Work
I publish my work, not just my results. Below: a published translation slam judged in front of the profession, a set of real-world English that I found and would rebuild, and headline transcreations from my ongoing series. Each one shows the German, an English version, and the reasoning. It is the clearest way I know to show what I do rather than claim it.
Published: the ATA German→English Translation Slam
German: „Männer, lasst das Putzen sein! Denn es bringt euch früher ins Grab." My version: Drop that mop, guys! It will only shorten your life expectancy. A literal "men, stop cleaning" throws the joke away. The German is a mock-command; the English has to swagger the same way.
German: „Männer, lasst das Putzen sein! Denn es bringt euch früher ins Grab." My version: Drop that mop, guys! It will only shorten your life expectancy. A literal "men, stop cleaning" throws the joke away. The German is a mock-command; the English has to swagger the same way.
ATA interaktiv, 1/2018, pp. 16–17
German (the closing line): „Männer müssen also stark sein: Den Putzlappen zu Hause abzulehnen..." My version: So guys, man up and drop that attitude, not the mop. The column ends on a punchline. A faithful rendering of the syntax lands flat; the job was to write an English punchline that carries the same wink.
Writing up the slam afterward for the ATA's interaktiv journal, a fellow translator observed that, with my background in marketing, I "clearly had more to say" than the rest, and noted how each translator's specialty shaped their voice. Being read that way, in print, by a colleague, is the kind of feedback freelancers almost never get.
Localized English, found and rebuilt
These are not client jobs. They are examples of published English I came across and thought could work harder. Same meaning, tuned so a native reader glides through it instead of sensing the German underneath.
Source: „Auf unseren Konferenzen treffen Sie auf Unternehmer... und politische Persönlichkeiten aus den USA und Deutschland."
Found English: Our guests include member companies, industry experts... and high ranking political representatives. My version: At our conferences, you rub shoulders with entrepreneurs, the kind of people who amplify messages through their networks, and political figures from the US and Germany.
"Multiplikatoren" has no clean English equivalent in this sense: people whose own networks amplify your reach. Rather than force a wrong word ("multipliers" is the trap, "change agents" means something else), I rebuilt the idea. And "rub shoulders with" gives the list the networking energy the event is selling.
Source (a German-American business network): „...die sich auf den beruflichen Erfolg von Frauen konzentriert"
Found English: focuses on the occupational success of women
My version: focusing on women's professional success
"Occupational success" is correct and lifeless, and no English speaker describes herself that way. "Professional success" is the phrase the audience already uses about itself. Marketing lives in that gap.
Source: „Unsere Fachmessen sind internationale Branchenereignisse und machen weit über Österreichs Grenzen hinaus von sich reden."
Found English: The trade shows enjoy an excellent international reputation.
My version: Our trade shows are fixtures on the international industry calendar and draw attention well beyond Austria's borders. The existing version flattens a vivid German phrase into a stock compliment. "Fixtures on the calendar" and "draw attention beyond Austria's borders" keep the reach the original was reaching for.
Source: „Unser qualifiziertes, zweisprachiges Team ist Ansprechpartner für Fragen rund um Markteintritt..."
Found English: Our skilled, bilingual team is your contact for questions relating to market entry...
My version: Our highly qualified bilingual team is the go-to source for questions about market entry and expansion, law and taxes, staffing and visas. "Your contact for questions relating to" is grammatical and inert. "Go-to source" is how English actually signals approachability, and shorter lists read faster.
From the series: headlines that resist translation
German: „Wer hat die Deutungshoheit geklaut?"
My version: Who hijacked the narrative?
"Deutungshoheit" has no English noun. "Hijacked the narrative" carries both the theft and the power grab, in words an English reader already thinks in.
German: „Denkt doch gerne mal nach."
My version: Feel free to stop and think.
The sting is in "gerne," a politeness used as a weapon. "Feel free to" does the same job in English, and "stop and think" keeps the real accusation: you didn't.
German: „Sie machen ihren Abschluss in Deutschlands ärmster Stadt. Und trotzen dem Scheißegal."
My version: In Germany's poorest city, a graduating class that gives a damn.
The German makes an attitude into a noun, which English won't do with 'give a damn.' So I moved it from object to subject: the students are the ones who give a damn.
© Süddeutsche Zeitung GmbH, München. Mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Süddeutsche Zeitung Content (www.sz-content.de).
4,352 KudoZ points. These are the tricky ones.
German: „Dora, wie Dorf-Randlage" (a pun in Juli Zeh's novel Über Menschen) My answer: "Dora, as in Distant Or Rural Area." A character turns her own name into a pun on the real-estate phrase for her house on the village edge. One translator who had read the novel called it impossible to render in English. D-O-R-A: Distant Or Rural Area keeps both the name and the meaning. Eight fellow translators agreed; one wrote it would "be hard to beat."
See the full KudoZ archive → links to: https://www.proz.com/profile/1380626?show_mode=kudoz&mode=answered
KudoZ is ProZ.com's public term-help network, where translators post the phrases that stump them and peers vote on the answers. Over the years I've earned 4,352 points there. The ones I enjoy most are the terms with no clean English equivalent: puns, coinages, idioms. A few I'm still proud of.
German: „Was(s)erforschen" (a water company's youth science project) My answer: Testing the water A pun folding Wasser (water) into "what to explore." Two colleagues in the thread said it couldn't be done in English. "Testing the water" holds both senses at once: literally testing it, and testing the waters. A peer called the solution "genial."
German: „individueller Freiraum und gelebte Natürlichkeit" (hotel copy) My answer: combines personal freedom with authentic living Elegant, empty German that drew a dozen attempts in the thread. "Gelebt" points at active living, not passive scenery, so I chose English that keeps that distinction, which is what the vague original was actually reaching for.