About our Interpreting Desk Supervisor: Neil Redfern
About our Interpreting Desk Supervisor: Neil Redfern
Neil Redfern has served as our Interpreting Desk Supervisor for the past three years. In this article, we delve into his professional background and his journey to this role.
Previous work experience and education
At the age of 19, Neil moved overseas to study International Relations and International Organisation at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. “I had decided by then that I wanted to do something different” explains Neil.
Neil's interest in cultural exploration was influenced by his parents' experiences. His mother was a journalist, and his father worked very early on for Christian Aid -a British charity combating global poverty- taking him to various parts of the world and specialising in East Africa. “So I don’t think it was very likely that I was ever going to have a very British focus” Neil suggests.
Interest in Languages and Cultural Diversity
When asked about the languages he speaks, Neil humorously responded, "What does it mean to speak a language?". He then shared a remarkable list of all the languages he has tried: he is proficient in Spanish, with the ability to engage in conversations in Dutch, Italian, and Russian. He can also manage conversations in French, German, and Portuguese when necessary.
Neil's response piqued our curiosity about his motivation for learning new languages. He explained “I enjoy starting a language in order to be able to ‘play’ with it. I learnt Spanish formally for longer than any of the rest, first at school for about four years and then at University in the Netherlands. During my studies there, I was surrounded by friends who primarily spoke Italian, with some Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, and German. This ended up in us speaking together a mash of Spanish, Italian and English, as they were the most commonly shared languages in our group”.
Regarding Russian, Neil shared “I had a Kazakh girlfriend when I was young, so I learnt it in order to be able to go to Kazakhstan and not be completely out of depth, and I’ve been in various places where is useful, like Ukraine, the Baltic States, and even Poland”
He added, "Dutch I learnt by living in the Netherlands. I had studied it a tiny bit formally, but again, I just want to be able to ‘play’ with the language”.
Neil continued to impress us when he shared with us an amazing fact: he has visited 78 countries and lived in three of them. “The additions that are going to happen in December are Chile, Argentina and Uruguay” he continued.
Role at Vandu Languages
In his role as Interpreting Desk Supervisor at Vandu Languages, Neil addresses the challenges that may arise with interpreters, clients, and rarely other staff members. These challenges can range from resolving booking changes to providing technical assistance to clients or interpreters.
Beyond these responsibilities, Neil oversees the company's performance, analysing both successes and challenges to optimise our processes. “And then, of course, recruitment comes down from that” Neil notes, alluding to the demand for specific languages, where he must ensure that the team can design tailored programs to meet the community's needs.
Neil's exceptional proficiency, combined with his diverse cultural experiences, enriches both professional and informal interactions at Vandu Languages. Like the rest of our team, he is dedicated to enhancing the efficiency of our interpreting and translation services in Sussex and across the UK.
To learn more about our work, we invite you to visit the following links:
Interpreting services
Translation services
Bilingual Advocacy
