TED Community » Eszter Chrobacsinszky

About Me

I was born in 1987 (Pisces), in Budapest. Nothing pointed in the direction I was to take, apart from the fact that my parents, who had no university degree and didn't speak foreign languages, enrolled me into an English course in kindergarten. Since age 4, I have been constantly learning languages and absorbing new cultures with them. The other thing they gave me was the desire to study as much as possible. There was no doubt that I would go to university, and I was somewhat ashamed when I chose a school that was only a college (in Hungary, this used to mean a shorter course and on a lower level). I studied International Communication, which practically meant a little bit of everything. Luckily my college had extensive international relations, and I had the chance to spend a semester in Spain with an Erasmus scholarship. I graduated with honours as an Economist, but as I knew already in my first year, I went on to study Translation at the best Hungarian university course in the field. In the meantime, I completed a course in dubbing, and since then it has been my passion. I have translated all kinds of stuff for TV, from kids' cartoons through documentaries to soap operas. My dream is to see my name in a movie theater as translator. I took up Interpretation because I thought I was too shy for that, and I decided to develop myself this way. It turned out that I enjoyed interpretation even more than translation, and after a 3-month scholarship to France, where I saw from dummy booths how this thing is done in the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, I was completely hooked up. This is a job where you can and must learn new things every day, and where no trivial knowledge is superfluous. In addition, interpreters usually live very long because they learn to handle stress and listen to their bodies, so it's a tempting career as well. Right now I'm candidate for a freelance interpreter's test in Brussels. Another thing that is really important for me is being a Mensa member. I was 18 when I took the IQ test, and the exciting, eccentric, funny people I met there made me crave for success. I managed, and since then I am an active member. I have even been elected the youngest Testing Coordinator in Mensa Hungary ever (at 20). My closest friends are from this organisation. I have learned a lot from them and they have been an integral part to my personal development. One of them showed me TED a few years ago, and I will always be grateful to him for that. Apart from Mensa, I enjoy all kinds of art (reading, writing, music, movies, performance arts and fine arts alike), travelling, mostly "feminine" sports (yoga, Pilates, belly dance, skiing, fencing, biking), cooking and socializing. That was me in a nutshell, in case you are interested in a common project or have a question I might be able to answer, please contact me!