feel and enjoy my interest for English at that time, I felt attracted to those games.

3. What has been the motivation for choosing translation at University? Where you thinking about building a solid career or you were just following your passion? In other words: how did you know that you wanted to become a translator?

4. That´s a funny story. I had been an excellent English pupil at school, but a very bad one in all the other subjects, so I chose the career that seemed to be the easiest for me, no passion, no call, just not having to study too much, ha ha. There was a very strict admission exam, this was in March, 1973, at the Instituto Superior de Lenguas Vivas de Buenos Aires , only forty persons passed the test, and I was one of them. And being part of that group made me feel very happy and gradually and slowly I started to feel that passion. Before attending the Lenguas Vivas, many times I had....I cannot say worked, but performed interpretation tasks (without knowing what I was doing) when some people from the USA or Europe came to Argentina, I was 17!!!! I even traveled to Europe with my older brother as his interpreter. For me, translation and interpretation are absolutely tied together.

5. Why did you choose the freelance career instead of looking for a job as employee in a company?

Life sometimes takes you through a road that leads you to be this or that. Fortunately, my road was being a freelancer. I could not be an employee. I love to work at night, no noises, I can concentrate better, I can accomodate my deadlines better. And I think I could not stand a boss telling me what to do. Being a freelancer is much more demanding, because you are your own boss, at least that is what happens in my case. And I am not very lenient with myself!

6. How did you find your first client? And how did you find your second?
My best friend, María del Carmen González, who had studied with me since primary school and another classmate went from publishing company to publishing company offering our services. Most of them told us “No, thank you”, and finally Editorial Médica Panamericana gave us a book! Imagine! A book translated by three newies! It must have been well done (I have not reread it, that was 35 years ago), because they gave us a second, a third, a fourth and a fifth one. Of course, paying us peanuts. But we thought we were the best translators of Argentina.
We also published some ads offering translation services, we got a lot of work...but when the ads account came, the income resulted in red figures.
7. How did you promote yourself at the beginning? Were you sending CVs to agencies or following other strategies? How did you "market" yourself?
Visiting publishing companies, agencies, giving my card to any human being I met. Slowly, but surely, my contacts began to give me work.
8. Did you think about what niche you wanted to focus on or it just happened by chance?
Well, at first it was medicine, which I specialize in now, then it was engineering, also one of my assets, and then, except for legal and financial material, all kind of stuff, you name it.
9. After University did you follow other courses (private, online, from translators associations...)?
I had a teacher in the Lenguas Vivas, my mentor, Noemí Rosenblatt, whom really was the one who taught me to translate. She conveyed the passion, the pleasure and the fun of technical and scientific translation to me. After graduating, I attended to two post-graduate practical workshops with actual translations. I learnt more there than in my whole career. I still think of her, who died some years ago.

10,. What´s the aspect of your job you enjoy more?
I love the challenge a text poses to me. Trying to find the right expression makes me happy, after picking my brain. That is why I chose not to be a sworn translator, a contract is a contract, a power of attorney is the same as another, with minor changes, but a technical or a literary translation is there telling you “c´mon, how would you translate me?”
10.
11. During your life you translated more than 100 books. What are the positive and negative differences, in your opinion, between translating a book and translating documents?
I have to clarify that I do not translate documents, nor legal nor financial material, that´s boring and I really know a thing about it. I studied to be a technical, scientific and literary translation and life has led me in that way. So I would say translating books is 100% positive for me, although I did not translate many literary books, but mainly non fiction ones.
12. How did you select the book to translate? You were following your personal interests?
My dear, a freelance translator cannot afford to select the books to translate. If you like the subject, much the better. But there are some issues I take into account: I will not translate something that goes against my personal principles, nor books or material that surpasses my understanding. Once I had to give back a book a publishing agency gave me to translate, it was on philosophy...It was Greek to me, I did not understand a thing. I think a translator has to know his limitations, but they did not understand my attitude and they did not ever gave me work ever again, I can name them: Gedisa.







13. When did you start to work as interpreter? What was your first work?
I started working as an interpreter not knowing I was an interpreter, as I told you before. But I think you mean a “simultaneous” or “consecutive” interpreter. It was a hallmark in my career. I had a customer, Edward Hartmann, who got in touch with me for the translation of his book into Spanish , “How to successfully implement TPM [Total Productive Management] in a non Japanese Plant”. The book was a best-seller. He came to Argentina to give his seminars based on the books. We became friends, he said no one knew about TPM after him better than me. So, he convinced me to try and get into the interpretation booth for five minutes and see how I felt. I was terrified. Of course, I knew the subject inside out, and he spoke much slowlier than he usually did. Everybody was involved in this and I got cheers when I went out. So, I passed the test and I became his personal interpreter. We traveled to all Latin American countries (it was my Golden Age as an interpreter and earned good money), and even to Pamplona, Spain, which was not a very good experience, because Spanish from Spain is quite different from Latin American neutral Spanish. I should have known better. But I have to say that Ed Hartmann was my mentor who opened the door for me to be the interpreter for many other lecturers in Argentina.
14. Do you enjoy more written translation or interpreting? Why?
There is no question about it. I enjoy much more translating than interpreting. I work at home. I have a studio with all I need and some evenings I stay up all night working if I have an urgent assignment, or if I can´t sleep. Because for me translating is a pleasure besides being a job. Interpreting stresses me. You have to study the subject of the interpretation beforehand, the lecturer always makes a couple of jokes which do not translate well into Spanish, and he or she is waiting for the audience to laugh and you were not able to do it. You are always sitting at the edge of your chair trying to concentrate and interpreting involves three brain simultaneous activities: listening, translating and talking. That is why it is performed by two people, but you have to pay attention when the other person takes the mike in case she coughs, loses the thread of the dissertation, or something like that. You must be there to help him/her, and it is reciprocal.
15. What kind of interpreting have you been performing during your career: simultaneous, consecutive, face to face?
A lot of simultaneous and face to face, I really don´t like consecutive, it is much more stressing for me.
16. What are the aspect you enjoy more in interpreting?
To be honest...the pay..., no, really, to be complimented for the job.
17. Do you find interpreting a very hard task? What are the most difficult aspects?
I think I have answered these questions in the previous ones. (lo puedes editar?)
18. What do you do if you don't understand a word, a sentence or if the speaker has a very strong accent that affect your comprehension?
Ohhh, I try to close a sentence that makes some sense, and please, no Australians, no Eastern speakers, I had to turn down some assignments because of that.
19. How did you develop your techniques of note taking?
Since I don´t do consecutive interpretation, I don´t take notes.
20. What advices would you give to someone who wants to start a career in translation or interpreting?
21. When you graduate, you think you know it all. That is not truth. A good translator must recognize what he/she cannot do. Practice is a must. Experience is a must. But, I insist, don´t think you can translate or interpret every material that falls in your hands. Say no when it surpasses your knowldedge.