Birgitt Lederer

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•    Bachelor of Arts Languages – Honours graduate in English and French – German major (University of Johannesburg (formerly RAU) South Africa.

•    As a full-time freelance translator of several years, have successfully accomplished a whole variety of German to English translation projects with repeat business. Among the diversity of subjects dealt with were curriculum vitaes; press releases for different industries; business, legal and contractual documents; tenders; university thesis; fire and safety directives; job postings; IT manuals for websites such as eBay; company webistes. My forte is the creative use of the English language expecially in the context of magazine and tourism related articles.

•    Fully conversant in English and German – being German-born with German as my mother tongue (and having lived in Germany during periods of my adult life) and English having become my first language from early on in life having lived in South Africa and the UK – this gives me the distinct advantage of an innate familiarity with the intricacies of both languages.   .  

•    Co-author (published in 2004) of the ‘The Hidden Records’ by Wayne Herschel, which has since become internationally available (see consistently high ranking on Amazon) – My role was to do a thorough edit/re-write to re-conceptualise the author’s complex innovative new theories on the history of our origins into an easily palatable style, to make them digestible for a wide readership.

•   Give ongoing editing support for articles posted on www.thehiddenrecords.com and www.keyofsolomon.net (2004 to present).

•    My experience as a personal assistant in both the UK and Germany (1997 to 2000) in diverse industries has not only allowed me to expand my knowledge base to develop areas of expertise for translating (i.e. paper and pulp industry (SAPPI UK), consulting (Ernst & Young), telecommunications (BT), legal transcription (Her Majesty’s Custom and Excise)), but has also allowed me to polish my command of the German language to the business level where my bilingualism became invaluable for overseas correspondence (Towers Perrin, Frankfurt).

•    Assistant to Martin Creamer, editor of ‘Engineering News’ and ‘Mining Weekly’, performing copyrighting, editing and proofreading function (1996/7) for this award- winning commercial and industrial publication. 

•    Sub-editor for ‘Info Africa’, which provided comprehensive information and accreditation support for the South African tourism industry at the time (1995/6). 

•    Eleven years’ experience in broadcasting newsroom environments (SABC 1984 to 1994) taking on positions of increasing seniority in newscast copy-writing and editing in a fast-moving current affairs environment across a broad spectrum of topical subjects, as well as translating from Afrikaans to English.

•    More than 20 years of cumulative knowledge in a variety of fields has given me the confidence to adapt my experience base to any given piece of editing and translating.

•    Member of SATI (South African Translators’ Institute, whose chief executive currently holds the position of President of the International Federation of Translators (FIT).

•    Anyone using my services to translate from German into English will have the advantage of someone with an implicit feel for the nuances that a source language will invariably present, and with English as my first language this will ensure the best possible and most accurate translated rendition.


Also see www.birgittlederer.com

 

 

Windows XP, MS Office 2003 and latest dictionary software

University of Johannesburg (RAU)- BA Languages with honours. English French and German.

Co-author of 'The Hidden Records' by Wayne Herschel (2003), 300-page non-fiction book which gives new impetus to the human origins debate.

Member of SATI, the South African Translators' Institute. (SATI is a member of the International Federation of Translators - FIT. SATI’s executive director Marion Boers was re-elected president of the International Federation of
Translators at the congress in San Francisco. This is her second term as president and will run
until August 2014).