Featured Translator - Bruno Musarra

For the fourth in our series of interviews with our translators, we are delighted to feature top Italian translator, Bruno Musarra. We have known and worked with Bruno for many years and very much value his professional approach as well as his language skills. Bruno holds an MA degree in Translation and Interpreting from the University of Leeds: he translates from French and English into Italian, and subject specialisms include technology and engineering.

Bruno is pictured with Alexika's Gemma on the left and Becky on the right at a recent translation industry event. Below are Bruno's answers to our questions.

What attracted you to working with languages?

English and French were my favourite subjects back at school; I then decided to pursue languages at university and developed an interest in interpreting after attending an elective module in simultaneous interpreting. I immediately liked the challenges that translation/interpreting present and thought I could consider doing it as a career.

What do you enjoy mostly about being a translator?

Translation requires you to examine your foreign (and native) languages in more depth and, at the same time, it helps you develop specialist knowledge of your working areas. I also love the flexibility that comes with the job. Having control over my work schedule – and also being able to decide where I’m going to work from in a given month – is an integral part of my life at the moment.

What is your biggest challenge at the moment in translation?

The English-Italian market has always been pretty crowded and it has become even more so in recent years. At the beginning it was tough to get noticed, and it is still not easy to build long-lasting business relationships (most outsourcers have always the option to contact someone else who offers more competitive prices).

Where in the world would you love to travel to?

So many places! Recently I have been making the most of the flexibility I mentioned earlier, and frequently travel and work abroad – such as Rome, New York and Berlin. Canada will probably be next on that list.