Charlie Bavington - C Bavington Ltd

French to English Translation Services

Meeting translation needs since 2003

Business owner - background and experience

I have been a full-time freelance translator since February 2003, and a member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists since January 2009. (Click on the logo opposite to see my page on the CIoL website.)

Before turning to translation, I had 15 years' experience in the computing industry of writing I.T.-related documents of all kinds, notably user requirements, technical specifications, operations guides and user guides. I have also been an end-user of such documents produced by others. Therefore, I am able to offer a practical added-value which another translator without the benefit of years of both writing and using such documents would not.

For my first year as a freelancer, I lived and worked in Paris, which in addition to gaining me my first clients (almost all of which I have retained to this day), gave me a valuable insight into the machinations of French administration, the tax system, and similar aspects of life in France.

I moved back to the UK in 2004. My time is now divided between Barnet and Pomerols (southern France, near Montpellier).

Qualifications

There is, of course, more to translating than simply having a decent understanding of a foreign language. To this end, while I was still working in IT, I decided to take the Institute of Linguists' Diploma in Translation (French to English, merit awarded in the Technology paper) in November 1996.

More recently, in December 2010, I took the "Terminology and Translation of Contracts" module that forms part of the MA in Legal Translation from City University, London.

To complete the academic background, in July 1987, I obtained a B.A. (Hons) in Business Administration With French from Loughborough University of Technology. Hence I have a solid background in commercial disciplines such as accounting, marketing, production management, human resources and so on.

Relevant IT experience

Not long after obtaining my translation qualification in 1996, the company for which I was working at the time was taken over by a French company. From 1999, I worked exclusively on a project to build a single IT system for use by insurance underwriting departments in the UK, in France, and in the Dutch and Belgian subsidiaries. This role was a move away from what was previously an essentially technical IT role, both in this and in previous jobs. My everyday work - which could be summed up as specifying the system and then explaining the system to various parties, both end-user and IT - was conducted in both English and French interchangeably.

Complete CV available to download here.