Our background
Judy, the older twin, has lived in Las Vegas, where she moved to pursue her higher education, since she was a teenager. Judy received her M.B.A. (summa cum laude) in Marketing from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in 2001. She is the past president of the Nevada Interpreters and Translators Association and currently chairs the organization’s professional development committee. In 2010, Judy was named one of the“Women to Watch” by the business newspaper InBusiness and was the alumna of the year for the Honors College of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is a federally certified court interpreter (Spanish), a master-level court certified Spanish interpreter (Supreme Court of Nevada), a court-registered German interpreter in Nevada, and a certified court interpreter in California. She teaches translation and interpretation to online students at the University of California-San Diego (Extension) pursuing the certificate in English/Spanish translation and interpretation studies.
Photo by Fremont East Studios, 2014.
A veteran of Spanish-language online media and localization, Judy spearheaded the launch of the nation’s first fully localized Spanish travel website, www.espanol.vegas.com (not responsible for current content!). As Content Manager, she managed the site’s operations, including translation, localization and content strategy. Judy’s interpreting work is diverse and varied. In addition to state and federal courts, you will frequently find her in Las Vegas convention centers, helping guide foreign business professionals through business negotiations in German, Spanish, or English (and she will gladly tell you where to eat the best risotto in town, too). She is frequently interviewed by national media, including National Public Radio.
She writes the monthly Entrepreneurial Linguist column for the American Translators Association’s Chronicle, frequently contributes to the Institute of Translation & Interpreting’s Bulletin and is a popular keynote speaker at conferences and workshops around the world. She lives in Las Vegas, NV and is a dual Austrian/American citizen. As opposed to her twin sister, Judy speaks no French and never loses sight of her French interpreter when they travel to Paris. Judy is a spokesperson of the American Translators Association, a member and past president of the Nevada Interpreters and Translators Association, a member of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators, and a member of the International Medical Interpreters Association.
Dagmar received the equivalent of a master’s degree in French and Communications from the University of Salzburg (Austria) and an undergraduate degree in Spanish and French translation and interpretation as well as a master’s degree in French and Spanish conference interpreting from the University of Vienna (Austria). She is an accredited freelance conference interpreter for the institutions of the European Union and works in the German booth (from English, Spanish and French into German).
Photo by Fremont East Studios, 2014.
She lived and studied in Tours, France, where she perfected her French language skills, and frequently returns to France to hone her French accent. Since 2003, Dagmar has successfully run the European side of Twin Translations out of Vienna, Austria. She pioneered many of the strategies Twin Translations uses today, including the five-step quality assurance process.
Dagmar was the driving force behind establishing the company and winning its first clients, which include Sony Net Services, Siemens, IDpendant, Generali, Alcan, Red Bull, Austrian Post, etc. Dagmar is the former secretary general of UNIVERSITAS Austria, the Austrian Interpreters’ and Translators’ Association, the former editor of its acclaimed print newsletter, and serves as the association’s chair of public relations. She’s an expert on the new German orthography reform and frequently gives workshops (links to German page) on this complex subject. In addition, Dagmar teaches consecutive interpreting (English/Spanish->German) in the master’s degree program at the University of Vienna. Dagmar lives in Vienna, Austria, and spends her summers and oftentimes her winters in (you guessed it!) Vegas, enjoying her twin’s company and the desert sun.
In April 2010, Judy and Dagmar published the highly anticipated “The Entrepreneurial Linguist: The Business-School Approach to Freelance Translation” book, which has been receiving great reviews around the world and has sold more than 4,000 copies. It’s required reading at universities on three continents.
