Category: Practitioner Spotlight

When I was a kid, I realised that language is something with great charm: it is mystery. People who can speak multiple languages are magicians who fill the gap between different countries. I was born and raised in China, where most school-aged kids are given opportunities to study English. This is a good thing because, generally speaking, kids learn a foreign language faster than adults; and it had a big impact on both my education and my career as a translator and interpreter. I spent my teenage years in a foreign language school, where students are required to learn a […]

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Camille Lapierre is a NAATI Certified Conference Interpreter in French, AUSIT NSW Branch Chair and a tutor for interpreting courses at University of New South Wales (UNSW). Becoming an interpreter was something I dreamt of since the age of 12. I was born and raised in the western part of France and had the opportunity to learn a few languages at school and then later on at university. I truly enjoyed being able to communicate with more people across the globe and started to search for a career path that would allow me to use those languages on a daily […]

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Shiyi Ye is a NAATI Certified Conference Interpreter and Translator; has been a freelance interpreter and translator in Sydney since 2007; and has been teaching the Translation and Interpreting program at Macquarie University in Sydney since 2008. My sincere appreciation goes to NAATI for this opportunity. I think I should share my experience as a student, a practitioner and later a teacher, as I have been wearing these hats for a while, and what I experienced might be a helpful reference for colleagues. It was after the scorching Summer of 2003 that I embarked on the journey in this fascinating […]

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Early Days My fascination with languages started just before I went to high school while learning the English alphabet during the last winter of my primary school days. My love affair with the English language would continue for the rest of my life. My first encounter with an English-speaking person was probably as a young university student back in the 80s.  I was asked to interpret for an elderly American missionary at our small church near Seoul.  I somehow enjoyed the novel experience, beginner’s luck I suppose. The old gentleman ended up marrying me and my wife a few years later, on […]

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NAATI bringing me into spotlight – asking me to share my experiences as a translator and interpreter with the world – what an honour! So, what can I share? My mind immediately flew back to 25 years ago when I had my first taste of translating and interpreting. As a young migrant from Pakistan who was studying at the University of Oslo and had been happily married for just over two years, I had decided to change course after studying philosophy and psychology for two years. I took a foundation course in phonetics and linguistics and enrolled in English literature. […]

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Last week I received a phone call from a woman for whom I used to interpret more than 15 years ago. It was such a surprise and made me think about the rewards of this profession. In this woman’s case I interpreted for the whole family when they found themselves newly arrived in Australia and in very traumatic and desperate circumstances. She said she’d never forgotten the valuable service I had provided, and her family always remembered how much I’d helped them by removing the language barrier during those difficult times. I interpreted for them over many months, even years, […]

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