I am a full-time translator working from French into English based in the seaside town of Whitby, North Yorkshire. Before moving to the north east of England five years ago, I spent thirty years working in Strasbourg, France and three years in Brussels, Belgium. From teaching English to adults, at the start of my career, I moved into international scientific meeting and conference organisation but my love of languages always stayed with me and I decided to change careers and to become a translator.

ITI has been my main source of support from the beginning. I was a mentee on the 2011 Professional Support Group (PSG). This online course (which has since been replaced by Setting Up as a Freelance Translator) helped me not only to launch my business and establish the framework for my continuing development and planning but also to become part of my first translation network. I highly recommend this course to anyone starting out in the profession.

Living in Whitby, I am between the areas covered by two ITI Regional Groups, the Yorkshire Translators & Interpreters (YTI) and ITI North East, of which I am a member. I try to attend as often as possible the lively social and excellent training events organised by these groups. It was wonderful to discover that there were so many language professionals in my area and to feel that I was becoming part of a community of colleagues.

This will be my second ITI Conference (the first was in 2011) and there was no way that I was going to miss this event taking place in Newcastle, a couple of hours away from me. I am looking forward to the masterclass on ‘The Sound of Music’ by Ros Schwartz and the very exciting programme of invited talks and conference sessions as well as the opportunity to mingle with delegates and to make new friends and contacts.