Below is a sample of translation and interpreting projects into Spanish I have been involved with.
Table of Contents
Translation of corporate communications: English to Spanish
Hannah, at Banana Link, needed minutes of international meetings translated into Spanish so that her NGO’s teams in Latin America were informed of new policies to continue their good work. This is what Hannah has to say:
“Pili is a reliable, highly-skilled translator who has offered her time and language skills to our organisation since March 2020. In that time she has completed various pieces of work across a number of specialised topics, all of which were completed to a very high standard. Pili is a wonderful person to work with, she is responsive, professional and always welcomes feedback on the translation work she completes. I would have no hesitation in recommending her to others, she would be an asset to any organisation or project.” (Hannah Thompson, Banana Link)
Editing of tourism leaflets: English to Spanish
George, a volunteer interpreter at Salisbury cathedral, wanted some new visitor guides to sound as natural as if written by a Spanish native speaker. One of them was for children and needed to take this into account. Having worked in teaching, and used to having to provide information in the clearest way, I was able to help with both aims. This is what George wrote back:
“This is brilliant, thank you soooo much. I think all the alterations you made are perfect and make it read much better than my original effort.”
Website localisation and transcreation: English to Spanish
For Nikki, it was her business that was at stake. She needed creative Spanish translation that sounded friendly, like her clients, and in the meantime transmitted the rigour of her experienced academic and tourism translation business. Read Nikki’s experience:
“I hired Pili to translate some pages of my website into Spanish because I was looking for a creative translator that would work with me to achieve a great result. Pili proved to be an extraordinarily detail-oriented translator. She cares about getting every aspect of your translation right and she’ll leave no stone unturned until you’re happy with the terminology choices, style and tone. I cannot recommend her highly enough and she will be my go-to translator for future projects of this kind.” (Nikki Graham, CEO at nikkigrahamtranix.com)
Liaison interpreting: English to Spanish and vice versa
It was Michael’s happiness that was at stake. He and his Latin American fiancée found out at the last minute that they needed an interpreter to give notice of marriage at Southampton’s registry office. Michael called me the night before and so I did a bit of rushed prep thinking of the vocabulary that could come up. As a trained interpreter in both consecutive and simultaneous interpreting, I was overjoyed to be able to help. What’s more, I had been to the office a few months before for my own notice of marriage. Yet, the only term I did not think to prepare: sham marriage! It’s such an idiomatic expression, so different in Spanish! Fear not, interpreters have a bit more leeway than translators with their words, so, these lovely couple were soon happily married. Phew!
Michael said:
“Pili was a joy to work with. Her excellent English and Spanish translation skills enabled my wife and registrar to follow everything that was said during a meeting where we were giving our notice of marriage. She was able to attend the appointment on such short notice and followed up afterward to ensure everything was understood. I recommend Pili because she’s professional, delivers and follows up.” (Michael Barber)
Localisation of nutrition blog posts: English to Spanish
It was an agency I had long wanted to work for and, when I applied, I was lucky they were looking for a specialist in food translation for an upcoming exciting project. It was a great opportunity to experience a complex web localisation project while working in one of my favourite fields. I chose translation as opposed to revision and translated around 20,000 words of blog posts for a major FMCG brand. This included SEO keyword revision (the keywords were researched by a team with no Spanish knowledge); the time-consuming localisation of nutritional guidelines, and the occasional contextualisation of lesser known ingredients. All great experience!
Working in a team was full of lessons too:
- When there are too many teams involved, vital information does not always make it where is needed. This results in time wasted doing tasks that are no longer needed because, for example, the budget has been amended.
- Translators’ styles differ like day and night and, when your project is split to provide a faster service, it can happen that one of the translators fully ignores the other translator’s style and specialist knowledge. What if one translator’s main aim is providing the best service while the other’s is getting the job done by the deadline?
(Confidential client)
“Where honesty and quality rule.”
— Pili Rodríguez Deus, CEO @PiliRodriguezDeus.com