About Me

About Mike Smith: My Passion for Languages & Translation

                
Welcome to my blog. Since you're already here, I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and explain a bit about where I'm coming from. My name is Mike Smith, I'm 38 years old, and I live in San Francisco in sunny California.

I grew up in what I guess you could call a typical American 'nuclear' family. A mom, a dad and two kids living in suburban USA. My father was a lecturer and my mother a school teacher, so we always had a rich perspective on the world around us, and I think it was these beginnings that sparked my interest in languages and in turn translation. When I was 13 years old we traveled to Paris as a family, and the following year to Argentina. For me these were eye-opening experiences that really ignited my passion for languages. I can still vividly recall memories from these vacations and I've since retraced those very same trips.

I was an average student across most subjects, but I excelled in languages. In those days I studied French and Spanish, today I speak both fluently along with Portuguese, while I continue to learn Japanese and Swedish in my spare time (slowly and badly).

Translation is something that I really discovered and became interested in during my degree studies, two years into my French language major. I took on both French and Translation, and although this ended up really lengthening my time and increasing my costs at university, I've never looked back. The appeal for me was the challenge of mastering a language pair and using my knowledge of both cultures' idioms and vagaries to give the most accurate translation.

The translation services industry is booming and rapidly changing these days. Big players are investing in the sector and the demand for professional translators in the highest it's ever been. With this blog I really hope to shine a light on the translation industry and to educate readers about this exciting and cool profession.