After graduating from Leipzig University in 1994, I worked for a year as a translator in Leipzig. In 1995, I joined the German foreign service to go live and work for 4 years in Moscow (Russia) - as a junior translator at the German embassy's translation section. After my 4-year term was up, I was posted to New York City where I worked another 4 years as the office manager of the German Ambassador to the UN. Both positions - though rather different from each other - gave me valuable professional expertise as a translator and useful insight into the workings of German administration and authorities. Additionally, the stay in the US and in Russia let me experience first-hand what everyday life in another culture is like and helped me to better understand many different aspects of the English and Russian languages. Those 8 years imparted knowledge upon me no university education could - in terms of language learning but also in terms of cultural studies.
I returned to the Ministry's headquarters in September of 2003 and worked at the Protocol Department's Division for State and Official Visits. It was an interesting job that let me gain valuable experience in the field of event management and trip organizing and it taught me to prove my organizational skills in a particularly stressful environment. I lived and worked in Berlin for almost exactly 3 years and in September of 2006, I returned to Moscow, where I again worked in the embassy's translation section until July 2010. In August 2010, I moved back to the US - where I took up a new position with the German Embassy's German Information Center in Washington, DC with my primary job being to edit a newsletter about current events and modern life in Germany (in German). I stayed there for 4 years and upon completing my posting in DC, returned to Berlin in summer of 2014.
I'm now taking a hiatus from freelancing as my new job at the Foreign Office's headquarters is too time-consuming and stressful to allow for any additional side jobs. I'm now in charge of official gifts, a responsibility that requires a good educational background, a broad skill set, an open mind and a good deal of imagination. I have to do lots of research both about people (potential gift recipients) and objects (potential gift ideas). I'm learning something new almost every week and am looking forward to applying this knowledge and new information to my translation skills at some point in the near future.

Since 2001, I have been doing freelance translation work on the side working for different agencies and clients in Germany and abroad. My professional expertise includes:

¢ official/government correspondence
¢ certificates/licenses/diplomas/references
¢ press releases, speeches, lectures of the diplomatic mission, texts on UN-related subjects
¢ general texts/marketing material on biotechnology, new media and telecommunications, IT
¢ general technical texts, instructions/operating manuals, handbooks
¢ marketing and survey material on various subjects (online and phone surveys)
¢ tourism and travel-related texts
¢ legal texts (contracts, corporate terms and conditions, privacy policies)
¢ newspaper articles, biographies
¢ instructions and teaching material for foreign languages e-learning courses
¢ website translation and promotional material for large Internet comparison shopping service
¢ recipes, cooking and culinary texts
¢ cosmetics and beauty products (product information, make-up advice and makeover descriptions)
¢ marketing/promotional material for online Gambling/Casino websites and Poker rooms
¢ literary translations (Russian fairy-tales, American short stories, American poetry)

A good deal of my "official" work day in Moscow consisted of reading letters from Russian citizens (in Russian) adressed to the German embassy and summarizing their contents for the relevant department within the embassy. Therefore, I have developed a great deal of expertise when it comes to Russian handwriting and condensing the contents of a multiple-page handwritten letter to a maximum of 1 page of typed text, with the request, concerns and/or wishes of the sender clearly emphasized and pointed out. For that reason, I also offer "condensed translation services" at a price that has to be agreed on beforehand (depending on the subject matter, text size and format as well as time frame).

Upon request, I am happy to send you my CV in German, English or Russian.

Rates

Available upon request - per word of source text or per line (55 characters including spaces) of target text
Discounted rates for high-volume and/or long-term projects are negotiable

Please contact me for a quote and to find out more details about pricing, delivery and other conditions.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you!