Profile
Born to translate
WORKING ENVIRONMENT
Interesting facts at a glance
2000000
Number of words translated
0
Number of deadlines missed
6
Number of years in the translation industry
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About meI am an experienced bicultural translator based in Brazil, with an educational background that spans three countries. My earliest schooling was in English, and I lived and worked in North America for more than half my life. After graduating from university in Canada, I moved back to Brazil and attended a two-year translation and interpreting program at Associação Alumni in São Paulo. During that time, I was invited to work as an in-house translator by one of the world’s leading PR and communications companies. I was also responsible for translating website content for Brazil’s mining giant Vale in 2009, at a time when the firm was expanding globally. I have gone on to provide services to many major corporate clients in a wide variety of industries—including Yahoo!, the Government of South Africa, SanDisk, Petrobras, LG, United Airlines, Autodesk, ZTE, and others—, working with them to expand their presence in the national and international market. I opened my own translation business in 2014 to continue serving clients in Brazil and abroad, working with trusted partners to deliver quality language services.
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My story: bicultural backgroundI grew up bicultural, going back and forth between North America and Brazil, with strong emotional ties to both North and South America. Every five years or so, I switched hemispheres. By the time I graduated university in Vancouver, Canada, I had lived half my life between Brazil and English-speaking countries up north. I was 4 years old when I first moved to the United States. My parents had been accepted to the University of Texas, my mother as a Ph.D. candidate and my father in a master's program. This was their first time living abroad, and with three young children to boot! I was the oldest. My family didn't speak English and I remember feeling very anxious at the prospect of moving to another country where I didn’t speak the language. It felt like I was moving to Mars! My mother tried to assuage my fears and taught me three words in English: "Something. Anything. Everything." And with those three words I started down the path that would lead me where I am today, bridging cultures and helping people truly communicate with one another. I remember what it felt like to enter a new world and not understand how things worked. New cultures can be so different from our own that they seem like a different planet altogether, and this goes beyond language: it has to do with their very essence, beliefs and values—even sights, smells and sounds. Both cultures became a part of me, as different as they are, and it feels like coming home every time I succeed in helping them communicate with one another in a language they understand, erasing their differences and allowing them to relate to one another. Translation goes beyond writing words in a different language; it's the act of transposing cultures so that human beings from different worlds can connect. Benefits of growing up bicultural:
- Insider cultural knowledge
- Familiar with culture-specific traditions, heritage and language varieties
- Solid communication skills
- Ability to take up a challenge and excel at it; determination
- Ability to adapt to new circumstances quickly