Experienced freelance translator, technical writer, and copywriter

Freelancer since 1988
- as translator (from English to German),
- technical writer (in particular of manuals for data communication software and hardware)
- journalist, and
- coach for new German orthography, writing style and software applications.

Expertise:
IT (hardware and software), telecommunications and data communication, technology, engineering, (consumer) electronics, domestic appliances, public relations, marketing, journalism, law (contracts), business, human resources, science, other

See my website www.doctrans.de

"We had a great experience working with Martin - rapid, efficient, good prices.
We would definitely work with him again."
Lucy Allwood, amazing didgital studios, Paris 2009

Translation = language skills + writing skills + knowledge

Translation is more a specialized form of writing. Merely knowing two or more languages does not make one a translator. A good translator must also have exceptional writing skills as well. On the one hand the translation must faithfully reflect the original, and the meaning and the style must be rendered in another language which has its own semantic structure and cultural implications. Or as the American linguists Edward Sapir wrote:

"No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached... We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation."
(E. Sapir, The Status of Linguistics as a Science)