Specialization / Background
My name is Stéphane D. Randrianasolo Razatovo. I am a Malagasy national based in ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar. My mother tongue is Malagasy. My first and primary working language is French. I am a trained English teacher. I have a Master Degree in African English literature, Université du Bénin, Lomé, Togo. I read N’Gugi Wa Thiongo at college, and my dissertation was a critical analysis of his novel “PETALS OF BLOOD.”
I had spent the first 5 years of my professional career as a high-school teacher. Next I specialized in the use of educational audiovisual aids. This allowed me to secure important positions in two training centers.
The first one is a teacher training college based in Antananarivo, Madagascar. The name is Institut Pédagogique. Along with being an English teacher in the establishment, I headed the Audiovisual Department for 5 academic years.
The second training center situated in Lomé (Togo, West-Africa),.called Centre Régional d’Action Culturelle (CRAC), was designed to train potential officials for various departments in charge of culture in more than 20 member countries over the Continent. Here again I was Head of the Audiovisual Department for another 17 years. That was also the time when I completed my master degree in African English Literature (1982). I had a contract with an African inter-state organization called the "African Cultural Institute", with its head office in Dakar (Senegal).
Besides being in charge of my part of the cultural training curriculum, I also taught English both in my college in Antananarivo and with the English Teaching Program at the American Cultural Centre in Lomé.
I had many opportunities to travel both in Africa and in Europe, either for my own trainings abroad or on duty in relation with my job.
As far as translation is concerned, my university study included quite a lot of translation assignments, on the one hand. On the other hand, since my specific linguistic skills (French/English) were validated in my profile, my employers extended my duties to translating as well, which included international conference and seminar papers, as well as routine working documentation.
Back in Antananarivo, Madagascar in 1995, with the help of a colleague of mine who is an English lecturer at the University of Antananarivo, I set up a small scale translation agency. The agency is called “Language and Communication Services, “LANCOMS”. It is an incorporated duly constituted company under Malagasy Laws.
Through outsourcing from local competencies, the agency has completed translating and interpreting projects and contracts for institutional or private sector clients based in Madagascar, for groups and organizations working in partnership with the Malagasy Government.
We have done a fair amount of work for the American Embassy and its various agencies. We also work with the British Embassy but less frequently. For instance, we had completed two voluminous projects, one on the American Military Judiciary, and the other on the recent American National Security policy subsequent to 9/11.
Some middle-of-the road international organizations subcontract us for interpreting jobs during international meetings held in Antananarivo. It is mainly the case with such organizations as W.H.O. and the World Bank or major environmental organizations.
For the international sector, we did the French Translation for the worldwide project of the British telephone company Granger Telecom, including installation manuals, maintenance and measuring manuals and the users’ manuals, for the latest wireless telecommunication technologies.
Literature is a most motivating exercise and we are definitely on the look-out for such opportunities. But basically, we run the agency on a day-to-day basis by handling more prosaic projects. In so doing we have gathered an outstanding amount of terminologies in several fields. This in itself is a valuable treasure for the rendering of literary, artistic or creative writings.
We work in two different sites in town, in a fairly sophisticated technological environment. As a CAT tool, we are currently using Wordfast. As a Translation Machine, we resort to Power Translation Pro whenever appropriate. We have access to most of the latest dictionaries available on the web. Locally, our own machines are updated with the bilingual English/French tools such as the Grand Robert & Collins and the Harrap’s Shorter Dictionary.