Welcome to our first issue of the Language Exepress!

I have wanted to be an interpreter and translator since the age of fourteen. Studying at Exeter facilitated that path, and continues to help me along my long linguistic journey.

 

Becoming a freelance translator and interpreter has been a long time coming for me. I was first introduced to the concept of conference interpreting as a receptive fourteen year old, who already had a love and respect for language learning. My French teacher had worked as an EU interpreter for a time, and stood in front of the class to demonstrate simultaneous interpreting. Speaking and listening at the same time — how is that even possible?! I never believed it would be. I thought it would remain a dream and something I always wished I could do. Ten years later, having completed an MA in Interpreting and Translating at the University of Bath, I have by no means mastered the art of translation and interpreting, and have certainly not lost my awe for those who have. But I have taken my first step into a career in this fascinating field. What was it that paved the way? Exeter University, my yellow brick road to success.

 

I began studying at Exeter Uni in 2011 — Labrinth’s Earthquake had just been released, Arena was still a thing, and the Forum still hadn’t been built. I had studied French and German at school but, looking ahead to the future, I decided to add another language to my combination. Exeter offered ab initio Italian: those with no previous knowledge of the language were to intensively learn enough to be able to join post A-level students in the fourth year. The choice was a no-brainer for me. Considering my love for all things German, I decided to study German and Italian, a combination that only two of us in my year possessed.

 

From the outset, the intense language classes and the professional language teaching enabled us to learn Italian more quickly than I had imagined possible. The German teaching was equally as spectacular, giving me a grounding that still helps me to this day in translation (when becoming entangled in four-line adjectival phrases, trying to discover where the subject is — all Germanists have been there). Without the chance to study at Exeter, I wouldn’t have gone on to experience an unforgettable year abroad in both Germany and Italy, make irreplaceable friends from all over Europe, learn about two such fascinating cultures, nor would I be able to interpret and translate from Italian and German today.

 

But studying at Exeter did not merely provide me with the technical skills to succeed. Perhaps more importantly, it enabled me to mature and develop the confidence required in this challenging, and at times arduous, profession. When I began at university, I did not swagger onto campus, thinking that my language skills were a sight to behold. It was the sense of community and camaraderie at Exeter that allowed me, over the years, to develop two crucial skills that may seem like a juxtaposition but are mutually important in my chosen career: being self assured and recognising my own mistakes. When, after a long yet remarkable four years, I received a First class degree with Distinction in spoken Italian, I was shocked. My achievement was as much by virtue of the inspirational lecturers at Exeter as the result of my own sheer hard work. But, thanks to my time at Exeter, I began to believe in myself as a linguist, believe that I could follow my dreams, and that, however hard it may be at times, I could become an interpreter and translator.

 

This new-found confidence led me onto completing my MA in Interpreting and Translating at the University of Bath — a well-renowned course in the T&I world, and a dream come true for me personally, considering that the teacher who inspired me a decade ago studied on that same course. During my time at Bath, I was trained in consecutive, simultaneous and public service interpreting, was assessed by experienced EU interpreters from the English booth, and completed a study visit to the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of the European Union. Since then, I have moved back to Germany, and am completing a 6-month traineeship to further specialise in automotive and electronic engineering translation. At the same time, I am working as a freelance translator and interpreter, and of course continuing to develop my conference interpreting skills — something you never quite conquer. I never quite left French behind, and I am now working on adding it as a third passive interpreting language, alongside learning Swedish here in Germany. In the meantime, I have kept in contact with friends and lecturers from Exeter, still feel grateful for my time there and believe that I couldn’t have embarked on my long-awaited career and further language learning without that pivotal step of studying at Exeter. Wherever this career may take me, I truly believe that none of it would be attainable without my experience at possibly the best university in the world.