Connecting Portuguese and Spanish-Speaking Cultures to the English-Speaking World

It was during my teens in my hometown of Folkestone, southern England, when the realisation hit me that I wanted to work in the language industry when I “grew up”. Among several catalysts behind this particular ‘aha’ moment was the inspiration I received from my exceptional teacher Mrs. Pritchard, who taught me German at my alma mater, the Harvey Grammar School. In hindsight, it’s tricky to put my finger on precisely what it was in Mrs. Pritchard’s teaching approach that caused me to become so inspired, but part of the overall message was that proficiency in more than one’s own native tongue can open doors. Woven into the fabric of her GCSE and A-Level German lessons was the idea of languages being a valuable conduit in both professional and social circumstances, especially if your horizons are set beyond the borders of the country where you were born.

Actually, I believe this international mindset was instilled in me even before my becoming interested in the study of languages at secondary school; in fact, depending on where you stand on this type of thing, it’s entirely possible that it is something innate in me. My grandparents on my father’s side spent the best part of their working lives living and working in several African countries, including Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. My grandfather was a quantity surveyor by trade, and he decided to uproot his young family to Ghana in the 1950s to work as a university lecturer and consultant to the Ghanaian government, while my grandmother worked as a teacher in local schools. Some years later, my grandfather was presented with the opportunity to work for UNESCO, probably the pinnacle of his career, and which enabled my grandparents to travel to numerous countries around the world. The many tales of their travels were recounted to me on many occasions during my childhood, and I was particularly fascinated by their adventures in Latin America, in particular Brazil and Mexico.

It was this profound interest in the culture of countries like Brazil and Mexico, and later, by extension, Portugal and Spain, which brought me to my decision to start learning Portuguese, followed by Spanish not long after. This new trajectory in my journey initially took me to Lisbon for a month of intensive study of the Portuguese language, and subsequently to Brazil, where I was offered a job teaching English at a school in the town of Monte Mor, upstate São Paulo. This marvellous year spent teaching my wonderful students in this quaint and hospitable corner of Brazil, along with the subsequent period I spent travelling and immersing myself in the culture of the Brazilian Northeast, further fostered my unwavering fondness for Brazilian culture and the Portuguese language; my knowledge of which was truly flourishing into fluent territory by the time I had to make my bittersweet return to British shores.

With my conviction that I would one day work with the Portuguese and Spanish languages in my professional life being further strengthened, I decided to embark on the Bachelor of Portuguese and Spanish degree course at the University of Salford, an institution that is widely renowned as having excellent teaching facilities for translation and interpreting. Highlights of my undergraduate studies included completing my first course modules in the area of translation, spending my Erasmus year working in both Portugal and Spain, being awarded an internship at the Portuguese Consulate General in Manchester, working as an international fan liaison for Manchester City F.C., achieving first-class degree honours upon completion of my course, and receiving the Audrey Brassloff Prize for the best student of Portuguese.

It wasn’t until a couple of years later that I decided to embrace translation as a career choice. At the time, I was longing to return to Portugal, and I decided to do so by way of enrolling on the Master of Translation and Language Services degree at the University of Porto. I could not have asked for a better, more comprehensive immersion in my chosen field, replete with specialised modules taught by some of the most respected academics in the areas of translation and linguistics in Portugal, if not on a pan-European level. My first forays into medical, legal, and technical translation also took place during this highly beneficial period of my professional development, specialisms I have built upon extensively since having graduated. At the end of my first year, I managed to get my first job as a Project Manager of a translation agency, and I ended up spending the vocational final part of the master’s degree course working in this role whilst I completed my thesis.

Upon obtaining my diploma, I decided to remain in Portugal and went fully freelance as a translator, and have not looked back since, with my experience and client base having only gone from strength to strength since then. In 2023, I translated approximately 1 million words into English from both Portuguese and Spanish, albeit at least a third of this word count derives from MTPE (machine translation post-editing) projects.

In my spare time, I love reading, and enjoy devouring both fiction and non-fiction books; my favourite fiction genres probably being historical fiction, postmodernist literature, and high fantasy, while history and sociology are the non-fiction genres I read the most. As you may have been able to deduce from my reading choices, I am hugely passionate about history, in particular the history of the Middle Ages, with a focus on the Iberian Peninsula and Britain, although I love learning about the period as a whole all across Europe and beyond. This keen interest in history manifests itself in the trips I like to plan, and I love visiting historical points of interest all over Portugal, Spain, the UK, and beyond.

Besides this, I also adore music, my favourite genres being metal, rock, classical, and ambient music, and I try to attend as many concerts and performances as I can both in Portugal and overseas. In my endeavours as a music fan, I have also managed to accumulate a moderately sizeable vinyl collection that encompasses a variety of genres. Other keen interests of mine include cooking and gastronomy, homebrewing beer, and going on country walks.