German into English

Specialist Translation Services for the Medical Industry

German into English

Specialist Translation Services for the Medical Industry

Welcome to my webpage – presumably you’ve been looking for a specialist pharmaceutical and medical translator or editor from German into English and now you’ve found me you might like to know a little more about me and why I’m the right person for your project.

I was a scientist before I was a translator. Overall, I draw on more than 15 years of translation experience from German into English. Since my Masters by Research (MRes) in Organic Chemistry and my certification by the Institute of Translators (ITI) I have been working exclusively in my specialist field of pharmaceutical and medical device regulatory documentation as well as clinical trial records.

Against the background of my Master’s degree I also have a keen interest in cancer research and related fields of genetic engineering, DNA technology and novel recombinant antibody molecules.

Check out on my ‘About Me‘ section to find out what makes me uniquely qualified, and if you really want to know what makes me tick, continue to Translating and Neurodiversity.

My services comprise

Translating,
Proofreading,
Audio Transcription,
Machine-Translation Post-Editing

Machine translation?

Yes indeed, whilst views are divided, I’m with siding with the camp that time-saving technology is here to stay. You will, of course, still find translators who swear on an entirely manual process for their craft shunning even the CAT (computer-assisted technology) tools that have been commonplace in the industry for decades and that ensure quality and consistency of terminology. However, personally, I have always embraced technology right from the arrival of the first word processors in the 1990s and I like to stay informed of the benefits and disadvantages of any new tools for my work, true to the saying “Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer”.

For most of my translation work, and because I work in a very specific niche in two languages where I have native fluency only I find that machine translations don’t really save me time compared to the much longer established CAT tools for translators even though the progress of AI has been impressive in the past couple of years.

So, if you are a private client who needs their confidential medical records translated, rest assured, they won’t go anywhere near a robot for translation.

However, post-editing of machine translations for agency clients is my bread-and-butter work. Why? That type of work is usually on documents that are already pre-formatted and I no longer need to manually retype messy PDF documents, and get to focus on the linguistic task alone.

So, whilst I don’t mind the occasional graphology challenge when it comes to deciphering handwritten doctor’s or engineering notes, I am happy to tackle the problems that come with correcting less than perfect machine translations.
I speak from several years of experience to be able to say with certainty that just as robots aren’t very good at deciphering handwritten text, they are not truly intelligent either and therefore can’t make sense of imperfect input such as engineering notes in master batch records that use a lot of short-hand language.

Clinical Trial Documentation

Scientific Articles and Papers

Research Interviews

My more conventional work history before the arrival of the robots spans experience from training as a medical secretary in Germany to Sales & Marketing support roles in technical environments alongside engineers. As I’ve already mentioned, deciphering handwritten notes is my speciality!

But don’t just take my word from it, check out some testimonials from some of my clients

My translation experience started in 1990 with an in-house translation role for the Hong Kong buying office at mail-order company Quelle. Working with English source text written by non-native English speakers, turned out to be excellent preparation for post-editing Machine translations.

I gained my Undergraduate degree in Chemistry as a mature student with the Open University whilst working in a full-time role in Medical Device Sales. In other words: Continuous professional development is second nature to me, as is tackling new challenges, because I wasn’t satisfied with my upper second class degree, but instead decided to take a year out of employment to complete a Masters degree by Research in Organic Synthesis at the University of Nottingham. I also had the pleasure of spending a summer internship, gaining valuable experience as a Medicinal Chemistry researcher in the labs at GlaxoSmithKline—my special interest in Oncology and research in rare diseases including Genomics and Therapeutic Antibodies is not just supported by desk research but time actually spent in research labs.

With my membership of the ITI I am now qualified to translate from German into English, as English—technically my second language—is at a native-level standard after spending several decades working and studying in the UK.
Naturally, with German as my actual native language, I don’t need to spend hours on source text analysis, meaning I can deliver quality translations with short turnaround times.

My work experience included roles as Marketing Manager for industrial weighing specialist Bizerba, the construction formwork company Peri, followed by Sales roles ar Rehau and its medical device spin-off Raumedic, and most recently as Technical Sales Agent for the Rockwell Automation subsidiary Lektronix who specialise in the repair of Industrial Automation Equipment. All of these roles involved Liaising between customers and technical staff in the UK and Germany giving me further exposure to technical vernacular language that might leave many translators with a more traditional CV stranded.

In short, if you are looking for a translator in one of my specialist fields, and are in rush but don’t want to compromise on quality, I’m your woman.

What does neurodiversity have to do with translating? You may well ask:

The world of freelance translating can be a lonely place, and it certainly isn’t for everyone. If you’re the sort of person who needs the incentive of having to ‘clock in’ every morning to even motivate you to get out of bed, and who wants the security of a regular salary regardless of how many sick days you’ve had in the month, then it’s not for you.

Also, if you enjoy office banter and find it helps you get through what you think of as mundane tasks, then, again, it’s not for you.

However, if, like me, you find nothing more irritating than the person at the next desk distracting you with tales of last night’s Eastenders plot or the latest office gossip, and if you translate because you really enjoy decoding and playing with language and find it so absorbing that sometimes you forget what time of day it is or even to eat, then yes, it’s for you.

Luckily, I’m helped by the neuroatypical brain chemistry that I was born with. My official autism diagnosis came quite late in life, and although autism has historically been associated with quite a negative stereotype, it also brings some benefits.

If this thought is new to you, I recommend reading Tony Attwood’s 1999 paper where he explores the positive aspects of an Asperger’s diagnosis .

In fact, more and more companies are actively recruiting autistic people into certain technical roles that demand a unique ability to focus for a long time on the details of technically demanding tasks.

The benefits of hiring neurodivergent individuals include: a high attention to detail, strong work ethic and quality of work. If I tell you I can hit a deadline I won’t change my mind half-way through and I will have put a lot of careful thought into my estimate to make sure it is realistic. The hyperfocus ability mentioned above —working on tasks that require high levels of concentration for a long time—is definitely one of my strengths.

Unsurprisingly, I am not unique amongst translators and in 2021 I got together with a couple of other autistic translators to form the ITI’s Neurodiversity Network in an attempt to change the narrative around neurodivergence.

Translating, Proofreading, Machine-Translation Post-Editing, Transcription

My translation rates vary depending on the complexity and technicality of the source text as well as the desired turnaround time and range from £0.06 to £0.15 per source word.

I can also offer transcription services of German language audio or video files, rates depend on the quality of the audio source, but range between £1.50 and £3.00 per source minute.

Proofreading and subtitling rates are available on request.

Payment terms

If I work for you regularly, I’m happy to talk about payment terms, for example issuing one invoice at the end of each month.

Methods of payment

I accept payment by paypal or bank transfer into a Euro, Pound Sterling or US Dollar account. I will provide you with paypal or bank details along with my invoice.