Hello there! My name is
Sylvia and I'm a
native US English speaker who has been living in Paris for nearly
10 years now. My family is
Puerto Rican and I grew up speaking
Spanish at home as well. I started learning
French at 14 years old and went to France for the first time at 16, then 19, then 20, then moved here permanently at 22. I also studied
German during my time at Tufts and Sciences Po (year abroad).
I love my job, I love learning new things - when I was little I was that kid that always asked 'why? why?', driving my mom nuts in the process.
I have an undergraduate degree in French and Communications from Tufts University (MA, USA) and a Master's Degree in Editorial, Economic and Technical Translation from ESIT in Paris.
After finishing my Master's degree, I worked as a translation intern for Sanofi's Regulatory Affairs Department for a year, where I translated and proofread SmPCs, patient leaflets, toxicology reports, medical study reports, correspondence with regulatory authorities, adverse event reports, and much more.
I then went to work for the Laboratoire français du fractionnement et des biotechnologies (LFB)'s HR Department, where I translated over 300 job descriptions relating to the company's biopharmaceutical activities.
After that, I spent just over three years at Telelingua France (a translation agency), where I proofread and translated a variety of texts spanning nearly every subject field imaginable to man: fashion, medical devices, construction, standards, press releases, contracts, rock climbing, and more. I also kept terminology bases up to date, dealt with client feedback, sent feedback to translators, and recruited freelance translators.
I left translation in June 2019 to do sales for a Parisian craft brewery (BAPBAP), but in the end, it wasn't really for me. I've decided to return to translation and am loving being back! Feels like coming home.
Since June 2020 I've done a variety of different projects for translation agencies and direct clients, including translation of safety rules for industrial cleaning operations (FR > EN), press releases for a European medical conference (DE > EN), two one-hour radio shows (FR > EN), a share transfer agreement (FR > EN), a brochure for medical fridges (DE > EN), and more!
I would be happy to help with any translation, revision, localization, proofreading, transcription or subtitling job you may have from French/Spanish/German into English.
My absolute favorite fields to work in are: pharmaceuticals, medicine, cosmetics, food & drink, tourism, HR, communications, advertising, fashion/luxury/jewelry, psychology, art & environment.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylviaavila/
Malt: https://www.malt.fr/profile/sylviaavila
Website coming soon! (Working on coding it myself.)