Our Team
We are headed by Éva Tamási, a former freelance and in-house translator, proofreader, Project Manager, Account Manager and Vendor Manager.
Éva’s Story:
It all started with the Beatles in Budapest in the middle of the 70s. My brother was listening to them, and I just wanted to understand what their words meant, so I applied to a school with English specialization. Then, I fell in love with English literature and graduated from the English and Russian faculty of ELTE University in Budapest in 1985. I also learnt Lithuanian later.
Translation science was part of our studies, and Noam Chomsky’s theory of deep structure and surface structure came as a revelation. Translation to me means giving the most suitable surface to what is down in the depths of our minds. Understanding a foreign language and being able to convey its meaning to someone else living in a different culture still fascinates me, whether I am in New York or in a Lithuanian village.
After my studies, five years followed in London working as a freelance translator and teaching Hungarian to English diplomats, relatives of Hungarians and others interested in the language. I put together my own course book and opened a language school in Chiswick.
Later I worked for large English accounting and financial companies as an in-house translator.
I moved back to Hungary in 1992, to work as an in-house legal translator, legal assistant, office manager, Project Manager and Vendor Manager for various international companies and translation agencies.
I founded Baltic Trans, my own translation company, in 1994, as a family business with my Lithuanian husband, who is also a translator.
I worked for a leading Hungarian translation agency for 8 years in various posts (as a translator, Project Manager and Vendor Manager), but in May 2013, I decided to put my energies into developing Baltic Trans.
Running my own company and being ‘my own boss’ is challenging and rewarding at the same time. It involves financial risk, uncertainty, more responsibility and self-discipline. On the other hand, I can choose the people, the methods and the strategies I work with day by day, and this gives me great intellectual and emotional satisfaction.
The members of our team share the same professional attitude and values. Over the years, I have developed a close professional and personal relationship with a number of translators from across Europe, and I hope to build on this in the future.
I like to work in an atmosphere that encourages creativity, recognizes knowledge, appreciates special efforts and makes people feel good about their work and the team. ‘Team work’ is not an empty phrase for us; it is the essence of our cooperation.
I consider it my mission to produce Hungarian texts of the best possible quality, and to this end I proofread almost everything that leaves our office. I take pride in that. I feel I can add that extra touch to a marketing text that will make it ‘flow’ or find that one small mistake after a thorough read-through. I send feedback about corrections to translators, and we discuss them before arriving at the best final solution together.
I feel I have a great opportunity ahead of me now: to try to make a living out of work that I love, with people I care for and in ways that I believe in.
As mentioned above, I started to learn English in order to understand what the Beatles were saying. Now, after a few decades, I can help others to understand each other.
I hope that ‘when I’m sixty-four, on some hard day’s night after speaking words of wisdom, we can come together and work it out with a little help from my friends’.
Coming from a multicultural working environment, Katalin worked in the publishing industry first as licence manager, and then as editorial manager for 7 years. Her tasks included liaising with publishers, editors and production teams, developing and overseeing publishing rights for books and ensuring that the publication of specific books progresses to schedule. She joined Baltic Trans as a Project Manager and a proofreader, and she coordinates all publishing related tasks. She thoroughly enjoys working together with people from different language and culture backgrounds.
Andrius majored in Hungarian and Russian language and literature at Zhdanov University, Leningrad in 1986.
His translations of Hungarian literature into Lithuanian were published in Lithuania. His main areas of specialization are business, economics, politics, arts and sports. He interpreted at business meetings, international conferences, cultural exchanges, theatre productions and assisted businessmen in establishing their foothold in Lithuania. He also holds a tourist guide’s licence and is experienced in showing delegations and tourist groups in Vilnius and Budapest.
János has worked as a freelancer for more than 30 years. He is well-versed in translating economic and social sciences topics, wine tourism (Szekszárd region), theology, art, music and humanities.
His son, János Tamási Junior studies at Budapest Technical University, at the faculty of biology and chemistry and as a team they translate these topics as well. They have translated a number of student papers and dissertations. János also has a vein for translating fiction and poetry.
Having graduated in English and Russian at ELTE University, Budapest Myrtill taught Russian and English at Óbuda Secondary Grammar School, and then specialised in teaching university students and adults and teaching English for Specific Purposes. She has been teaching legal English at the Faculty of Law, ELTE for over 15 years. In her course (’Introduction to the Language of Law’) She has taught the language of English criminal law and European public law to law students from her own coursebook, from her mono- and bilingual /English-Hungarian termlists. She has proofread a number of English translations of essays on criminal law, legal history, philosophy and European public law written by university lecturers.
Myrtill is now involved in teaching notaries in contract and company law in English and in preparing students for language exams in English and Russian.
’What I enjoy most in teaching is the opportunity to see how the students gradually get to know their subject better through submerging in legal terminology and meaning with the help of their teacher.’
Myrtill has joined Baltic Trans as a teacher and a legal translator.
Zsuzsa has taught French legal language since 1989 to law students, lawyers, public administrators and notaries in nearly all areas of law.
She has written several coursebooks for learners of legal French (e.g. ‘French legal language. University coursebook for law students and lawyers in the field of French Public Law, ELTE University, 2000 ; French-Hungarian Legal Dictionary, private edition, 2001.
In addition to teaching Zsuzsa translates and proofreads legal texts in civil and private law. In 2009 she acquired a translator’s diploma at ELTE University.
She says : ‘My 25 years of experience gained in the French legal language shows that we, teachers and translators should not be overconfident: there is always something new we can learn in our profession.
He says: ’I am glad I can connect my studies and my work at Baltic Trans: I can put what I learn at the course straight to practical use and can see how my ideas make life easier for the project managers. At the same time I can test what I learn in real life and this is a hand-on learning experience for me, that is fun, motivating and rewarding.