Lucie Brione
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Where do you live/work?
I live in Reddish, which is the northernmost part of Stockport, right next to Levenshulme, Denton and Heaton Chapel, and 10 minutes’ walk from Reddish Vale. I work from home.
Are you mainly a translator or interpreter or both? What languages?
I am a translator, interpreting was never for me! I translate from English into French.
What are your specialist fields?
In my twenties, I worked as a computer programmer, so I chose my specialism to be IT. Most of my translation work is not pure IT, but because computers are everywhere these days, there is a lot of overlap with various technologies.
I also occasionally translate Health and Safety documents, and anything that looks interesting and within my capabilities.
What’s the strangest/most interesting project you’ve ever worked on?
I was offered the website translation for a company that sold hormones for transgender people. I don’t do medical translations, so declined, but it still counts as the strangest request I’ve ever received.
The most interesting project lately was the translation of a video story board for a swimming pool anti-drowning system. It was very short, but as a swimmer myself, I really enjoyed doing it. The experience was further enhanced by the fact I was paid nearly instantly for it!
Tell us about a particularly proud moment in your translation career:
Seeing my translations on the Metrolink ticket machines if you selected French. It was a few years ago, I doubt they are still around.
Tell us two reasons why you like being a translator/interpreter:
It has to be not having to commute and the freedom to work in my PJ’s!
What is the most interesting place where you have lived/visited?
Egypt. I was only about 11 then but still have many memories of that trip. One of them is that we kept bumping into Hubert Reeves, a French Canadian astrophysicist who used to appear on French TV quite often at the time, and whom my mum admired. He was on a similar organised trip to ours, except he was doing it as a cruise on the Nile and we were ‘slumming’ it on a coach.
What are your plans for professional development or a new field you’d like to work in?
I would perhaps like to translate texts about Buddhism as this is a big area of my life. However, I must admit I haven’t taken any steps to pursue this (yet).
The professional development area I have been toying with lately is to sit the ITI Exam for French into English translation, as I have lived and worked all my working life in the UK, and English is my language of habitual use.
Tell us something not many people know about you:
I enjoy repairing things. In fact, I offer a whitegoods repair service, which I fit in around my translation work (or the other way around). Check out The Washing Machine Woman on Facebook!
