René Engelbrecht
Language practitioner
Profile
I grew up in a house where language was very important. My father was a translator in his early years and later started writing dictionaries – bilingual, explanatory, technical and educational. I therefore had ongoing contact with language.
I loved languages at school. My subjects included Afrikaans, English, French and Latin. At university I studied Afrikaans-Dutch, French and English. They were my best and favourite subjects.
My first translations I did while I was still at university. Later when I got married I did translations for my husband and editing for a publishing house while I taught French, English and Afrikaans at an English school.
During my years as teacher I kept on translating and editing on a part-time basis. Hereafter I worked at the National Afrikaans Literary Museum and Research Centre in Bloemfontein where I had to edit the Afrikaans translation of a French book among other things. Then I became a translator and editor at the then University of the Orange Free State. Here I translated and edited various subjects and even had to translate the rector’s speeches into English. On a part-time basis I also edited theses, from history to technology.
We then moved to the Cape and here I mainly taught Afrikaans. I did a lot of editing of school documents. On a part-time basis I taught Afrikaans as part of a bridging course at the Cape Technikon as well as business Afrikaans.
I then studied further and obtained a diploma in further education as well as a master’s degree in psychology. During my studies I did a lot of translation and editing in Afrikaans and English at the Psychology Department: from exam papers to prescribed books and I translated questionnaires from English and Dutch into Afrikaans. Students also brought me their theses to edit.
After having completed my studies, I kept on translating and editing. I translated a youth book for schools from English into Afrikaans and edited the workbook based on this novel. A well-known publisher asked me to translate an English prescribed book for university students into Afrikaans and I also had to edit the Afrikaans and English explanations in a explanatory terminology list for psychology students.
In the meantime I have edited several theses and website texts. I have also done various translations and editing of work I received from the Internet.
Now I am a full-time language practitioner translating and editing. My work is precise and I guarantee that I will reach deadlines. I am an accredited translator and a member of the South African Translator’s Institute. I am serious about translating and editing.
Translate – Edit – Proofreading
