My name is Lucía González Urién. I am an agronomist living in Granada since 2012, when my family and I moved back to Spain after 5 years in the United States. I specialize in scientific and technical translations in agronomy, biology, environment and other related topics, from English into Spanish. I can also work on less technical issues in which I do not have any academic background but that I really enjoy and read about very often, both in English and Spanish, including cooking, food, travel and sustainability in general.
Why do I translate?
My professional experience has taken me on this path in a very subtle way. During the time I worked at Syngenta, one of the world-leading agri-business companies, one of my tasks was the translation of the technical dossiers that contain all the information about new agrochemicals to be reviewed by government officials for their approval.
Then, when I was working in the United States at Latino Community Credit Union, a community credit union for Latino immigrants, I also devoted part of my time to translating all sorts of documents into Spanish. I ended up being somehow the authority on the field, and every translation would go through me including press releases, content for the website, brochures and manuals. I guess both my colleagues and my bosses could appreciate my accuracy, my tenacity in finding the right term and my determination in using an universal and neutral Spanish that would include all Spanish speakers around the globe.
I also hold an open war against the amazingly wide spread Spanglish, that leaves us with direct translations from English which might not make any difference for a non-native Spanish speaker, but that are simply terrible and totally wrong. I know there is an ongoing discussion about this issue, and some may argue that languages are alive and should evolve with time, and that Spanglish is no more than a reflection of the cultural diversity in the United States, with a continuously growing presence of Spanish. And of course these facts are true, but I also believe that the line between accepting some degree of flexibility in the spoken language and writing and translating incorrectly is too thin.
Quality translation
As I said before, living in the United States I found many awful translations, which details I am not including here, since they won’t make any sense for non Spanish speakers, but that you can check if you are curious at the Spanish version of this site. Although they may sound hilarious, actually it is a shame, and unfortunately you can find these terrible translations pretty much anywhere: banks, hospitals, even outreach and education materials published by the U.S. government.
All these helped me realize how passionate I am about translating. Amongst all this lack of seriousness and respect for foreign languages, I want to offer quality translations, simply out of satisfaction from a job well done. I am extremely serious about accuracy, I enjoy searching for the right term, and excel in this area.
I am unable to deliver translations in record time (there might be some exceptions) but I can guarantee a high-quality job, with concern for correct writing, and with accurate technical terms.
For me it is really important to have fluent communication with my clients so that I can clearly understand the project and make as many corrections as are needed until they are 100% satisfied. Nevertheless, I understand the importance of deadlines, and once I have committed to a date, I always deliver my work on time.
Science and technical translation on agronomy, biology and environment
After graduating as an agronomist, I worked for over 5 years at Syngenta. I quit this job to go to grad school and study environmental management (specializing in water resources) at Tufts University, in the United States. I then worked for several months with the Nicholas Institute at Duke University, developing a nutrient management strategy to prevent pollution in Falls Lake (North Carolina). Therefore, I have a wide knowledge of these areas and feel extremely confident working on them, since in most cases I am familiar with the concepts, or otherwise I know where to look them up to refresh them. In addition, since I have studied and worked on these fields in Spain and the United States, I know the technical terms both in Spanish and English.
From English into Spanish, only
It doesn’t matter how proficient one might be in a second language, it will still be a second language, and therefore it is very common to have mistakes that may not affect the understanding of a text, but sound ‘weird’ anyway. I can do reverse translation of simple texts, but otherwise, because I want to do high-quality translation, I will stick to Spanish. A few days ago I read this in another translator’s blog: ” I do one thing only, but I do it very very well”. I copy that.
For more details you can see my résumé and my profiles in Linkedin, ProZ and TranslatorsCafé
Cherimola 