Your professional translator

Heike Kurtz, Chartered Linguist (Translator) CIOL

  • Diploma in Translation 2020 (General language, Business, Law)
  • „Best Candidate“ English to German

Video on YouTube: Heike Kurtz in an interview with John Worne, CEO The Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL).

State Certified European Secretary ESA

  • Many years of experience as an executive assistant in international medium-sized businesses in various sectors
  • Practical experience in the export business (calls for tender, handling of freight and shipping, payment transactions), multi-lingual corporate communication, translations for the in-house legal department
Heike Kurtz, Professional Translator
Heike KurtzProfessional Translator for German, English and French

For Commerce, Law, Finance

  • Since 1998 - self-employed translator with emphasis on exports/commerce
  • Since 2008 - additional areas of focus - finance and law
  • Continuous professional development in my areas of expertise

English, French, German

  • German native speaker
  • French - first foreign language (as of 1980)
  • English - second foreign language (as of 1982)

Your advantage:

  • Many years of work-experience in “two worlds”: Executive Assistant and self-employed translator
  • As a result I can target your needs and provide you with the appropriate service package.

Experience

Prior to 1998

Executive Assistant in international companies:

  • Translation of calls for tender and quotations
  • Processing of export transactions
  • Translation and linguistic assistance for in-house counsel
  • International correspondence

As of 1998

Self-employed translator

Translations of:

  • Contracts
  • Internal and customer communication
  • Analyst reports
  • Annual reports
  • KIIDs, prospectuses
  • Business correspondence

Translations for:

  • Businesses (small businesses, medium-sized businesses, corporations, banks, insurance companies, certified accountants)
  • Translation agencies specialized in law, finance and/or commerce who value good quality.
Think about it

How do you find the right translator for your project?

The ATA (American Translators Association) has published a very informative booklet which offers guidance to clients on how to find the right kind of translation service provider: Translation: Getting It Right

Prices

What does a translation cost?

About as much as a meal in a restaurant.

You think that there are differences depending on the standard?

That’s right!

Let's talk

I offer the following service levels:

Summarization of the contents

You send me your foreign-language text; I take a look at it and then provide you with a short summary regarding its subject and contents.

If you wish, you can highlight specific passages in the text which you find to be especially important. I will then send you a binding quotation for an exact translation of these passages.

Standard translation
(Source Text → Target Text)

I will translate your texts accurately - based upon the source text and my expertise. Then, I have a qualified colleague proof-read the text (“double check”) and I provide you with the German version of the foreign-language text, and, where appropriate, with comments regarding country-specific particularities.

To send me your text, please use the secure upload feature of the contact form so that I can send you a binding quotation. For reasons of security, I advise strongly against the transmission of unencrypted emails.

Creative formulation of a German text that conveys the meaning of the original, for example for target-group oriented marketing.

You and I get together and you explain to me in detail who the text is aimed at, what the text is used for and what the message is that you want the text to transmit - and I provide you with a quotation for my services.

Then, using the source materials, I create a draft version of the German text.

In close collaboration with you or with your advertising specialists, we develop a final version which exactly fits your company and your message.

I only offer this service in German in order to ensure the native-speaker quality and that certain “feeling for the language”.

FAQs

Questions that I am often asked:

Do you also translate into your foreign languages?

A clear “it depends.”

Occasionally, I do translate texts into my foreign languages that are of highly technical nature and for which nice-sounding formulations as used in marketing are of lesser importance than the correctness of the translation (legal texts, annual reports) – under such circumstances, it may even be an advantage to rely on the specialist knowledge regarding the source text. These texts are proof-read - or double-checked - by a native speaker, whenever possible.

I translate texts which are expected to be nice to read for the target audience and which deal with the cultural customs and particularities of the target country solely into German. I will be happy to recommend qualified colleagues who are native speakers of other target languages and who will be glad to help you.

Questions and answers
Questions and answers

I see you translate from French and English. What about other languages, do you translate from those, too?

No. I prefer staying with my core competencies.

If you need a translation from another language, don’t hesitate to ask. I meet many competent colleagues at seminars for continued professional development and industry conferences whom I am glad to recommend.

One constantly reads about machine translations. What is your opinion on this subject?

Machine translations are helpful tools when one quickly needs to understand at least what a foreign language text is about. You should, however, under no circumstances regard machine translations as being a replacement for translations done by a professionally qualified translator because:

  • In order to translate a text online, it must be sent over the internet to an external computer (server). No one knows where this computer is located and what is done with the texts or who else might have access to them. Confidentiality does not exist here. From where do you think online-tools get their texts for comparison?
  • A computer can only reproduce something that has already been translated. It cannot judge the quality of the translation; it can only find matches in similar texts. Nothing protects you from repeating a bad translation mistake made earlier.
  • Nuances in a language, creative differences - a computer can’t handle any of these things. The obvious mistakes, which are immediately recognizable, are not particularly “dangerous,” but rather the minor discrepancies which only the specialists can recognize, because these are not immediately evident but under some circumstances have far-reaching consequences (You are liable for your texts!).
  • If I notice a mistake in the source text or I find that a sentence seems very vague or incomprehensible, I will inform you of this and ask you what exactly you had wanted to express. When appropriate, I will also point out that in my opinion a legal or technical review by experts might be advisable. A machine will not do this.

Show your customers and business partners your respect and appreciation also by providing them with an accurately translated text, which they can understand easily and through which you transmit your corporate message to your customers.

Note: I also work with “translation software,” so-called CAT-tools (“Computer Aided Translation”). These are complex systems based on relational databases, with which I can access previous customer-specific translations. Your advantage:

  • I am quicker because I can immediately see changes to already existing texts and insert these.
  • I am better because I have constant access to company-specific terminology which has already been approved.
  • I enhance my quality because the software facilitates the use of consistent terminology.
  • If needed, I can develop a company-specific glossary that you can implement as a source for standard terminology within the entire corporation.
  • Furthermore, CAT tools enable the alignment of older, already approved texts so that the internal company terminology and phrases are available from the start.

Do you have any further questions? Feel free to contact me - I am happy to assist you.

Contact

Heike Kurtz Übersetzungen

Heimensteinstraße 10 73230 Kirchheim unter Teck

Tel: +49 (0)7021 860372 Fax: +49 (0)7021 860373