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Personal Background

My fascination with languages is due in part to cultural survival skills acquired during my childhood. I was born to a German father and American mother in a small village in France. I lived and started school there before my family moved to Germany when I was six. Until then, my brothers and I had spoken mostly French (peer pressure à la française, I suppose), while my parents spoke German with us at home.
   Though I had felt German in France, in Germany I was "the little French girl". I remember asking the little boy next to me at school whether he had a "stylo" (French for pen). His blank stare informed me of my embarrassing faux-pas. I vowed to myself that I would keep my languages separate. When at last I felt German, after four years in Frankfurt, we moved to Tokyo, where I attended the German School. I learned enough children's Japanese to buy candy and sushi and gain access to the public bath house. This was during the '70s, when Japanese children ran from foreigners to hide behind their mothers, whispering in horror "Gaijin, gaijin. Mite mama, me ga aoi!" ("A foreigner. Look, mom, blue eyes!").
   After five years, we returned to Germany, where I finished school. I worked for Japan Airlines: eight years at Frankfurt Airport as a passenger traffic agent; one year in the public relations and advertising department.
   In 1993, I moved to Chicago, where I attended Loyola University. I began freelancing as a translator in 1995, and received my accreditation from the American Translators Association in 1997. For the past two years I have lived in Santa Fe, enjoying the gorgeous high-desert sunshine and breathtaking landscapes of northern New Mexico. I return annually to Germany and France with my husband and two daughters, both of whom speak English and German and share my fascination with cultures and languages.