Technical translator

Background

I was born in the UK and spent almost all of the first 27 years of my life in an English-speaking environment.

After studying modern languages and translation in the 1980s, I began my career as a translator in the electrical industry, at the UK arm of a German switchgear manufacturer. In 1991, I moved to Germany to take up a staff translator position in Cologne. I’ve been delivering translation services independently since 1993.

Modern media enable me to maintain close contact with the English-speaking world and keep in step with changes to the language.

In 1999, I began using the Linux operating system and have relied upon it ever since. My experience of using Linux for translation purposes is documented on my Linux for Translators website.

In 2002, I joined Keith Godfrey, the original developer of the OmegaT computer-aided translation tool, in launching a project to make it available to a wider group of users. Since then, I have been involved in the OmegaT project at different times as project coordinator, author of the user documentation, localization coordinator, website manager, and programmer of supplementary utilities.

Besides electrical control systems and automation, the focus of my work over the last two decades has been occupational safety and health.

I’m a member of Germany’s largest professional translators’ association (BDÜ).

My life in Germany has taken me from the Cologne area, through the northern Ruhr region, and most recently to Wuppertal – home of the famous overhead railway and where it rains considerably less than in Miami, Florida.