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@Linguist_CIOL FEBRUARY/MARCH The Linguist 33 INSTITUTE MATTERS A life with languages Former dentist Andreja Milosevic MCIL CL explains, in his native Serbian, how he discovered that he was better suited to interpreting and translation than pulling teeth L ike most children growing up in Yugoslavia in the 1970s and 1980s, I learnt several foreign languages at school, starting with English in grade 1. My parents were scholars and paid particular emphasis to languages, so I went to summer schools in England and finished high school in the US. I got my first assignments translating my father's research papers – there was probably an ulterior motive in all that language study after all. At that stage, I considered the English language to be a tool for advancement in other professions, rather than a career choice. My first degree was in dentistry, but turbulent political and economic times at home did no service to my career, and I started looking for other things I could do. I landed a few translating and interpreting jobs, and found that I was getting more of a buzz from flying by Većina dece koja su odrastala u Jugoslaviji sedamdesetih i osamdesetih godina prošlog veka učila su u školi po nekoliko stranih jezika. Ja sam učio engleski od prvog razreda, ali moji roditelji su bili akademski ljudi koji su jezicima pridavali posebnu pažnju, tako da sam leta provodio na kursevima u Engleskoj, a srednju školu završio u Americi. Rezultat je bio da sam naučio jezik i dobio prve prevodilačke zadatke, radeći na publikacijama mog oca – biće da je postojao i neki skriveni lični interes u svom tom učenju jezika… U svakom slucaju, tada sam još uvek smatrao engleski jezik sredstvom za napredovanje u drugim profesijama, pre nego izborom karijere. Shodno tome, prvo sam diplomirao na Stomatološkom fakultetu – ali burna politička i ekonomska situacija u zemlji nije baš pomogla mojoj karijeri, pa sam počeo da tražim šta bih drugo mogao da radim. Uspeo sam da dobijem nekoliko prevodilačkih poslova i otkrio da mi je zabavnije da se snalazim u prevodilačkoj kabini, nego da vadim zube. Zato sam upisao i završio engleski jezik i književnost, potom položio ispite za profesionalnu akreditaciju australijskog NAATI (Nacionalna asocijacija akreditovanih prevodilaca i tumača) za prevodjenje sa srpskog na engleski i obrnuto, i nikada nisam zažalio. Zahvaljujući ovom poslu, posetio sam mesta i upoznao ljude koje inače nikada ne bih video – i još uvek se zabavljam. Ako bi trebalo da izdvojim najbolji aspekt svoje profesije, rekao bih da su to prilike za upoznavanje ljudi različitih kultura, kao i privilegija komuniciranja sa njima. A kada je posao gotov, koristim drugi svetski jezik koji govorim. Sviram muziku svih kultura, sa ljudima različitog etnickog i kulturnog porekla iz celog sveta. Jedan svet, jedna muzika. the seat of my pants in the interpreting booth than from drilling teeth. So I did a second degree in English language and literature, then passed professional accreditation exams with the Australian NAATI (National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters) in English <> Serbian, and never looked back. This line of work has taken me places, and given me the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people I never would have met otherwise. And I am still getting the buzz. If I had to single out the best thing about my job, it would be meeting people from different cultures and having the privilege of communicating with them. And when the work is done, I use the second global language I speak: I play music – music of all cultures, with people of ethnicities from all over the world. One world, one music.