Terp Tales – Pick a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life – Adryana Henderson

“My journey with languages started when I was very young. When I was growing up, my family and I, we always had a love for languages and cultures. Probably around, 6 years old, we started to learn Spanish. There were many others. Those languages included Spanish, Hindi, Vietnamese and many others. That was only the start.

In the United States, once you reach middle school, most students are required to take a language course as part of their curriculum. At that time, I was obsessed with French. I’d say around 2011 to 2012, I started to get interested into the language Korean. I never would have known it would have taken me so far. As I already had a love and knack for languages, I decided that I would start to learn it. It is now been nearly 7 years since that day.

Looking back, at that time as a young person that was still in high school, I never really considered that Korean or any language would become a career for me. It was just something that I loved, something that made me feel useful, and a contributor to society. Compared to other people, due to physical limitations, I wasn’t able to go abroad or to immerse myself like others were able to do. So, I did what I knew best; I did it all by self-study and hard work. There are many times that I wanted to give up. I’m a bit of a perfectionist I must admit but I kept up with it and now, here I am.

I have experience with both translation and interpretation. And of course, both have their difficulties, but I’d say specifically for interpreting, one of the biggest challenges can be coming to the realization that you are not just interpreting a language. You are a travel guide, a lawyer, a doctor, or maybe even just someone’s best friend. You are what bridges the gap between 2 people, 2 cultures, 2 different life stories. Not only must you know the language well, you must try to feel the emotion that another person is feeling. You’re almost an actor of sorts. It’s much more complex than people may anticipate or expect it to be. I try to imagine if it was me or a family member who needed help. By doing that, it helps me to examine and see how important interpreting really is.

My favorite type of interpreting assignment would be when working with families because family is such a big part of my life. Whether it be a parent teacher conference or someone calling a family member that lives in their home country, those types of assignments bring me much joy and happiness.

After getting connected with Boostlingo, they helped me to see that though I have limitations, I can still do what I love, and I can do it from anywhere in the world. There are remote telephone assignments, remote video assignments, and the platform is so easy to navigate. With Boostlingo, the opportunities are endless. I feel honored to work with them. I never have to feel that underappreciated. The Boostlingo team always does their best to help you in any way that they can and have really helped me to advance my career in ways I never could’ve imagined.

Currently, I am learning 11 languages (for now). I’m still young so I still have a long way to go, but I am excited and happy that Boostlingo will be on this journey with me.”

-Adriana