Aleksandra Kneifel

Originally hailing from Poland, Aleksandra has spent most of her life abroad in the Czech Republic, China, and Azerbaijan.A trilingual scholar (Polish-English-Spanish), she has recently sat her C2 exam in Spanish and is awaiting the results.Aleksandra is currently finishing her Erasmus+ mobility placement in Almería, Spain. Following this, she will return to London, where she will complete her final year at Queen Mary University and graduate with a joint-honours degree in Hispanic Studies and Drama.

She hopes that as an intern at Modlingua she will be able to gain valuable experience in the field and add to her translation portfolio. She is especially interested in translating for the stage, social media marketing and online marketing.

After finishing her undergraduate studies, she hopes to continue her academic development by pursuing an MA in Translation and Culture at University College London.

Career Goals

Although still a relatively inexperienced translator, I am taking prompt steps to rectify this, hence why I believe an internship opportunity at Modlingua is the perfect match to further my professional experience. I believe the programme will help me to gain valuable experience in the field and put myself in an advantageous position compared to other applicants. I have already begun to develop my translation portfolio, but I hope to be able to add to it through the Modlingua internship.

In February, I applied and was accepted onto the TED team, as a volunteer translator and subtitler on the online Amara platform. Since then I have been actively working pro-bono in the community, subtitling about two videos per month. The experience has given me a taste of translation work but has left me hungry for more.

I have recently completed an online course from Cardiff University entitled “Working with Translation”. The course explored the nature and practice of translation, drawing on the latest research and with input from a variety of professionals while focusing on the role of the translator, where translation takes place, and the nature of quality in translation. Through this course, I have been able to gain a better understanding of the inner workings of the industry, but it has also brought to a light a lot of questions I still have. I hope to continue answering these through my experience at Modlingua.

Despite my young age, I consider myself very driven and ambitious, and I prefer to go through life actively setting and meeting goals. After my undergraduate studies, I hope to undertake an MA in Translation and Culture at University College London.

Besides my professional interests, I enjoy sports – both actively participating and spectating. I am also a great animal lover and would love to one day volunteer my translation skills for an organization working for their well-being.

 Aleksandra Kneifel is a Summer Intern 2018 at Modlingua