I studied American and British Studies as well as Book Science at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. I also spent six months at Bristol University in the UK and an academic year as a Teaching Fellow at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.
While at Bowdoin, I discovered my interest in film. I had the chance to get to know film in theory and practice in a course on electronic film production. This led to my decision to write my MA thesis on the screen adaptation of Anne Tyler’s novel The Accidental Tourist, which was turned into a film by Lawrence Kasdan. Two versions of the screenplay allowed me to analyse how the material from the book was rendered in the film.
Experience
Toward the end of my studies I moved to Britain and completed my coursework there. After obtaining my MA, I started working as a freelance translator and successfully sat the examination for the Diploma in Translation at the (Chartered) Institute of Linguists in London.
I have lived in English-speaking countries for almost ten years, the great majority of the time in Britain. In that time, I lived and learned the English language, its colourful idiom and its conventions. There also was ample opportunity to familiarise myself with accents from other English-speaking countries.
After returning to Germany, I worked as a freelance translator and then as an editor for a publishing house near Munich that produces English language learning materials.
More training
I trained as a subtitler at the Sprachen & Dolmetscher Institut München (a language school for translators and interpreters in Munich). In a year-long, part-time course I learned a great deal about both the language and the technical aspects of subtitling, including handling professional software. As part of the course, I subtitled a feature film for the Filmmuseum Munich, The Devil and Daniel Webster (USA 1941, 105 min).
In 2012, I have attended a series of four workshops on subtitling and media translation at the Sprachen & Dolmetscher Institut in Munich: Subtitling for the Hard of Hearing, Translation for Voice Over, Translation for Dubbing and Audio Description.
