I have been gaining my professional experience with written language (both in Czech and English) for years; either as a student of literature and linguistics, as a teacher of English, as a reviewer of translated literature or a keen reader.

As regards my translation technique: as we know, words basically consist of two parts: concepts of meaning and their fromal representations, mainly spoken or written. The aim of mediation between languages is to provide an accurate representation of the same concepts carried by different devices, different codes and different ways of their interference.

I focus on recognizing concepts of meaning at all language levels as a whole (starting from grammar, through single words, to larger chunks and ending with stylistic features) and finding their most fitting representations in both languages. That is to say, I do not replace words by words, or phrases by phrases strictly according to dictionaries. I rather think of both language systems independently and pay attention to their idiosyncratic ways of referring to extralinguistic reality.

I advocate a creative approach to translation, as opposed to a more mechanical and uninventive verbal replacement, which is in danger of neglecting more subtle elements of particular texts. At the same time, I am against willful innovation, the one that is ignorant of complex yet refined ways in which languages function.