{"id":46463,"date":"2018-08-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-01T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gengo.com\/uncategorized\/faces-of-gengo-adell\/"},"modified":"2019-10-23T17:06:51","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T08:06:51","slug":"faces-of-gengo-adell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gengo.com\/community\/faces-of-gengo-adell\/","title":{"rendered":"Faces of Gengo: Adell"},"content":{"rendered":"A Valencia native, Adell is one of our English to Spanish Language Specialists as well as a musician at heart. A Master\u2019s Degree holder in Audiovisual Translation, he believes translation is about mastering your native language. He shares his insights in this interview.\r\n\r\nNationality:<\/strong> Spanish\r\nLocation:<\/strong> Barcelona\r\nOccupation:<\/strong> Audiovisual translator\r\nGengo LS since:<\/strong> January\u00a02017\r\nLanguage pair:<\/strong> English to Spanish\r\n\r\nWhat languages do you speak? How do you maintain language proficiency<\/a>?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nI\u2019m a native speaker of Spanish and Catalan. I feel comfortable speaking English, my work language, and I got some knowledge of German and Italian. What I do to stay fluent in English is to read and watch a good deal of content. Also, if I\u2019m lazing around, I sometimes think of how to express my thoughts in English.\r\n\r\nHow did you become a translator?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nNo fancy story behind this: I\u2019ve always loved languages so when the time came I opted for a Translation degree at university. I was curious about how a message can change from one language to another.\r\n\r\n
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Adell’s beautiful hometown, Barcelona<\/em><\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\nWhat have been your most enjoyable and challenging translation experiences?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nAfter university, I went on a two-year break and worked in a hostel \u2014an experience I would totally recommend to everyone! Then I decided to take a Master\u2019s Degree in Audiovisual Translation, which I\u2019m about to finish, and it has already opened me some doors. Some months ago, I started working as an audiovisual translator and had the chance to translate a TV show of one of my favorite comedy groups ever: Monty Python!\r\n\r\nWhat\u2019s your favorite thing about being a translator? How about being a language specialist?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nI love the way translation is an open and diverse field, where many different opportunities can come from: one day you\u2019re translating a book of poetry, then the next day you happen upon a movie or a videogame. In addition, I take translation as a creative exercise where there\u2019s no right or wrong answer. For me, it\u2019s about transforming a situation dressed in a source language by trying to figure out how it would have been if the author had thought it in the target language.\r\n\r\nAlso, being a Reviewer gives me the daily chance to revisit my native language and helps me find out nuances or tricky features I may overlook otherwise. In the end, reviewing other\u2019s translations is a two-way learning process!\r\n\r\n

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His cozy workspace in Barcelona<\/em><\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\nBased on your specific cultural expertise, what are the best books or movies you would recommend to others?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nOne book that comes to my mind is Chronicle of a Death Foretold<\/em><\/a> by Gabriel Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez. You know what\u2019s in store from page one, but it manages to keep your eyes glued to every word. M\u00e1rquez uses language in such a way that it feels like he\u2019s singing instead of writing. I\u2019ve read it several times over the years and it never disappoints!\r\n\r\nAs for films, it has to be Whiplash<\/em> by Damien Chazelle. It\u2019s one of those movies where the plot may be the least important thing given how beautifully crafted the movie itself is. It helped me understand cinema better some time ago.\r\n\r\nWhat are your preferred translation tools?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nI\u2019m really fond of Memsource, a web-based editor, and Subtitle Workshop<\/a>, a subtitling tool.\r\n\r\nWhat\u2019s your favorite productivity tool or service?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nI used to carry a notebook with me everywhere, but I always ended up losing it. Nowadays, even though I\u2019m one of those dinosaurs that still prefer paper over digital stuff, I use a note-taking app called Google Keep<\/a> to write down ideas and organize my thoughts.\r\n\r\n

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Adell plays in a band in his spare time<\/em><\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\nWhat are your top tips for those translators who are just starting out?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nWhat really stood out for me when I was studying is how translation is not so much about being proficient in a foreign language but about mastering your native language<\/strong><\/em>. It\u2019s important to understand a message but you also have to be able to use your mother tongue to create the best outcome for each situation.\r\n\r\nAlso, translation is a very vast field, so try to find a balance between what you\u2019re good at and what you like the most and go for it!\r\n\r\nDo you have any specific translation advice to translators in your language pair?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nGetting to know your mother tongue and its rules is a must if you\u2019re working professionally with languages. Consult Fund\u00e9u<\/a> articles, resort to RAE<\/a> for shades in meaning and read the news on a daily basis.\r\n\r\nRemember that being a translator isn\u2019t all about knowing and mastering languages. We\u2019re wordsmiths and our words serve as mirrors to how we see the world. So stay hungry for culture as well!\r\n\r\nWant to become a Gengo translator?<\/strong>\r\n\r\n