In 1980 he settled in Paris where he taught English and occasionally translated for some years, before moving through a few translation and documentation companies. He has been working freelance since 1989. He works largely in engineering and construction, translating from French into English, and now lives in Normandy. I have little real idea of what other translators' work involves. I assume readers of the Translation Journal have no better an appreciation of what engineering translation involves, and will outline something of the diversity of my work.
Engineering is a vast field.
I like to think of myself as a specialist, but the enormous range of sub-fields into which I find myself delving in the course of what is essentially civil engineering work sometimes makes me feel like a sort of generalist. My jobs have covered dams, tunnels, roads, bridges, power stations, transmission lines, sewers, water treatment and desalination plants, canals and river-training, airports, harbours, mines, and offshore structures, not to mention a variety of buildings of different types, ranging from mud huts for displaced African tribespeople to monumental office blocks. Most of these fields can be broken down into different types of structure, each with different requirements. Tunnels can be road tunnels, rail tunnels, or water tunnels. For while basic construction terms may be the same from one project to the next, there will inevitably be reference to purpose-specific requirements demanding their own specialized terminology when dealing with hotels or hospitals, shopping malls or factories.