Washington Translation Academy
There are no such things as language barriers; there are only language bridges.
Who I am
What do I do when I am not translating, interpreting or teaching?
I practice every other non-belligerent human activity.... Smile
The Native Polyglot
When I graduated from Translation school in 1999, I had an A language, an A’ language, and a B language. They were respectively, French, Arabic and English – they still are. My other language was not listed on my degree.
At that time, Tamazight/Berber was still paining to gain political status as a language. In fact, even today, I often find myself forced to list “other” from a drop-down menu when I need to add Tamazight/Berber to the list of my natural languages.
This is to say that, like millions of people in Africa and around the world, I have more than one so-called native language. It is neither a chance nor a choice; it is the outcome of a series of historical accidents. (Accidents as misfortunes or fortunes depends of course on one’s perspective).
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The Academy
Why an academy?
Simply, because for me, translation is more than a job I do or a service I offer. Being a translator is part of my personal identity. So much so that whenever I am prompted to introduce myself to an audience, regardless of the setting, all I say is: I am Fadhma Izri, and I am a translator/interpreter.
I care about translation and how it is understood or misunderstood (the latter being often the case) outside the discipline and the industry.
I named this page Washington Translation Academy, to show what I can do for potential clients who need the services of an expert translator or a seasoned interpreter, but also to provide a wider audience with disambiguation material, resources, thoughts, and ideas about translation and interpreting.