Welcome everyone!

This first post is just to introduce myself to those who don’t know me yet. My name is Alessandra Vita and I am a passionate translator and interpreter, currently living half of the week in Madrid and the other half in Alicante (that’s why I am Renfe’s best friend!).

I lived in Italy until the end of high school. Since I was very young, the Italian boot and its mentality has always been too small for me. That’s why I began travelling on my own to get to know other languages and cultures since I was only 14. Since the age of 19, I have studied and worked mostly in Spain and Germany.

Today I can say I am much more than a mere Italian (according to my nationality) and would rather regard myself as a hybrid, as far as culture is concerned. Those who know me well are perfectly acquainted with the fact that I play the “I-am-Italian,-believe-me!” card, only for judging pasta, pizza, icre-cream and very few more things! For the rest, I am a “cultural milkshake”: I’m a professional jay-walker (thanks to my Italian origins), I’m more organised than a German and a Swiss together, have a sort of British humour and couldn’t live without some Spanish informal and friendly environment for too long. Plus, I talk to myself and take notes in the first of my four working languages that comes to my mind and I keep up interpreting in my dreams (like in my daily life).

There’s nothing I love more than translation and interpreting: it’s like a full-time hobby for me. That’s why when I am not working you can bet I’ll be reading or writing something about languages on Twitter, LinkedIn and, from now on, also here in this blog, “In love with words”.

In my daily life I struggle with translators and interpreters’s worst nightmares:

• make clients and people understand the difference between translation and interpreting,
• explain to clients why they cannot ask for a 90% discount on the rates I provide them with,
• make clients and people understand why they shouldn’t rely on Google Translate for professional purposes.

On this blog you’ll read about these personal battles, some pills of wisdom and much more! Stay tuned! 😉

Alessandra