A native Swedish speaker, I started my language career in Paris studying French. Thanks to my first job in a publishing house, I started translating novels. I soon started working for the European Commission and the European Space Agency, translating reports and articles about society, politics and science. 

Even though I enjoyed translating technical texts it wasn’t until I was contacted by a subtitling company that I discovered what would be my path in life. Being able to have a breakfast cappuccino while watching an interesting movie that you will translate during the day - that’s my definition of a dream job. 

But to me, translating is more than a job; along with languages it’s my passion in life. I love coming up with rhymes for musical comedies, finding the right register in Swedish when a Mexican drug lord is shouting on screen, or thinking of how to best translate a pun. This means that I’m thorough, not only for the client’s sake, but for myself. I’ve translated classics such as Top Hat, Queen Christina and Last Days, as well as series such as Game of Thrones and Sopranos. But it doesn’t matter if it’s a light comedy about teenagers or a classic - I want the translation to be perfect because I take pride in what I do.

Another flow inducing activity for me is learning languages. The feeling of a whole new world opening to you is incredible. Thats why, after many years of translating from English and French, I started studying Spanish and Italian. First Latin American Spanish in Argentina and Colombia, then Italian in Naples and Florence, and finally Castilian Spanish in Madrid. Thanks to many years of studies, time abroad, language exchanges, people, novels and movies, I now speak five languages. However, learning a language is a life long project and something you must keep working on. I can easily spend days repeating irregular verbs or writing word lists to expand my vocabulary. Call me a language nerd; I just love it! Some people do drugs, I do languages.

Gabriella Ekbom