Eileen Fredriksen

1961 to 1964

Eileen attended Matamata College from 1961-64.  She left school after gaining School Certificate.  Eileen is now a world-renown translator.  She gained her qualifications from Georgetown University, Washington DC.

Written by Eileen

I have worked as a free-lance translator since 1981, first in Norway (Universitet I Oslo; Amnesty International), then in the US, where I gained a Certificate of Translation from Georgetown University in 1985, and consequently passed the State Department translation examinations in Norwegian, Danish and French.  I am also certificated in French to English and in Danish to English (there is as yet no Norwegian to English examination) by the American Translators Association, of which I have been a member for 20 years.  I am also a member of both its French and Nordic Chapters.

 

In the United States, I am a translation resource for the Norwegian Embassy in Washington DC, and as such the person to whom they refer enquiries from companies, organizations, and the general public for translations from Norwegian.  In this capacity, I have translated everything from simple family letters, to wills, to ID papers (particularly for educational and immigration purposes), to family histories, to poetry, to the text for a video on school bullying.

 

Additionally, I have supplied translation services to, amongst others:

  • the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
  • the World Bank
  • the State Department
  • the Department of Defense
  • the International Federation on Ageing
  • the Department of Agriculture
  • Eriksen Translation (New York)

 

To illustrate the diversity of topics I have translated for the above, just three examples: a 500-page mining report, the National Accounts of Norway, and an international comparison of benefits for the elderly.

 

In 2002 I translated/summarized “Med Et Skrik”, the story of the theft of Munch’s “The Scream” from the Oslo National Museum.  This, and a number of newspaper articles on the subject that I also translated, provided the background information for “The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece”, by Ed Dolnick.

 

Most recently, I translated from Norwegian a catalogue on the art of the native people of Norway (Samisk Kunst) for an exhibit at the Hamilton Art Gallery, Ontario, Canada.

 

I am currently translating a book on bladesmithing.