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It is a blessing to be born in a land of mixed nationalities and faiths. It is gift that one either knows or doesn’t know how to use. As the famous Polish journalist and reporter Ryszard Kapuściński wrote, these people “are the product of racial and cultural crosses, and their vision of the world is influenced by concepts like border, distance, diversity and variety.” For some people it is important to belong to a great nation and identify with it, which makes them feel safe. At times, however, as in my case, you can’t, so I neither try to identify with who knows what, nor to define myself. I have problems with forms that only give you one option for your mother tongue (haven’t they ever heard of native multilingualism?)! Citizenship – again only one option (haven’t they ever heard of double citizenship?)! I was born and grew up on the border between Bohemia and Poland, where they used, more or less without any problems, both Czech and Polish (my native city, Český Těšín/Cieszyn, is literally divided between two countries by a river – look on the map). I attended schools in Slovakia, and in the past few years I happen to be spending most of my time in Italy, which I think of as home. I have Czech and Slovak citizenship, while I declare my ‘nationality’ as Polish. What am I supposed to write in those spaces on the form? And why all these files on people? I go beyond all that, it doesn’t concern me! It’s important to be myself… |
My cultural background has taught me to see things from a certain distance, and believe me, it’s wonderful! It has given me the ability to learn what tolerance and respect for diversity are… Another blessing is to have a job that gives me a sense of fulfilment. The work of the translator is splendidly creative and creatively demanding, as well as completely absorbing. There are many opinions on what the most important thing in this profession is: education/training, practice, precision – of course, these are absolutely essential characteristics, but the experience I’ve acquired over the years tells me that talent is indispensable. I discovered I had it by chance … and I want to exploit it fully! What you see here is not – and it will never become – a literal translation of the versions in other languages on my site because each one is created separately, just as I like. |
polyko – ing. daria tokar
Italian to Slovak Translation & Interpreting, Italian to Czech Translation & Interpreting, Polish to Czech Translation & Interpreting, Polish to Slovak Translation & Interpreting
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