I grew up in Germany and the US, later lived in France and Britain and am now based in Sweden. I brought my French from the very basic French I spoke after leaving high school to the level it is at today without help from teachers or courses, learned Swedish independently and have been studying Standard Chinese on my own for the past few years. A lot of my free time goes to reading social theory and history, mostly in English, but also in other languages.
Over the past 35 years or so I have, in parallel to my work as a physiotherapist, bodyworker and movement educator, been active in various, often transnational, progressive activist groups and networks, which has often involved translation and sometimes interpretation at events and meetings. I feel most comfortable translating between German and English, but have also done various other combinations, for example translating the subtitles of a French video into English, or translating texts on care work from English into Swedish.
My own writing is mostly in English, although I also write in German, French and Swedish. I’ve done some proofreading of English texts for academic friends of mine (German and Swedish native speakers), mostly on an informal basis and unpaid. I discovered that I am quite good at it and enjoy the process of cleaning up and refining a text. I would like to get into doing it more.
I’m happy to work on shorter papers or excerpts (1000 words maximum) as free samples. After that, what I’d take per 1000 words would depend on what exactly the author wants me to do (proofreading, reviewing, editing, translation) and what the text I am starting from looks like.
You can contact me at [email protected].