NIGEL CLIFFORDTechnical Translator, Editor & Writer

PERSONAL DATA

Name
Nationality
Occupation
Residence
Timezone
advantage
Phone
Fax
E-mail
MSNMessenger
Software
versions / Nigel J Clifford
British overseas resident
Technical/Scientific Translator, Editor & Writer, Screenwriter, Technical Dictionary Editor, Cross-Cultural Consultant
Phuket, Thailand / Hong Kong, China / Durham, UK
GMT + 8:00 hours; I can work until midnight and still deliver work by5:00 p.m. UK time – advantageous for urgent jobs
+66-89-471-5210 (mobile; call 1st) +66-76-304393 (home #1; call 2nd)
+66-76-612814 ext. 427 (home #2; call 3rd)
E-fax: +44-8701-3906051)
(immediate notification of incoming mail!)
(this is only used as a backup e-mail)
SDLTrados Studio 2009SP3, SDLX Professional, MemoQ 4.5, Across, Windows 7Ultimatewith
Service Packs, MS Office XP Professional 2007, Acrobat 8.0 Professional,
Pagemaker 7.0,Photoshop 7.0, InDesign CS3,Framemaker 7.2,Illustrator 10.0,
Quark XPress Passport 6.1, Dreamweaver 8,Star Transit 3.0 Satellite, WS_FTP Pro, etcetera.
Ready and willing to purchase any other software required.

LANGUAGE PAIRS & PRICING

Doubtful about
my ability to
perform well
in so many
languages? Then feel free to sendme a short
test translation
of no more
than 500 words
in any language.
I don’t charge
anything for a
test translation. / Native language: British English, equally well-versed inUS English andpossessinga solid mastery of writtenGerman, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Romanian and Catalan.
Productivity:6,000 words per day,40,000 words/week. (If pushed: Up to 9,000 words per day.)
French  English €0.08/word (US$0.10 ₤0.07)
GermanEnglish €0.10/word (US$0.12, ₤0.09)
DutchEnglish €0.10/word (US$0.12 ₤0.09)
Spanish  English €0.08/word Prices converted to $ and ₤ will vary.
Catalan  English €0.09/word All prices are negotiable, depending
Italian  English €0.08/word on the size and regularity of the
PortugueseEnglish€0.08/word translation or editing projects.
US English  UK Englishconversion €0.02/word (aware of all differences)
English Editing: €0.02/word.No minimum charge. 30-day payment, cheque/bank transfer.
I can also accept payment per line or per page or a fixed sum for the whole job, if it is equivalent.

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

These are the
areas I generally feel most comfortable
with, but I’m willing to try my hand at almost any subject.
The more challenging a job
is, the more
I’ll research it. / Though a polymath, I’mespecially experienced knowledgeable in the followingfields:
  • medicine, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotechnology,biochemistry,healthcare
  • information technology / Internet / computer systems / hardware / software /
    games / telecommunications / wireless / mobile telephony(MMI localization)
  • automotive engineering, aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, railways
  • business and commerce in general, accounting (annual reports & financial
    statements), business software (e.g. SAP), finance and banking, management
  • international/US/European patents, no matter how technically complex
  • legal contracts, letters, corporation law, corporate finance, international law
  • psychology / psychiatry / biopsychology (the focus of my BSc degree course)
  • science (many fields, unless the material is extremely specialized in nature)
– I take a keen interest in most aspects of science and technological subjects
  • advertising / PR / marketing – I can produce professional-quality, creative and witty
    copywriting for corporate pressreleases, promotional product literature, etc.
  • NOTE: I do not do any interpreting or on-site translation work; strictly freelance.
  • Key strengths: Fast worker, very long experience andvery high attention to detail.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

May 1990 – now
(mostlyon a full-time basis, but sometimes part-time) / Self-Employed Freelance Translator / Editor / Technical Writer / Marketing Copywriterworking for various American, European Pacific Rim companies, translating, editing writing documents in a wide range of technical subjects.I’m also a USUK English localizer/cultural consultant & style advisor.
May 1999 –
April 2001 / European Languages Team Leaderof a former translation agency, Hong Kong
  • Headed up the very busy European Languages Department of the agency
  • Responsible for hiring and testing of linguists in Hong Kong and overseas
  • Allocated resources for localization projects of major HK/China Web sites
  • Supported sales by identifying clients’ linguistic requirements and defining empowering linguistic strategies to help them achieve their multilingual goals
  • Generated sales leads by researching Hong Kong companies on the Web and coordinated and executed direct mail/email/fax and print ad campaigns
  • Assisted in setting up projects and addressing ongoing production issues
  • Translated, edited, proofread and built glossaries from French, German, Spanish, Italian to UK/US English & helped assure the quality of deliverables
  • Converted text from US to UK English for corporate Web localization projects (orthography, grammar & punctuation, variant words & cultural references)
  • Designed the corporate Web site and wrote the English Web site content
  • Worked with demanding world-class clients like Prudential Asia Ltd, Concord Camera Corporation, Minolta, Cushman-Wakefield, Sony Corporation of Hong Kong, Lemon-Asia.com, Chinese Television Network (CTN, Star TV), Cable & Wireless Hong Kong Telecom (Pacific Century Cyberworks), Hongkong Land (biggest property developer in Hong Kong), ESDlife.com (HK government site).

1998 / Literary Critic / Project Manager, The Pentland Press Ltd (London, England). At an independent UK publishing house, I reviewed manuscripts submitted by authors, created storyline synopses (for works of fiction) or subject synopses (for works of nonfiction), penned cover blurbs and drew up reports discussing the book’s desirability for publication. I conducted author liaison for the purposes of discussing the book publishing process, or to explain delicately why our company decided to decline publication. I additionally informed the authors about issues of length, style, structure, grammar, punctuation and spelling in their manuscripts and made suggestions for possible improvements in these areas. In these roles,
I learned much about editing, literary criticism and diplomatic client relations.
1995-1998 / English Dictionary Editor, Bloomsbury Publishing (London). Project: Encarta World English Dictionary (EWED), an ambitious joint
venture undertaken by Bloomsbury and Microsoft, the most significant entirely new dictionary published worldwide in the past 20 years. I conducted research into scientific neologisms in burgeoning fields like genetics, biotechnology, information technology, et cetera, and compiled and managed a large electronic text corpus of current English.
1994-1995 / English-French Dictionary Editor, Larousse Editorial (London and Paris). I was a contributing editor to the Larousse Unabridged French-English English-French Dictionary (known as the Grand Dictionnaire). While primarily a contributor of neologisms and technical terminology in English, I also conducted research into the adoption of ‘de-Anglicized’ medical and scientific terms in French; interesting!
1993-1996 / English Dictionary Editor, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England). I was involved with various encyclopedic English dictionary projects, assisting primarily on enhancing coverage of science and technology fields. The publications I contributed to include The Oxford Dictionary of the English Language (ODEL), The New Oxford Dictionary of English (NODE), The Oxford Dictionary of Computing and The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Revised 2nd Edition (in print and on CD-ROM), inter alia, and I also did general linguistic research work, including discovery and submission of neologisms (newly coined words), a very important task which was not, however, directly related to any specific project.
1992 and earlier /
Full-Time University / High School Student, Oxford/Durham, UK

EDUCATION HISTORY

1982-1988
1988-1989 /

Straight A Student in the English “O”-Level exams (at age 16) achieving Grade A in the following subjects: English Language, English Literature, French, German, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Geography, Accounting. (Exception: Grade C in Physics.)

Straight A Student in the English “A”-Level higher exams (at age 18) in the following subjects: English Literature, French, German.
Distinction in Germanin the English “S”-Level special advanced exam (at age 18) – which is equivalent to first-year university exams.
Merit in Frenchin the English “S”-Level (Special level) advanced examination.
1989-1992, B.A.
Oxford University /

Bachelor of Arts (Honours), German/Linguistics

St John’s College, University of Oxford, England
1993-1996, B.Sc.
Durham University /

Bachelor of Science (Honours), Psychology/Biopsychology

St Aidan’s College, University of Durham, England

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Highly computer-literate in general, and an enthuiastic, daily user of the Internet since the Web's infancy in 1992, I’m always willing to acquire and master new software and hardware.
Just don’t ask me to do any programming or Web design... / Operating System:
Windows 7 Ultimate with international language packs
Software: (will purchase any others on request)
Microsoft Office 2010 Professional, Trados 7.5, Adobe Photoshop 8.0, Adobe Pagemaker 7.0, Adobe Framemaker 7.2, Illustrator 10.0, Acrobat 8.0 Pro,InDesign CS3, Quark XPress 6.1, Microsoft Proofing Tools in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, Dutch, Danish and Romanian.
Hardware:
Two notebook PCs, one desktop PC.
Laser printer, scanner, fax machine, etc...I can purchase anything else required.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Reference Materials:I’m an avid— you might say obsessive — buyer of dictionaries and other reference works in both print and digital formats. I currently own around80 dictionaries in nine languages! There are definitely worse addictions than this... If I’m not 100% sure how to translate a word or phrase, I always consult several references, in addition to many online dictionaries, glossaries and other resources, so as to render the translation as fluently, accurately, concisely, unambiguously and stylishly as possible. I consider myself to betheconsummate perfectionist.
Media Use/Travel:I enjoy reading foreign-language media (newspapers, magazines, books, movieswebsites) to remain well-informed about the ever-developing society and culture of the languages I translate, and to ensure I’m always as well-versed as possible in the up-to-the-minutewritten style of these languages. I also travel widely throughout Europe and Asia whenever possible. I have also lived in the USA (California) (5 years), Spain (2 years), France (1 year), Mexico (6 months), Hong Kong (2 years), Thailand (3 years), the Philippines (1 year) and, of course, England, where I spent my formative years until I began travelling the world at the age of 21.

PROFESSIONAL REFERENCES

As a professional service provider, I have a duty to preserve the confidentiality of my clients, and I’ve entered into non-disclosure agreements to this effect. I therefore do not provide the phone numbers or e-mails of reference contacts.However, I have a continuously growing client base of currently around 25corporations in Europe, North America and Asia/Pacific Rim which provide me with regular translation, editing or writingwork.I’m confident that these customerswould vouch for my accuracy, terminology know-how, writing style and respect for delivery deadlines – their cont-inuing loyalty to me over several years is proof of that. Instead, I can provide samples of my work.

Legal Disclaimer. My liability for errors and/or omissions is restricted to correcting the work undertaken, which will be performed free of charge. My financial liability shall in no event exceed the invoiced value of the work undertaken. All liability for indirect, incidental or consequential damages is expressly excluded. My liability shall in no event extend to damages resulting from errors or omissions on my part incurred by any third-party user of documentation I directly translated or any future documentation adapted from my original translation.

Nigel J Clifford / Technical Translator, Editor & Writer / Résumé: April 2011 / Page 1 of 3