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Yet Another Curriculum Vitae Bertold Kiss
English and German to Hungarian translator
Native Hungarian speaker living in Budapest
Father of 2 sons, ATA member, Msc El.Eng.
Passion for life, words and engineering
(1973-1987) My language roots
(1987-1991) Building passion for arts and sciences
(1991-1996) Kandó College, student life, traineeships
(1996-1997) Postgradual life 2.0 in the Netherlands
(1997-2005) Software engineering internal employments
(2005-2012) Freelance full-life translator
(Profile) For your database
My language roots
(1973-1987)
I was born in a multi-ethnic village in Bácsbokod, Hungary and grown up naturally surrounded with the German language besides my native Hungarian. My mother's grandparents were Hungarian Germans, part of a German community settled from Germany to Hungary for more than 200 years. I always admired their bilingual capabilities and German as a second language was a self-evident choice for me - I've been learning German from my early kindergarten age. They had an old Tesla Supraphon turntable and we used to hear many German LPs they got from our "German" relatives – brothers and systers of my grandparents expelled from Hungary after WW2 – , like "Wenn der Wein blüht", Kirmesmusikanten, Heintje hits...
I won a prestigious competition for German language at my age of 13, winning a 3 week "international" (Hungarian-Russian) pioneer camp. We camped there together with sons and doughters of Russian soldiers temporarily stationing in Hungary for 40 years and I was happy to try and use my Russian - especially with Vika, a nice Russian girl!
Those times we had to learn Russian in the grammar school and to be honest, I actually enjoyed it. I was called "the living dictionary" by my Russian teacher as I was the one grasping most of the words and phrases in Russian. I excelled using paper based dictionaries in German as well, as I pretty well stuffed the words.
Building passion for arts and sciences
(1987-1991)
Following the grammar school I graduated in a bilingual secondary school, Leó Frankel Secondary School for German Language in Baja, Hungary. Today it is called "Ungarndeutsches Bildungszentrum", Center for Education for Hungarian Germans, www.ubz.hu. The UBZ Frankel has been providing high quality secondary education not only for language talents but also in natural science disciplines. Its climate and high standards are ideal for dual minded people like me: for those having passion for arts and sciences, logic and intuition.
Despite of its hard reading I remember I liked Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain in German and I especially liked my lessions and my teacher for Hungarian literature. Ilona was young, open minded and highly motivated with excellent knowledge on art of writing. She empowered me so I could believe I can write in any style. But I equally liked sciences and finally I prepared for the admission to a technical college for electrical engineering.
Those were the times I first met the English language, yet outside the school, offered as a special course of the local Pioneers' House. Lessions with Gyula the teacher were quite personal: we were only two students, Kati my classmate and me.
Peace and love - in our times the Kandó Kálmán College of Electrical Engineering was a synonym for fluorishing student life counterpointed by high-ranking graduate programs. We were the youngsters of the big political change, without self-defining as such but strongly feeling that something's on the way. The campus dorm was famous for some of the best self-organized concerts and students-only open parties, though we deserved it: we had less than 10% girls in the college and more than 90% rigorous teachers!
I enjoyed writing articles in the college newspaper on people, events and happenings, I even authored and "dramatized" some 2-3 College Days stage plays just for fun. And of course, I had to put down my first song lyrics, playing them for girls and for a very intimate festival audience as encouraged by my friend Sancho.
After my German I quickly acquired the English language and in 1994 I won a summer traineeship through IAESTE, to the ABB Centre for Power Plant Engineering, Mannheim. For extending our office life with field experience I organized here a trainee visit to the local coal-fired power plant. I've been almost foot-fired by my boss for my own initiative but other leaders and my 29 trainee friends from Finnland, Russia, Poland and India were very happy about!
(to be continued - or not to be continued? that is the question. let me know what you think.)
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