{"id":46419,"date":"2017-07-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gengo.com\/uncategorized\/faces-gengo-carola\/"},"modified":"2019-10-23T17:01:17","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T08:01:17","slug":"faces-gengo-carola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gengo.com\/community\/faces-gengo-carola\/","title":{"rendered":"Faces of Gengo: Carola"},"content":{"rendered":"A multilingual originally from Germany, Carola is a digital nomad who\u2019s grateful for having a steady and flexible job that has allowed her to travel around Europe for the past two years. Find out what she loves about being a translator in this interview.\r\n\r\nNationality:<\/strong> German\r\nLocation:<\/strong> Currently traveling around Europe\r\nOccupation:<\/strong> Blogging traveler\r\nGengo translator since:<\/strong> April 2015\r\nLanguage pairs:<\/strong> English to German, German to English\r\n\r\nWhat languages do you speak?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nGerman, English, French, Italian, Spanish, plus a tiny bit of Russian and Japanese.\r\n\r\nIf you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be and why?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nArabic. It is a language completely different from any of the others I know, and from what I\u2019ve read, it is a very poetic language where subtle changes in words can reveal a whole new world of emotions.\r\n\r\n
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“After climbing to find a view of the Treasury Tomb in Petra, Jordan, at sunrise on Christmas Day.”<\/em><\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\nDo you have experience living in other countries? If so, where?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nRight after finishing high school in Germany, I lived outside Washington, D.C. for a year as an au pair. Then, I was based in London for a few months when I worked with an NGO. From 2011 to 2012, I also traveled around Africa (20+ countries) for ten months. For the past two years or so, I have been a nomad, traveling extensively in France and Italy.\r\n\r\nOn a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy being a translator and why?<\/strong>\r\n\r\n9. I love being challenged with completely different topics – from jewelry to sex toys to news articles. At the same time, I am a passionate writer so I find fulfillment even in the smallest jobs, whether the task is to translate marketing copy or a 140-character tweet. I deducted 1 point from the perfect 10 because translating can be a tad boring occasionally when the same phrases keep coming up over and over.\r\n\r\nHow has translating for Gengo impacted your life?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIt has allowed me to live a digital nomad lifestyle. All I need is an Internet connection and I can make enough money to pay for a modest life while traveling the world.\r\n\r\n

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“My workspace in a lovely little guesthouse with a garden in Bangkok, Thailand.”<\/em><\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\nWhen you were growing up, what did you aspire to become?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nA writer.\r\n\r\nWhat quote do you live by?<\/strong>\r\n\r\n“Nothing is either good or bad. Just thinking makes it so.” by William Shakespeare from the Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2.\r\n\r\nName three of your favorite translation \/ language learning tools.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nDuolingo is my favorite language learning tool<\/a>, and I use Dict<\/a>\u00a0and Google when working on translations.\r\n\r\nRecommend three of your favorite language-related books\/films.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe films, Babel<\/em> from 2006 and Timbuktu<\/em> from 2014 and the book, The Yes Man<\/em>\u00a0by Danny Wallace.\r\n\r\n

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“Beautiful sunset over my home town, Berlin.”<\/em><\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\nWhat advice would you give to new or aspiring translators?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nFirst, read, read, read, and write. The better you know your target language, the better your translations will be. Read anything you can get your hands on, and take a stab at writing both fiction and non-fiction. You don’t have to be the best with the source language, but when you\u2019re unsure or unfamiliar with something, you should look it up so you can learn more. Lastly, take on smaller jobs to gain experience.\r\n\r\nWhat advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nSmile. Breathe. It’ll be fine.\r\n\r\nWant to become a Gengo translator?\r\n<\/strong>\r\n