About Me

It is so difficult to write about yourself if do not want it to sound like a CV.

Although this is my business and my business page as a translator from English to German I would like it to have a personal feeling to it.
Still, I prefer to keep it short and sweet, if you don’t mind?

I was born in Germany, where I spent most of my life. From early childhood on I have a fascination with language, be it poems, stories, songs – you name it. I was a fast learner and as soon as I could I started reading and have not stopped ever since.

So many languages, so little time

Then I started to learn languages with Dutch being the very first foreign language which I learnt as a child. I am still kind of fluent at it, albeit a bit rusty due to lack of practice. I can read it, I can speak it, but writing is not on my list of abilities, I’m afraid. This is because I never went to a school to learn it, you see. From the young age of five we very frequently visited the Dutch island of Texel and very often stayed with the same family. They had three children and I am still befriended with the eldest one. If I think about it… we have a huge anniversary coming up this year. Amazing! That calls for a celebration, I suppose.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes,
The French lessons were more or less enforced on me and my knowledge is still extremely basic. I learnt a bit of Spanish, Italian and even Turkish, would you believe it?
After high-school, I hoped to become a translator for English and Japanese, but due to various circumstances, I was unable to do so.

As a keen Irish folk musician it was a must for me to learn Irish a bit. And when I came to live in Scotland, I started to learn Gaelic. This is not the easiest language to learn, especially when you have so many other things to do and to think about that your brain capacity is overloading. But I am confident that at one point I will be able to dare to speak. That is the hurdle I have to take, to actually dare to speak.

Moving on

In 2012 I moved to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. This is an amazing place to be and the landscape is breathtaking. The best thing of all is that I got my mojo back and got a great opportunity to translate novels. I absolutely love it, there are not enough words to describe how very much.

Over the last couple of years, I also worked as a tour guide for the Western Isles Tourguide Association but had to stop it due to bad health.

Another thing is my tea shop. Yes, that’s right, I own a tea shop, where you can buy loose leaf tea. And coffee. And tableware. And nice things. Both of my daughters have moved up here as well and are helping out whenever they can so that their mum has time to polish the keyboard and translate novels. Aren’t they great daughters?

So, now you know a bit more about me!