Dear friends and followers,
Thanks for a terrific 2017. Hmm, perhaps not the best year in terms of cashflow (let’s just call it a “spending year”, shall we?), but an unbelievably significant one in terms of growth and learning curves.
With the help of the talented Laura Yeffeth, I launched a brand new website in June and it has been nothing but fabulous. In November, I celebrated my fifth year of business. Take a peek at all the things that have happened over the last five years. Whoa.
I was very sad to see Kim move to Switzerland in August but insanely happy to have her working with me even from afar. I welcomed Christian, Nadine, Maria, Suzanne and Michael onto the freelance interpreting team. I finally dived into the world of notary read-through purchase contract interpreting, which is wild, scary and thrilling at the same time. After years of putting it in the too-hard basket, I finally wrapped my head around social media marketing thanks to the remarkable Sandy Kappey. And I got to witness one of Berlin’s very first same-sex marriages, and help them say yes (that’s “ja”, in German, in case you didn’t know). Here’s a Standesamt post-marriage selfie.
In September, I started an “Ausbildung” (vocational training course) because I want to be one of the very few native English speakers in Germany who manages to pass the state examination to become a court-sworn translator and interpreter. Watch this space – it takes a few years.
Here’s the whole crowd (OK, most of us) at our Christmas brunch after Pascale gave us a rev and told us we needed to be sillier.
So what’s in store for 2018?
- Red Tape Translation has a new home! From January 2018, I’ll be moving into Factory Berlin. I could not be more excited.
- There will be a fresh new face behind the scenes to help out with the administration. More details to come.
- I’ll be learning note-taking skills and completing simultaneous interpreting modules.
- There will be an honorary Red Tape baby – Kim will welcome a new arrival in March. I already have a position lined up for him as the Swiss sales manager. Since we don’t really have anything going on in Switzerland, he can just bat at shiny things for a while.
Office Closures
We go underground on 22nd December 2017 (today!) and we’re back online on 2nd January 2018. You can still make bookings for dates outside of this time using the website, and there will be someone keeping an eye on things just in case there is a disaster. Which there won’t be.
On behalf of Kim, Claire and all the interpreter and translators that make up the best working team I could hope for, I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!
Cheers,
Kathleen Parker
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