CAROLA KERN, MA
30 A Coronation Street • St. John’s, Newfoundland • Canada • A1C 5C1
709.221.0128 • [email protected] • www.carolakern.com •
Skype-ID: carola.kern727


Profile
A resourceful, result-oriented professional with more than 10 years of experience as a full-time freelance EN-GER-EN translator (with German as my mother tongue) as well as extensive experience in all facets of project development. Skilled at integrating and interpreting information from multiple sources. Excellent communication-, organizational-, and project management skills.

Areas of Knowledge
• Fluent in English and German
• Publishing and book design
• Qualified to teach German as a Second Language
• Early Childhood Education
• COMPUTER SKILLS: Macintosh: Microsoft Office 2011; specific online translation tools from clients, QuarkXPress 6.0; Adobe Photoshop CS, Skype; PC: Microsoft Office 2013
• CAT-TOOLS: Working experience with memoQ and SDLX Lite, Verifika 2.5

Education

Certificate in Book and Magazine Publishing (2001)
WBS Training, Frankfurt, Germany with an internship in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada

Master of Arts in English and German Literature (1995)
Justus-Liebig-Universität, Gießen, Germany

Degree in Early Childhood Education (1986)
Lehranstalt für Hauswirtschaft, Agrarwirtschaft, Sozialpädagogik, Hameln, Germany

EN-GER Translation

CHILDREN AND EDUCATION
Product packaging and -instructions for toys and games, localization of product-related online games;
Description of educational art supplies for a catalogue;
Educational songs and stories for children (Hooked on Color, Hooked on Forms, Hooked on Shapes). Like the original text, the text of the songs had to rhyme, using the same illustrations as the original.
Educational materials to teach non-English speaking children common vocabulary, expressions and phrases (Hooked on English).
Children’s stories, fairy tales, and short stories.

LITERATURE AND ARTS
Translation of a novel (LitRPG genre); synopses and development strategies for movies; reviews of artists and exhibitions.



VIDEO GAMES
Game localization of video- and computer games, press releases and blogs for video- and computer games; game blogs; press releases for new games.

TRAVEL & TOURISM
Self-guided tours throughout Western Canada with detailed descriptions of natural features, geology, and wildlife; hotel descriptions for an Internet travel company; most comprehensive website about the gulf of Naples and its attractions; websites of camping sites, holiday parks, and guest houses in the Netherlands; articles for an online travel agency.

FOOD AND DRINK
Restaurant menus; recipes; articles about wine.

MARKETING
E-commerce websites; MLM manuals; catalogues (office supplies, commercial furniture product descriptions for eBay).

JOURNALISM
Press releases; articles about nature, environment, lifestyle.

GER-EN Translation

MARKETING
Personal reports from former university students for an anniversary publication of Fulda University, Germany.

AUTOMOTIVE
Photocopied originals from the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, regarding the building of the prototype of the Porsche GT racecar and its first road test; magazine articles about the car and famous racecar drivers and engineers.

Publishing

Editor/Production coordinator at Breakwater Books Limited (2001- 2004)
Collaborated with authors, writing teams and consultants, representatives from the Department of Education, in-house editing and production team, and marketing to develop text and illustrations
for textbooks (Religious Education Grades 4-6 and History Grade 6). Researched and selected
text-sensitive images for educational texts. Edited and proofread children’s books as well as fiction
and nonfiction books. Reviewed manuscripts for publication. Managed the production schedule. Designed and did the layout of text in QuarkXPress. Obtained permissions for image reproduction. Assembled press kits for book fairs.

Early Childhood Education

Kindergarten Teacher for the City of Pohlheim, Germany (1995-2000)
Lesson-planned and supervised ca. 25 children aged 3-7. Developed and organized didactic units and planned and organized group activities. Collaborated with different public and social institutions to meet the developmental requirements for special-needs children. Planned and organized parent-teacher meetings and events like field trips and seasonal celebrations.