Why am I good at what I do?

Mastery of Language and Bilingual Expertise

Instead of boring you with my life history, I'll explain why I have the skillset needed to do what I do. The skillset needed to provide excellent translation, interpreting, and consulting services include:

1. A mastery of your mother tongue. In the crib, I'd fall asleep with a book in my hands. I've been an unstoppable avid reader my entire life, reading for hours on end, to the point of almost being unsocial. Because of this passion, I readily construct sentences that convey the ideas I wish to convey in the appropriate register and use the best possible terms.

2. Knowledge of the source language. Fortunately for my interpreting customers, I have lived and worked in a bilingual environment for three decades. Consequently, I immediately know what has been said in either language and convey it with ease?

Specialized Knowledge and Advanced Techniques

3. A very strong background in your areas of specialty – My Bachelor of Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, together with my experience as an engineer, has given me an enormous advantage in technical, scientific, and engineering translation and interpreting compared to other vendors.

My Master's Degree in Management Science from Troy State University helps me tremendously in financial, business, commercial, and legal translation and interpreting. The ability to see a business project from a manager's perspective has proven to be decisively useful for my consulting services.

4. Technique. Although a person may be versed in foreign languages, that is insufficient for good interpreting. Technique, i.e., knowing how to memorize, speak while listening, manage the flow of a conversation, and paraphrase difficult concepts, require study and practice to master.

Strategic Networking and Effective Time Management

5. Networking. Networking is key in consulting. A foreign company setting up new operations in Italy will not be familiar with local laws, codes, or practices. The company will need a figure who can gain the trust and cooperation of other professionals, discussing legal issues with lawyers, technical matters with engineers, accounting topics with accountants, and financial matters with banks. They will need a primary liaison to find and negotiate terms with local vendors and do the legwork involved in forming a new company and setting up operations in Italy, in general, and then bring them all together as a team. Truth be told, these projects can be a lot of fun.

6. Time management. Being one who believes in intellectual honesty, I admit to having miscalculated workloads and delivery times in the past. I learned the hard way. Missing deadlines is a Big No-No in the translation industry, and, more often than not, customers are more under extreme time pressure. Taking on more than you can chew can be brutal for a translator's health and family life.

Education

Stevens Institute of Technology

Hoboken, New Jersey

Bachelor of Engineering - 1983

Brooks Aerospace School of Medicine

Brooks Air Force Base

San Antonio, Texas

Bioenvironmental Engineering Course 1985

Troy State University

Troy, Alabama

Masters in Management Science - 1990

Interpreters Associates, Inc

Charlestown, MA

Medical Interpreters Certificate Program - 2022