This post is part of the Meet the ETCL Team series, which introduces the wonderful people who work in the lab and who have worked with us in the past.
Olga joined the lab initially in January 2020 as an Open Knowledge Practicum Fellow. Currently she is working as a Translation Consultant where her primary role involves translating various articles, authored by lab members, from English to French. Although Olga does this translation work on a casual basis, she is in regular communication with the team working with them to provide feedback or seek clarification on individual translation choices. Additionally, Olga is dedicated to enhancing the Canadian HSS Commons for the French-speaking community and partners by translating user interface elements like menu options and user instructions from English to French.
Olga completed her masters in French at the University of Victoria in 2020. During her masters (2019-2020) she was working with Dr. Hélène Cazes on the project Perfecta, which participated in the Open Knowledge Practicum offered by ETCL. It was through this collaboration that she initially became acquainted with and, later on, joined the lab.
Besides her commitments to the lab and her role as a sessional instructor for the French Department at UVic, Olga also nurtures her passion for literature. Outside of work, she is an avid reader of fiction. Her “to be read” (TBR) list likely surpasses her “already read” (AR) list, an impressive feat considering the demands of her academic pursuits. While not a devoted consumer of podcasts, she has a fondness for true crime podcasts. Among her favorite authors are Haruki Murakami, and she also appreciates 20th-century Russian fiction. In her leisure time, Olga enjoys engaging in physical activities such as gym workouts and dancing. She loves walking by the water or reading in bed during her free time.
Given her multilingual background, Olga has found that a reliable online contextual translator such as linguee.fr (and it’s parent DeepL) or Reverso Context greatly aids her in the type of work she regularly undertakes, facilitating effective intercultural communication in her role, which involves navigating four different languages.