Working languages:
Romanian to English
Russian to English
French to English

Peter Shortall
Legal / Business / Government

United Kingdom

Native in: English 
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Translation is that which transforms everything so that nothing changes. (Günter Grass)
Account type Freelance translator and/or interpreter, Identity Verified Verified site user
ProZ.com Kudoz editor
Affiliations This person is not affiliated with any business or Blue Board record at ProZ.com.
Services Translation, Subtitling
Expertise
Specializes in:
Business/Commerce (general)Certificates, Diplomas, Licenses, CVs
Government / PoliticsInternational Org/Dev/Coop
JournalismLaw: Contract(s)
Law (general)Linguistics

Rates

KudoZ activity (PRO) PRO-level points: 2042, Questions answered: 641, Questions asked: 32
Project History 1 projects entered    1 positive feedback from outsourcers

Portfolio Sample translations submitted: 7

New! Video portfolio:
Glossaries French Ice Skating Terms, Random Romanian Words, Romanian Architecture Glossary, Romanian Legal Glossary, Romanian Linguistics Terms, Romanian Locks/Furniture Terms, Romanian Office Supplies/Stationery Terms
Translation education Master's degree - University of Oxford
Experience Years of experience: 19. Registered at ProZ.com: Oct 2005.
ProZ.com Certified PRO certificate(s) N/A
Credentials Romanian to English (Institute of Translation and Interpreting, verified)
French to English (Chartered Institute of Linguists, verified)
Russian to English (Chartered Institute of Linguists, verified)
French to English (University of Birmingham, verified)
Russian to English (University of Birmingham, verified)


Memberships ITI, CIOL
Software Adobe Acrobat, memoQ, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word
Articles
CV/Resume CV available upon request
Events and training
Bio

Why hire me?

This is what sets me apart:

Making sense: My translations read clearly and smoothly. I look at things from the reader's point of view and make sure my writing is easy to understand, meaningful and concise.

Style: My polished writing style suits a variety of contexts. Need a legal or business translation that will make sense to a lawyer or chief executive? Thanks to my professional background, studies and experience of translating for law firms and businesses, I can deliver translations that will stand up to scrutiny in a courtroom or boardroom. My experience of translating news articles enables me to emulate the punchy, uncluttered journalistic style typical of reports and documentaries. Need a website or tourism translation? I can produce elegant copy with stylish phrasing. I have translated text and press releases for the websites of a Romanian mobile phone company, a French sea life centre, a luxury hotel in Paris and several French tourism offices and museums.

Thoroughness and research: One of the most difficult aspects of translation is terminology. My extensive experience gives me a broad knowledge of terms in the fields I work in, and I enjoy (and am good at!) finding translations of specialised terms that crop up in a text. I also take the time to look up abbreviations and add footnotes to explain cultural or country-specific concepts and read through my work before delivery so I can see how it will look to the reader. Not all translators bother with this vital step! And you might be surprised at how many haven't heard of a spellchecker or think abbreviations can be left in the original language because we "can't be expected to know them". It's our job to figure them out!


What to look for in a professional translator

As the translation profession is unregulated in the UK, anyone can call themselves a translator and there's nothing to keep cowboys and dilettantes out. Sadly for them, translation is far more difficult than it looks! It's not simply a matter of replacing one word with another. If it were that easy, anyone with a dictionary could do the job well. And yet not anyone can, as we can see from the many poorly written translations that litter the websites of foreign institutions and companies, conveying an unprofessional image that puts readers off.

What many people don't realise is that the same word or phrase can translate in many different ways in different contexts, and there are thousands of specialised terms that can't be found in dictionaries. That's why experience in the subject of a text is so important - it's all too easy to make wrong guesses if you don't have it.

So how can you be sure your translation will be handled by someone who knows what they're doing? There are four things you should look for. The first two are evidence that a translator has learned their working languages in depth and gained knowledge of the subject of your text. The other two are excellent writing skills and research skills. It's no good being a specialist in a subject if you can't write coherent, well-organised sentences that a reader can make sense of, and sadly, some people who turn their hand to translation after working in other fields struggle with this.

You can see samples of my writing by looking at my Portfolio or watching these Romanian documentaries I've subtitled in English:

The Controller in the Shadows  

The Carpathian Cartel 

Above Us All

Undercover Mission for a Mafia State

The Price of Silence

No Bribe, No Entry!

A Farewell to Arms

"You Girls Are All Mine!"

all made by Recorder (click on the Settings wheel, then Subtitles/CC, then English). My name is credited at the very end of the subtitles. To see examples of my research skills, click here to see answers I've posted to KudoZ terminology questions. I'll leave you to judge how helpful other translators find my suggestions! And I entered the profession after not only studying my working languages at well-regarded universities, but also gaining several years' work experience in the immigration sector and the business world, which I've built on through further specialised study.


My education

M.St. (Distinction) General Linguistics & Comparative Philology University of Oxford (Keble)

BA French & Russian (Class I) University of Birmingham

Level 3 Diploma in Law and Practice CILEx

Level 3 Certificate in Law and Practice (Criminal Litigation) CILEx

Level 3 Certificate in Law and Practice (Civil Litigation) CILEx

IoL Diploma in Translation (French-English) Chartered Institute of Linguists

IoL Diploma in Translation (Russian-English) Chartered Institute of Linguists

ITI Qualified Membership Examination for Translators (Romanian-English) Institute of Translation and Interpreting

Member (MCIL) of the Chartered Institute of Linguists
Member (MITI) of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting 

For my Master of Studies degree, I studied linguistic theory, theory of translation and Romanian linguistics (a subject in which I achieved a mark of 90, the mark required for a Distinction being 70) under the exacting tutelage of Professor Martin Maiden, a pre-eminent British scholar of Romanian and Fellow of the British Academy. My BA degree included a module on Romanian language and short stories, but my studies of this fascinating language began much earlier, in my mid-teens, when I was intrigued by a copy of Dennis Deletant's "Teach Yourself Romanian" on a shelf at my local bookshop and bought it on a whim. Little did I know that the language would eventually become a big part of my career and my life's greatest passion! And I keep immersing myself in it by reading Romanian news and watching films and documentaries like România, te iubesc! every week.


My professional background

For three years, I worked in the immigration sector for the British Refugee Council, where I interpreted for a year before becoming a "Dispersal Clerk" (relocation coordinator) and then a Project Worker. As a Project Worker, I advised refugees and asylum seekers on their entitlements to housing and financial support and helped them to apply to the National Asylum Support Service (NASS), besides giving advice on access to healthcare, education and legal services and liaising on clients' behalf with social services departments, solicitors, immigration officials, community organisations and accommodation providers. Through this work, I gained an understanding of immigration law and the legal processes that clients went through in their applications to the Home Office and appeals to the Immigration Appellate Authority and Immigration Appeal Tribunal. To advise them, I had to find out what their legal status was by investigating their case, going through their legal paperwork and contacting solicitors, courts and the Home Office.

My first-hand business experience was gained when I trained and worked as a corporate finance researcher at Zephus, an M&A research company in Manchester. In this role, I maintained a database of corporate finance transactions (mergers, acquisitions, IPOs, etc.) involving companies in eastern Europe and former Soviet republics using information found on stock exchange websites and in business news publications. I also worked as a customer assistant in the retail sector for five years, mostly in a petrol station where I was responsible for processing payments, administration, maintaining forecourt safety, handling tanker deliveries, taking tank readings, replenishing stock in the shop and reporting incidents.


What I translate

Legal - legislation, court judgments, immigration & asylum applications, divorce/child custody cases, ECHR cases, civil litigation, criminal law, ICC arbitration, property sale contracts, witness statements, terms and conditions, privacy notices, legal correspondence. I hold Level 3 Certificates in Law and Practice in both Civil Litigation and Criminal Litigation awarded by the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) and the CILEx Level 3 Diploma in Law and Practice consisting of 10 units including Contract Law, Family Law, Land Law, Criminal Law and Law of Tort.                     

Business - terms and conditions, articles of association, contracts, tender documentation, annual reports, audit reports, AGM minutes, press releases, corporate finance, M&A

Certificates and personal documents - birth, marriage, death, name change and adoption certificates, criminal record disclosure certificates, certificates of study and training, CVs, driving licences, passports, ID cards

Social services - social services assessments for councils in child repatriation cases

News, Journalism, Film - current affairs and news, especially business, politics and legal news, and documentaries. Together with a colleague, I wrote the English subtitles for the widely publicised Romanian documentaries mentioned above made by Recorder. I was a member of the subtitle syncing team at the 2023 Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and am trained in the use of Subtivals for film screenings.

International development - UNESCO, GAVI, GFATM, HIV/AIDS/TB/malaria prevention, immunisation, literacy, famine early warning systems, decentralised cooperation

EU - agricultural nitrate pollution, agricultural payment systems, milk quotas, carbon emission allowance trading, pensions, rural development, film preservation, electricity markets, tender procedures, pressure equipment, vehicle pollution taxes, audit strategies, import licences, French Presidency, construction and demolition waste, fire safety, railway accidents, State aid, national accounts, European Parliament petitions/questions, draft technical regulations

Pharmaceutical - patient questionnaires (including linguistic validation) and clinical trial documentation

History, Archaeology, Tourism - my previous work has included publicity materials for a French WW1 museum and several French tourism offices, including one for a ski resort in the French Alps. I am a keen fan of Time Team (Channel 4) and have an AS Level in Archaeology. My course focused on religion and ritual in prehistoric Europe (Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age) and archaeological skills/methods.

Sport - figure skating (British Primary Champion in 1992, British Novice Champion in 1991 and a former judge at club level), football, tennis, athletics. I have translated by-laws and correspondence for international governing bodies such as FIM (motorcycling), FIBV (volleyball) and ITF (taekwondo).


More about my work

I believe translations should be readable, clear and meaningful. To produce work like this, you have to be able to see things from a reader's perspective and care about making everything make sense to an audience. When a translation contains incoherence and "translationese", this is a telltale sign that the translator hasn't understood the original or hasn't taken care in articulating an idea.

These days, much of my work involves documents for law firms preparing cases for trial. Lawyers keep coming back for my services because they appreciate my ability to produce translations they can rely on in a field where clarity and attention to detail are vital. My longest-standing client is a human rights NGO staffed by lawyers for whom I have translated Russian court judgments, prosecutors' decisions and other case documents for over 15 years.

But I'm highly experienced in other fields too, such as government, international development and international institutions. To date, I've translated over half a million words for EU institutions, mainly the European Commission. Other work has included applications for funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria for French-speaking and Russian-speaking countries, social services assessments for council departments in child repatriation cases, draft legislation and regulations of EU member states and government correspondence. I've also worked as an in-house translator on short-term contracts at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, so I'm extremely well versed in writing formal English.

In the field of academia, one of my most prestigious projects to date was the translation of several papers written by Russian historians for an international cultural conference held in 2006 at Kymenlaakso Summer University in Finland entitled "Research and Identity: Non-Russian Peoples in the Russian Empire".

For nine years, I regularly translated articles on a wide range of subjects for an international news website covering the Maghreb (north-west Africa) region. I also translated articles for a news website covering former Soviet states in central Asia for a year.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD): I update and improve my skills by watching CIOL and ITI webinars, reading news websites and watching films and documentaries to keep abreast of current affairs in France, Russia and Romania. I also work hard on improving my ability to speak and write my source languages. Vous pouvez communiquer avec moi en français ! / Puteți comunica cu mine în limba română!

CAT software: I work with MemoQ, which is interoperable with Trados and many other CAT tools.


PLEASE NOTE:

***If you need a sworn translation, please note that the UK does not have a system of "sworn translations". For more information, see the ITI's explanation of "official translations" here.

***I don't provide references from my clients as I respect their privacy and am an independent contractor, not a job applicant.

Translation of documents and subtitling are the only services I offer, I don't offer editing/post-editing/revision/transcription/audio translation services and don't work with machine-generated text. Please also note that I don't participate in EU or other translation tender procedures for agencies I don't have an established working relationship with.

Keywords: EU, business, legal, human rights, international development, UNESCO, ECHR, journalism, news, history. See more.EU, business, legal, human rights, international development, UNESCO, ECHR, journalism, news, history, archaeology, sport, linguistics, ice skating. See less.