{"id":46275,"date":"2015-09-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gengo.com\/uncategorized\/faces-of-gengo-ulrike\/"},"modified":"2025-02-07T15:43:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T06:43:36","slug":"faces-of-gengo-ulrike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gengo.com\/community\/faces-of-gengo-ulrike\/","title":{"rendered":"Faces of Gengo: Ulrike"},"content":{"rendered":"Ulrike, one of our Senior Translators in German to English, grew up speaking both languages. Her interest in translation was piqued while at high school, and she went on to study translation at university. Now, she splits her time between translation and volunteer work.\r\n\r\n<strong>What languages do you speak and why\/how did you learn them? <\/strong>\r\n\r\nEnglish and German. I grew up in the U.S. but, as a bilingual, I spent most summers in Germany as well as the first half of high school. Later, I studied German Literature and then German to English translation at university.\r\n\r\n<strong>How did you become a translator and how often do you translate?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIt all started with an independent study class I took while at high school where we translated chapters of Jostein Gaarder\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sophie%27s_World\">Sophies Welt<\/a><\/em>. In my undergraduate years at university, I translated short stories and historical documents.\r\n\r\nI then studied translation at the <a href=\"\/\">University of Mainz\u2014Faculty of Translation Studies, Linguistics and Cultural Studies<\/a> in Germany. Afterward, I enrolled in Kent State\u2019s Institute for Applied Linguistics in Ohio to get my master\u2019s degree in translation. After graduation, I dabbled in project management before switching completely to freelance translation in 2009.\r\n\r\nI now spend about 30 hours per week translating and use the rest of my time to volunteer at local dog and horse rescues.\r\n\r\n<strong>What has been your most enjoyable and challenging translation experiences?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nCreative texts take longer but are always more fun. Favorites include: translating a turn of the century (19th to 20th) novel as part of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cies.org\/\">Fulbright Scholar Program<\/a>, working on online learning modules for children, and translating historical documents from WWII.\r\n\r\n<strong>What&#8217;s your favorite thing about being a translator?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nVariety, flexibility and mobility.\r\n\r\n<strong>What does your work involve as a senior translator?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nI consider my primary role to be quality control, including vetting new translators, creating training materials for existing translators, and reviewing translated texts.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.gengo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/FoG_ulrike-desk.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1238\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.gengo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/FoG_ulrike-desk.png\" alt=\"FoG_ulrike-desk\" width=\"610\" height=\"345\" \/><\/a>\r\n\r\n<strong>Describe your office setup or workspace. <\/strong>\r\n\r\nI\u2019ve recently set up a home office with a treadmill desk. I use a large external screen and an ergonomic keyboard to save my eyes and hands. My vertical mouse is also indispensible\u2014no more carpal tunnel for this translator!\r\n\r\n<strong>What\u2019s your favorite snack for while you work?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nI drink a lot of tea\u2014chai in particular. <a href=\"\/\">KIND bars<\/a> give a great energy boost.\r\n\r\n<strong>Based on your specific cultural expertise, what books or movies would you recommend?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nFor translation, I recommend <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/How-Succeed-as-Freelance-Translator\/dp\/1411695208\">How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator<\/a><\/em>. For leisure, I like to find regional authors, like Howard Frank Mosher for the Northeast, and Mari Sandoz or Willa Cather for the Great Plains.\r\n\r\n<strong>What are your preferred translation tools?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nI mostly rely on SDL Trados and Transit NXT.\r\n\r\n<strong>What&#8217;s your favorite productivity tool or service?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nMy brain\u2014no software required.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.gengo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/FoG_ulrike-view.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1239\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.gengo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/FoG_ulrike-view.png\" alt=\"FoG_ulrike-view\" width=\"610\" height=\"345\" \/><\/a>\r\n\r\n<strong>What are the best ways to relax and stay sane as a translator? <\/strong>\r\n\r\nTake many breaks. Skip the five-minute Facebook or YouTube breathers and, instead, get up from the computer and move around. I try get up and out once per hour.\r\n\r\nI also really relish tech-free days. At least once a month I try take a full 24 hours off from any kind of technology (it\u2019s harder than it seems).\r\n\r\nFinally, translation can be a very solitary and isolated profession. Make sure to get out and meet up with friends.\r\n\r\n<strong>What are your top tips for translators who are just starting out?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nPractice, practice and practice some more\u2014review your own work and get someone else to look at it. Specialize\u2014pick areas you are already knowledgeable about or have a deep interest in, then get additional training in those disciplines. Get certified\u2014through a university or translators\u2019 association.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ulrike, one of our Senior Translators in German to English, grew up speaking both languages. Her interest in translation was piqued while at high school, and she went on to study translation at university. Now, she splits her time between translation and volunteer work. What languages do you speak and why\/how did you learn them? [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[347],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Faces of Gengo: Ulrike - Gengo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gengo.com\/community\/faces-of-gengo-ulrike\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faces of Gengo: Ulrike - Gengo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ulrike, one of our Senior Translators in German to English, grew up speaking both languages. 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