A Cool Portable Equipment Hack

If you enjoyed my post on the value of portable interpretation equipment, you will probably like this one, too, on a cool equipment hack. It introduces a rather creative way to use the bidule, whenever the number of people in the audience exceeds the number of receivers available. This came about as a quick fix […]

The CAT is Out of the Bag. Now, is it Alive?

I am old enough to remember the days when translators relied solely on paper dictionaries and when a CAT was just a home pet.  And being the dinosaur I am earns me the right to be stubborn, too. So, when the innovation called Computer Aided Tools (CAT) started to get traction in the professional translation circles, in the mid-1990s, I […]

For UN Interpreters, Less is More

Since the release of my video on the language requirements for interpreters in the UN, I have been contacted by many aspiring interpreters with questions that are, mutatis mutandis, more ore less the same. Basically, they want to know whether their language combination qualifies and they also wonder what else they could/should be doing to merit consideration […]

The Accidental Interpreter

interpreter

This picture was taken in Brasilia, on Tuesday, March 17, 1992. It shows the exact moment when I became an interpreter. The gentleman in a light suit is congressman Ibsen Pinheiro. Sitting diagonally from him is His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. I am the young guy in the middle. Yup. The one […]