my story

“Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t”.

I hadn’t heard Baz Luhrmann’s Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) for pushing 20 years until it randomly came on the car radio the other day and struck a chord.

Not because I think I’m one of the most interesting 40-year-olds you know (I’m not quite 40), but because I’ve spent a lot of my adulthood not really knowing which path to take professionally.

Now, though, I feel as if something might finally have clicked.

I’ve always been a strong believer that doing what you love brings out the best in you. So, what do I love?

If people who know me had to describe me in a game of Word Association, I’m fairly sure ‘languages’ and ‘football’ would be two of the first words that come up.

So that’s pretty much what you’re going to find here – languages and football. Sometimes separately, often together.

football translation

It’s a bit of a mystery to me as to why it’s taken me so long to think that there could be a way to combine languages and football.

I’ll be honest. I got in touch with lots of sports translation agencies a while back asking for tips about how to get started in the industry and barely got a reply. So I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands and build up my own portfolio of football translations, which you’ll find on this website.

Although I studied languages and translation at university, I’ve not had much translation experience since graduating. But any half-decent translator will tell you the importance of knowing your field inside out and, in my case, I can confidently say that football is my field.

There’ll be translations from French and Spanish into English of things that I basically think are worth translating, from articles and press conferences to interviews and club statements.

I’m also probably a bit too excited about starting a translation blog, which will focus on any interesting things I come across about how football is talked about in the different languages.

language combinations

studies

MSc in Translation & Technology (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland)
MSc Dissertation with Distinction - A comparative analysis of how action is described in English and French TV football commentaries
MA in French Studies (University of Aberdeen, Scotland)
Frederick Rowe translation prize in French
Distinction in spoken French

football media

I’ve spent the last few years dipping in and out of the world of football media from my base in Madrid. From an actual paid job (sounds like heaven to most fans of the game, I know!) in which I earned actual money for digitally writing about various leagues around the world to my own labours of love – a vlog (The Team On Tour) showcasing match-going experiences at football grounds (mainly) in Spain and most recently a podcast (Real Football Stories) on which I chat to all kinds of people about ‘their’ football stories.

“There’s just not enough football content out there these days”, said nobody, ever. Uniqueness is key, as far as I’m concerned, which I’d like to think is reflected in those projects. And as far as writing goes, I’ll be looking to put out stuff that nobody else is writing, that matter to me and that are fun to do. I’ll leave it at that for now.

english tuition

I can’t finish my story without talking about what I’ve been doing for most of my professional life.

I’ll admit that becoming an English teacher to adults was not something I imagined I’d do long-term. But I quickly learned how rewarding it can be to help people work towards an objective and/or see them achieve something they had been struggling with for so long.

My 11 years of experience tell me that the communicative approach works best for most people, whichever aspect of the language they’re looking to improve. In my class, you won’t do any reading or writing, which you can do in your own time. Class time is much better spent speaking, learning from mistakes and listening to a native speaker.

And my own learning tells me that it has to be fun, so incorporate your passions into it. Spain’s daily sports papers and late-night football debate shows helped me pick up parts of the local lingo after moving to Madrid.

Maybe you could learn or improve your English through your passions too?

get in touch!

Needing a French/Spanish-speaking translator who knows his football? Looking to find out about the wonderful world of the Spanish lower leagues? Keen to improve your English?

Be sure to drop me a line!

Roddy Cons