TRANSLATOR APPLICATION FOR UTOPIAN & DAVINCI

Dear @utopian-io & @davinci.polyglot, this is my application to contribute as a Translator in your joint project, which I’m incredibly stoked about.

My name is Irene, I’m 31 years old and Italian. Although I followed a humanities curriculum in school (liceo, then Law School), my parents always made sure I was on top of my foreign languages: I took extra lessons in elementary school, went to an English International School for middle school, spent quite a few summers abroad, and then a year of high school in Oregon and one year of college at the University of California Irvine (zot! zot!).
I’m now a qualified Attorney, currently working for the Italian IRS, which doesn’t exploit my language skills too much, unless I’m explaining the intricacies of Italian bureaucracy to a foreign exchange student or a recent immigrant. But past studies have had their time to take root, and I’ve always kept myself well honed through extensive reading, the occasional movie, and some legal translation work. I love translating and I’d probably do it as a full-time profession, if I had the right certifications and it paid well enough.
I also pride myself on having a quite decent use of my native Italian, which working as an Attorney has definitely helped. I’m skilled with words, a decent public speaker, and love doing crosswords… does that count towards my native language qualifications?

Mi chiamo Irene, ho 31 anni e sono italiana. Nonostante abbia seguito un percorso di studi umanistici (liceo e, a seguire, Giurisprudenza) i miei genitori si sono sempre assicurati che che mantenessi alto il livello anche nelle lingue straniere: seguivo lezioni supplementari alle elementari, ho frequentato una English International School alle medie, ho passato svariate estati all’estero e infine un anno di superiori in Oregon e un anno di università alla University of California di Irvine (zot! zot!).
Attualmente sono abilitata Avvocato e lavoro all'Agenzia delle Entrate, il che non sfrutta appieno le mie capacità linguistiche a meno che non stia spiegando ad uno studente straniero o a un immigrato neoarrivato la labirintica burocrazia italiana. Ma gli studi passati hanno avuto tempo di mettere radici e mi sono comunque sempre tenuta ben allenata con ampie letture, qualche film ed alcuni lavori di traduzione giuridica. Adoro tradurre e probabilmente lo farei come lavoro a tempo pieno, se avessi le giuste qualifiche e pagasse bene.
Mi faccio anche vanto di una certa dimestichezza con l’italiano, che fare l’avvocato ha certamente incoraggiato. Mi destreggio bene con le parole, sono una discreta oratrice e adoro fare le parole crociate… conta come qualifica nella propria lingua madre?

I’ve been collaborating with @davinci.polyglot for a few months now, and I’m sure @mcassani can attest to my skills. You can find quite a few of my previous translations on their page, but here’s the most recent ones:

• ENG > ITA Erbe medicinali #1: Valeriana officinalis
  I love translating for @aboutcoolscience: his posts are always both extremely interesting and very easy to work with.
• ITA > ENG Avengers: Infinity War - To the Infinity Gems and Beyond
  This was a veritable marathon: I swear @serialfiller is even more long-winded than I am when he wants to be, but I enjoyed the challenge.

I also translate all the posts published by Sierra @steam.erotic, which always come out in Italian and English simultaneously. Fun fact: those posts are originally written in English.

I hate my recorded voice just a tad more than the average person. Which means I avoid recording it as much as I can: I don’t even send audio messages on WhatsApp. But I understand why it’s necessary to add this step to the application, so here it goes. Of course, I realized that I should have shot it in landscape only halfway through.