Why another blog on interpreting?
I have long thought to write a blog about what I decided to do as a professional. Now with the last chapters of my thesis and my uni career drawing to a close, I thought it was a fitting time to get started.
In this blog, I will write about interpreting and all aspects it entails, which are many: langauge, language acquisition, the actual process of interpreting, the different types of interpreting, the life of a conference interpreter, freelancing, the resources an interpreter can use for their professional work and so on and so forth. Mainly, I will write entries based on my own experiences, experiences I will draw from my job as teaching fellow for liasion interpreting, but also from my first hands-on experiences related to what I always wanted to become: a professional interpreter.
As my native language is German, it might have been convenient to write this blog in German, which was the initial plan to be entirely honest with you. However, this blog will mainly be written in English, my active foreign language, as I want the number of readers not to be limited to only those who master German. In fact, I have many friends experienced in translation and interpreting which might have some interest in this blog and I would feel utterly ashamed to exclude any of them just because of a language barrier – which is in fact what we translators and interpreters aim to overcome.
The blog’s name is the “mute button”, which is a tiny little button that enables us interpreters during simultaneous interpretation to say what shouldn’t be said openly, to draw energy and refresh the brain or to interact with our colleague. My own experiences in the booth led me to believe that the mute button can actually be an interpreter’s best friend. Well, sometimes, our dearest friends deserve some kind of recognition in my opinion, and as the button is of such a central importance for interpreters, I thought it might be a convenient name for a blog dedicated to interpreting and written from the mind of an interpreter.
I hope you find reading this blog worthwhile and I am looking forward to hearing all your comments and replies to my entries!If you are interested, you can follow the Mute Button blog via RSS feed, Email, Twitter and/or Facebook.
Leave a Reply
Andreas! Magnificent idea on starting a blog on interpreting, I’ll eagerly follow it and read, think and learn about this exciting and passionate world thanks to your (I’m sure) highly rich, fun and personal posts. For a start, I’ve already marked it as a favourite in my links bar, as well as – and I hope you don’t mind- post your link onto a translating and interpreting spanish facebook page. i’m sure many people will be glad to read it!
Congrats once again!
Pau! thank you so much, for both your comment and for spreading the word. I really appreciate it as it helps to make it so much more visible to others! I hope you will find reading it entertaining
records des d’Alemanya!
Hi Andreas! I’ll add you to my bloggroll as soon as I can. Welcome! There are too few blogs on interpreting, so I’m very happy you’ve joined us.
Congrats, Andreas! Freut mich, dass du schon ein echter Dolmetscher bist! =)
Heeey,
Danke. Ich bin zumindest auf einem Guten Weg, sagen wir es mal so
Hab auch deinen Blog ausfindig gemacht, gefällt mir wirklich gut! Ich werde ihn bald zu meinem Blogroll hinzufügen!
Good luck. Let it roll!
Thank you very much, I appreciate it!
Always good to hear from fellow interpreters from all parts of the world.
Just found your blog today. Good stuff! Good luck!