Philip Anthony Cochrane Ralph

Background

British born and bred, I took a gap year in Germany after leaving school. Working there, I gained a good grounding in the German language and culture.

Returning to the UK to go to university, I intensified my study of the language, and became active as a freelance translator. In 1983, I was elected an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Linguists and passed the Institute's Final Diploma in German the following year.

After university, I worked as a Senior Technical Clerk with Babcock Power. This involved translating technical documents, engineering drawings and marketing brochures. I later worked for Philips Electronics and Ericsson Telecommunications, whilst freelancing as a translator in my spare time.

Moving to Germany to marry and become a family man, I continued in freelance translation, before becoming Editorial Director of a small German publisher of travel guides and maps. This involved interpreting for international business contacts, and translating contracts and legal texts, as well as proof-reading in English. I subsequently took on management responsibilty for the production of maps and atlases on Apple computers.

Obtaining a German vocational qualification in programming, I have spent the last fifteen years in software development.

• Adobe Acrobat
• PowerPoint
• Wordfast
• Microsoft Word,
  StarOffice/OpenOffice.org Writer,
  Doc-To-Help,
  Abbyy FineReader (document conversion & OCR)