About Me

I’m Catharine Cellier-Smart, a British-born professional French to English sworn translator who’s mostly lived on Reunion Island, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean, since September 1990.

I’m a member of the Société Française des Traducteurs (the French national translators’ union), as well as UNETICA (the French national union of sworn translators and interpreters).

I’ve been a French court-sworn translator since 2014, and I’m also certified by Proz. On social media you can find me at LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and of course Twitter. And just for fun, I run the Traduction La Moukat Facebook group.

This blog contains some of my reflections on language and translation.

I also write another blog about Reunion Island, the south-west Indian Ocean, travel and life in Asia (I lived in Seoul for three years 2008-2011), and diving (I’m a certified scuba diver). I’m the author of the ‘Reunion’ section of the 2016 and 2019 editions of the Insight Guide to Mauritius, Reunion & Seychelles, and I’m an InterNations co-ambassador for the Reunion Island community.

See also

• In April 2012 I was interviewed by the Endless Possibilities Talks (EPT) team – you can watch ‘Adventures on a Faraway Island‘ here.
• In July 2012 I was interviewed by Megan Onions of Speech Marks Translation as part of her “1 Linguist, 3 Questions” series.
• In March 2013 I was interviewed by Lloyd Bingham as part of his “Translator Diaries” series.
• In April 2013 this blog and my travel blog were the object of an article in Reunion Multimedia magazine.
• In May 2013 I inaugurated Natali Lekka‘s series of articles about ‘travelling translators’: see here.
• In June 2013 my twitter account @Smart_Translate was voted 12th in the Blabla 2013 Top Twitterers Language Lovers competition (and 17th in the Top 100 Language Lovers 2013); see here for more details.
• In July 2013 I was the subject of a full-page interview in Reunion Multimedia magazine.
• In September 2013 I was one of ten translators interviewed by Emeline Jamoul for her International Translation Day 2013 series; you can read the interview here.
• In October 2013 I was featured in Christine Christaki’s “20 or so questions on how XXXXXX works” series; see it on the Lingua Greca blog here.
• In June 2014 my twitter account was voted 4th in the Blabla 2014 Top Twitterers Language Lovers competition (and 5th in the Top 100 Language Lovers 2014); see here for more details.
• In June 2015 my twitter account was voted 8th in the Blabla 2015 Top Twitterers Language Lovers competition; see here for more details.
• In January 2016 I was interviewed by Alexandra Le Deun for her guest translator series; read the article (in French) on her blog, Hispafra, here.
• In May 2016 I was one of the translators who contributed to an article about the Tools You May Not Be Using But Probably Should.
• In June 2016 my twitter account was voted 7th in the Blabla 2016 Top Twitterers Language Lovers competition; see here for more details.
• In June 2017 my twitter account @Smart_Translate was voted 2nd in the Blabla 2017 Top Twitterers Language Lovers competition.
• In September 2018 I was invited by translation company Wordbee to talk about Creoles on Episode 18 of their International Buzz podcast. 
• Also in September 2018 I was interviewed by colleague Françoise L’Heveder for her Parcours de Traducteurs series (interview in English, despite the French name!).
• In August 2020 I was featured translator on Maeva Cifuentes’ blog.
• In December 2021 this blog was one of five featured in a “The Linguist” magazine article, when CIOL members and bloggers shared their favourite blogs for language professionals and anyone interested in language.
• In March 2022 I was featured in the Meet Our Members section of the ITI French Network’s blog.
• For International Translation Day 2022 I was featured in an article in one of Reunion Island’s local newspapers, Le Quotidien.
• In February 2023 I was interviewed by colleague Gwenydd Jones for her Translator’s Studio series of translator interviews on YouTube.

Being a sworn translator, diversifying & online presence

Outreach:

Since 2011 I’ve also made a professional presentation to BTS students at Lycée Amiral Bouvet high school, been interviewed by students from Lycée St Charles, given presentations at the Collège Hippolyte Foucque Career Morning four years running, and participated in the Careers Fair of Lycée Leconte de Lisle as well as giving a presentation there to final year students.  I ran a stand presenting the translating and interpreting profession at Reunion’s Career Fair in 2015 and 2016, gave presentations for two consecutive years at the Femmes Responsables event at College de Bras Panon, and since 2020 have been one of the assessors at the EGC Réunion Business School for students presenting their placements abroad.

Me, manning (or should that be ‘womanning’?) my stand at Reunion’s Career Fair in 2015.

Giving back:

As well as being a volunteer translator at Translators Without Borders, I’ve also been a volunteer interpreter for Med’Ocean, and I occasionally mentor and advise future or early-career translators.