French is the language of my childhood and my late teenage years. English is the language of my adolescence and university years. They've been intertwined for as long as I can remember, and my mind cannot erase the maternal French, although it's been replaced in the day to day with the paternal American English for close to two decades.

The roots of my translation abilities go back to the lycée, when my bilingualism inspired a teacher to prepare me for the Concours Général in English. Those literary translations I did and redid, never achieving her full satisfaction, taught me the difference between good, very good, and excellent.

It was only several years later that translation came up again, when a friend and fellow law student asked me for help - could I interpret for her political asylum-seeking Congolese client, and translate some legal correspondence? That experience, far less demanding than the Concours Général, was in some ways even more rewarding, because the client's gratitude in being heard and understood was immediate and plain to see.

After law school I was fortunate to find a staff position as a FR>EN translator, and there I dabbled in all kinds of texts over the course of two years. Being a staff translator requires dexterity and precision in multiple fields, which discourages specialization - translators love to read after all, and love the challenge inherent in translation.

Some word counts:

Business/Financial:
Corporate magazine 11,000 words
Real estate analysis 3,700 words
Internal corporate communication 3,800 words
Audit report 27,000 words

Marketing:
Promotional brochures 7,000 words
Press releases 2,500 words

Law:
Contracts 6,700 words
Legal petition 5,000 words

Academic:
Research paper on gender 19,600 words

Technical:
Technical report (construction) 6,000 words
Job descriptions for nuclear power plant 20,000 words
Technical presentation 7,000 words