Once I asked my mentor Bruno Oliveira when did he realize that he wanted to become an interpreter. He said he always knew. Since the beginning, he had this clear vision about interpretation.  And I have many other colleagues, interpreters and translators, who were familiarized with the profession at a very young age. In my case, I had no idea. In fact, I never heard about interpreters until I started my second year of translation studies. As most interpreters, I basically stumbled at this profession.

As a child, I absolutely loved to read. My beloved mother read children’s books to me as far as I can remember, before I could even read and write. And when I learnt how to read and write, the books became my parallel world, my journal was my best friend and I always fell in love with a blank page, creating fantastic stories to feed my imaginary. I was surrounded by all types of books. My father is an accountant and he had on his shelfs books on math, economics, finances, politics, and other scientific fields. On my mom’s side of the shelf, I would find spiritual books and amazing novels in French and Portuguese. Perhaps, who knows, reading forged who I am today. Reading exposed me to different realities and worlds before I could experience it physically. It opened and stretched my mind, it grew my curiosity about different cultures, about people and their way of living, how they think and how they behave.

When I was around nine years old, I remember well, I was asked that famous question that we insist on asking children, like if they know the answer. Maybe they do. I did. What do you want to be when you grow up?

A writer. I was sure. At that age, I had never met a writer nor was anyone in my family a writer. But writing was so natural in me, like a necessity, like breathing. It was like if I could make the world better with a blank page and a pen, make it more colorful, more peaceful, more joyful. I never changed my mind about it, I never wanted to become something else, an astronaut, a doctor or whatever. I never changed my mind until my mind was changed (was it?).

In Cape Verde, where I grew up, students follow a common academic curriculum until they have to choose among four specific areas, namely: Arts, Economics, Science and Technology,  and Humanities. My father wanted me to pick a very practical area that would guarantee me stability and a good job, it is to say, Economics or Science and Technology. His dream was that I’d follow in finances, like him. I wasn’t sure what I would study in university, but I was sure that I didn’t want to pursue finances, engineering, medicine or any of that. So, against my father’s will, I enrolled in Humanities. It took my mother to defend me against his rage when he found out and, with her wisdom, she also guided me to find a balance between following what I wanted and finding stability in life and being able to make a living for myself.

As I look back, I see that my sweet mom had a huge influence in my career, not by imposing what I should become, but by feeding and guiding the true nature of her child. I decided I wanted to graduate in Languages, Literature and Cultures in Portugal but, after researching herself, she came to me with the academic curriculum of Translation Studies: You will learn everything you would learn in Languages, Literature and Cultures plus the technical skills to translate. You will be able to translate books if you want.

In 2011, I left Cape Verde and went to Portugal to graduate in Translation at the Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon. After completing my studies in 2015, I went back to Praia and started my career as a freelance translator. It wasn’t my main activity or source of income right at the beginning, but slowly I started being noticed for my work and I started receiving great opportunities. It didn’t take long to grow an interest for interpretation. But that’s another story.

Cordialmente,

Vania Almeida