Both Sides of the Line
I have spent all of my professional life in translation. Writer, radio writer, founder of EIZIE (Euskal Itzultzaile, Zuzentzaile eta Interpreteen Elkartea, the Association of Translators, Correctors and Interpreters of the Basque Language), translator, interpreter, professor..., all of these fields are related to translation. Even when I worked for the Basque Government (2009-2012) with various responsibilities related to Linguistic Policy, translation was always an important part of my work. I had to maintain close ties with translators' associations (EIZIE and Galtzagorri) and I was comfortable in this work since it dealt with a reality with which I was very familiar. It was our responsibility to develop professional standards for certified translators and interpreters of Basque. We established a powerful Spanish-Basque automatic translator, the public memory bank will be functional by the end of this year, and translation was a permanent topic of discussion and reflection in our relationships with the technicians in the department and with other officials. Finally, I have now developed a relationship with interpretation that is the opposite of the one I first had: I went from being an interpreter to being interpreted and being the beneficiary of the work of interpreters of many different languages. Thus, I have become familiar with different aspects and facets of the same reality.
