It's that time of year again! Here are my TOP 9, featuring interpreting highlights that made this year truly memorable. I always enjoy doing this review, because with everything else happening in my professional and private life, it gives me the chance to reflect on these standout moments of 2025. My interpreting year started with a two-day assignment in the beautifully snow-covered town of Wuppertal , at a conference for painters and decorators. In January still, I had the o

“Context is key“ was one of the things we were taught at university. The principle is as simple as it is logical: if you don’t understand what you’re translating, you cannot provide a logical rendition. And even if a word is incomprehensible because it is pronounced differently or the speaker is mumbling, you can still understand what is meant due to the context! Let me give you an example: many years ago, I had the opportunity to interpret a lecture on different types of dan

If you’re working in the language industry you will probably know that our tools are changing faster than you can say Terminology Extraction. And ever since genAI has burst into our everyday lives like a conference speaker with something to say, one thing has become clear: without training, you won’t survive as a freelancer!  Generative AI is not competition for language professionals. Much rather, it’s a superpower booster! It will help you structure background information i

AI has changed the events and interpreting industry, and until now I have spent most of my time interpreting from the booth. But now we hear more and more about AI solutions that are supposed to reduce costs and be more efficient. During my last assignment at a global team meeting online, it became clear that machine intelligence is not the go-to tool for simultaneous interpreting! In this particular setting, one participant came from Ireland. For years now, we’ve been famili

Last week, I attended the AI in Translation Summit to explore Artifical Intelligence from a professional, ethical and business standpoint, along with 2,500+ language professionals from all over the globe. For 3 days, we learnend and discussed about tools and techniques, mindset and growth, as well as ethics and confidentiality when working with AI. All this input has left me highly inspired and motivated to navigate the exciting developments in Large Language Models and chatb

Hey ChatGPT, how do human interpreters differ from AI? That's a very good question — it touches on key differences between human and artificial language mediation. Here are the most important distinguishing features between human interpreters and AI interpreting systems : 🧠 1. Cognitive and emotional intelligence Humans understand not only words, but also context, emotion, irony, culture and intention . A human interpreter recognises whether someone is speaking sarcastic

Ok, let‘s be honest: we all have used DeepL once or twice in our everyday (business) lives. Interpreters and translators do, too (we have to do our research, don’t we?). DeepL is not new, and there were times when we were rather surprised at how natural and fluent the output seemed at first glance. Lately, however, we’ve noticed that AI translations are getting worse rather than better. There is an increased number of inconsistencies, it struggles with maintaining accurate gr

AI has changed our everyday lives. Artificial intelligence has become indispensable in our professional lives, and especially in our private lives. Most of us take it for granted; we ask our smartphones to set the timer, let fitness trackers count our steps and analyse our sleep, have Netflix recommend movies according to our viewing habits, and turn on the sat-nav to get to our destination. I, too, use AI professionally, e.g. to generate a transcipt of videos that need to b

To mark today's International Translation Day, which I am celebrating for the 19th time this year as a member of the BDÜ, I had to dig...

Another year, another KNH youth conference! Since 2018, we‘ve been supporting the German children’s relief organisation Kindernothilfe...

It's that time of year again! 2024 is coming to a close, and that's my cue to post my BestOf, looking back on my most favourite and...

This October, my fellow interpreting colleague Andrea Wilming from Proscenium and I had the great honour and pleasure of offering our...

On 29th May, the RVR Association celebrated 25 years of Industrial Heritage Route with a kick-off event at Zollverein UNESCO World...

If you thought we would go back to living in a pre-COVID-like world, you were wrong. A few things have changed permanently, and people...

There comes a day when, after weighing up the pros and cons, the local conditions and the interpreting requirements, you will be working...

It’s time to say goodbye to 2023. And it’s time for my BestOf, looking back on the best and most memorable assignments of the year. In...

This September, we had the pleasure of interpreting at an international youth conference on Climate Justice organised by Kindernothilfe...

I recently accompanied an American delegation on a visit to a German subsidiary of one of the Big Five American technology companies,...

The slow-down button is a relic of old times, I find. It is said that, back in the day, when simultaneous interpreting equipment was...

As an interpreter, I am a multi-tool, generally slipping into the role of the respective speaker. I wear their different hats, so to...