Native French (FR) speaker in Fort-de-France , France
"A colorful perspective on French translation "
With a background in film production, I’ve been handling subtitling projects for an online platform which distribute music that I can’t name here (Thanks, NDA! ). Tasks involved: transcription, time-stamping… I also translate voiceover scripts that are going to be used by others to create subtitles.
Visit my website at The Dark Word but don’t forget to read about me first, right here.
From a multilingual and multicultural background, I was always very curious about the world from an early age. A bookworm, I was soon to begin writing my own material in the 3 languages most familiar to me and at the time, I was only 12:
English
Matinijé (also labelled Martinican Creole
French Can you guess what type of content I was writing then? I never really stopped writing and over time, I started writing a more diverse array of content. Little did I know that I would later come to teach two of these languages before turning to translation as a career path. I have been translating content and interpreting occasionally as a favor to individuals I knew or bumped into long before becoming a communication, film production or language student. Established colleagues, mentors and teachers have been a great help when I wasn’t sure I had what it takes to be a good translator or interpreter. I’m currently back in Martinique after having lived in France and Britain for years. Since we bring who we are to work, I am particularly suited to projects tied to afro-caribbean cultures, African-American cultures and narratives, music, film-making, video games and activism. I translate books, film scripts, personal documents, website copies…
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Hésitant longtemps entre la traduction et l’enseignement, c’est en 2015 que je referme pour de bon la parenthèse Éducation Nationale afin de me consacrer exclusivement à des projets de traduction, d’écriture musicale, poétique ou sociologique et de graphisme. Pour en savoir plus sur mes travaux ou mon parcours, visitez mon profil LinkedIn ou mon site internet dieezah.com (autrement Google vous aidera peut-être également à vous faire une idée).
Knowing my unique multicultural perspective on things can help foster unity in activism or bring diversity and inclusion to another level by making the voice of minorities stand out through the translation of literature, film scripts and via song adaptations brings me a deep satisfaction. Earning a living while trying to leave a better world for my children is not a bad job description, I guess.
User de mes dons en langues pour faire tomber les barrières et favoriser des collaborations internationales, y compris dans la lutte pour des causes justes, c’est une de mes principales motivations.
When clients request literal translations, this is how I handle the situation
Literal translations are almost never the right solution, unless your content is highly technical in nature. While I am open to answering questions regarding specific translation choices, I need to know that my clients trust my expertise more than they trust any AI engine for the relationship to work well. There’s always a reason why I pick what I pick in terms of phrasing or word choice and I will gladly explain what it is upon request. As long as you don’t sabotage my work (and both of our reputations) by making changes to the delivered file based on what you think is or isn’t right without consulting me (only to turn back later and ask me to do an extra round of review, proofreading/editing at no extra cost) we’ll be fine!
My professional methodology for a standard translation project is
Before giving you a realistic number for the price and for the deadline, I need to see the files you expect me to translate. While it would be counterproductive for us both if I attempted to read the whole thing before getting started on the project (when dealing with a novel or other high volume content) I still need to see what I’m dealing with to assess the amount of work that might be necessary to do full justice to your content and provide the best target language equivalent possible. Please provide: a wordcount a preferred deadline a brief summary of what the source files are about… an indication of what your budget is I will provide: a recommendation regarding the services needed, as sometimes client mistakenly request one (translation) when in fact they need the other (localization or adaptation)… a quote suggest a realistic deadline if yours wouldn’t work
CNR, Comité National pour les Réparations Martinique
Bon travail de traductrice, d’interprète, de community manager et de webmaster au fil des ans. Elle a également créé des documents de communication visuelle et des visuel pour marquage d’objets pour notre association.