Christiane Demgenski
French Team—Translator and Interpreter
“Respond puts into action what I’ve intuitively felt since I was little: knowing languages breaks down barriers between people.”
Christiane Demgenski is Franco-German and holds an M.A. in International Relations and Political Science from Sciences Po Paris. After 5 years of building innovative digital banking products at Switzerland’s largest bank, she joined Awina, a Swiss fintech that guides families through the Rush Hour of Life by providing a variety of products and services. When she isn’t busy convincing women to invest in their future, Christiane studies her seventh language, Japanese, and volunteers as a firefighter.
Christiane speaks many languges, French, English, German and Hebrew. Much of her work is in French because there are many cases from French-speaking Africa and the Caribbean.
“French takes up SO much space. When I need to translate a document that visually needs to look the same, like a birth certificate or an official form, half the time is just spent squeezing the French into too-small text boxes. I can do magic with margins and font sizes!” says Christiane, when asked for something about the language(s) she translate that people wouldn’t necessarily know.
Christiane shares, “I love being able to use my languages for good. There comes a time as a polyglot when you ask yourself, why do I need another language? Can’t I put my time to better use? But Respond puts into action what I’ve intuitively felt since I was little: knowing languages breaks down barriers between people. At Respond, I can use the languages I love to protect other people’s right to access information in a way that they can understand it. The team is also great, there is no organizational effort on my side as a volunteer, I choose what project I want to do and when. Every time I get an email from Respond with a translation request, I’m reminded of how privileged a life I live, and how lucky I am to be able to help somebody else. Everyday exasperations lose their significance.”
“We often talk about wanting to have impact, but how do you measure that day to day? At Respond, I know that every hour I put in has immediate impact. One of my recent projects was very difficult: the client was an asylum-seeker from Africa who was persecuted for being gay. His lawyer had to prepare him for court so we kept going over and over all the physical and emotional violence he suffered back home. The calls were late at night, when I was already sleep-deprived because of my newborn, but I just couldn’t let go, I had to see it through to the end. I cried when his asylum case was approved. He can build up his life in America now without fearing for his life and I contributed to that. It’s an amazing feeling” Christiane adds. And, if she could she could talk to politicians about why language access is so important, she says she would tell them, “Language access is a basic human right. And we can’t tap into the amazing wealth and skills and talents of all the people who make up our societies if we can’t break through language barriers. To quote the stunning Gloria Delgado-Pritchett from Modern Family, ‘Do you even know how smart I am in Spanish?”
When asked how she cares for her mental health while doing this work, Christiane tells us, “While I can keep a certain distance when translating documents, it’s a lot harder when interpreting in real time because you see the person on the screen in front of you while you translate sometimes horrible things. Cases involving families being torn apart are especially hard for me after becoming a mom. After a particularly hard session, I’ll talk to my spouse about it, just get it off my chest. Respond also offers free therapy sessions for translators who need it.”
Christiane’s answers to our, “lighting round” questions:
Can you share a fun or little-known fact about yourself?
“I have a 698-day streak on Duolingo. Yup, didn’t even pause to give birth. #languagegoals”
Who inspires you?
“Ariel Koren, the founder of Respond! I met her at the Polgyglot Conference in Japan. We were chatting in Hebrew when she told me about her vision for Respond. Here is someone who sees a need and just gets up and does something about it. I love it! We need more people like that.”
If you could choose anyone as a mentor, who would you choose and why?
“Sanna Marin, the prime minister of Finland. She’s young, she’s smart, she worked her way to the top but she stayed herself and doesn’t apologize for it.”
What is your favorite place to travel to? Do you travel to places where you don’t speak the language?
“I’m supposed to pick just one? I loved South America, I learned Spanish just for that trip. I always try to learn some of the language(s) of the places I visit. Next I’d really like to explore South-East Asia, maybe take a few months off and backpack there with my family.”
What advice would you give to someone who wants to become a translator?
“Read a lot in your target languages. There can be a lot of nuance that gets lost in translation. For example, my French is from France, but most of the interpretations I do are for dialects from Africa and the Caribbean. You only get that experience through exposure.”
What’s one thing you’ve learned in the last year?
“That as a species, we are unable to learn from history. Europe is at war? What the hell?”
Are there any other “causes” close to your heart?
Gender equality and financial independence for women, especially mothers.
