I am an American who has been living in Germany for the last 8 years. I earned my M.A. in philosophy at the Humboldt University in Berlin and I have been working as a freelance translator since 2000. My commercial work has focused on business, finance, IT, advertising, and law, though I have also done projects for art and fashion. In my academic translation, I have prepared lectures and essays as well as a book, in subjects ranging from psychology and history to gender studies and literary criticism.

Experience has taught me that the central challenge of translation lies in understanding the expectations of the text's target audience. There are many perfectly correct English translations of German that nevertheless sound unprofessional, even bizarre, because they do not consider their readers. In the private sector and academics alike, this can result in poor reception.

As a translator my goal is not only to convey the meaning of the source text accurately; I also want to tailor it to the given idiom and context. In many cases, this requires a more creative approach to translation, one that demands more work but produces more satisfying results for everyone.