I majored in Russian and German at the ANU. What inspired me most during my degree was the semester course in Old Church Slavonic (as part of the Russian major), which helped me to also learn Macedonian. After a scholarship in ex-Yugoslavia and a postgraduate year in the ex-USSR, I moved to Berlin in 1990. I have been a freelance translator since 1991. One of the highlights was working for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the mid-2000s, translating documents from Macedonian. Since 2007, I’ve mainly been translating contemporary novels and short stories from the countries of ex-Yugoslavia. My studies at the ANU put me in good stead for my career. The German major was thorough and multi-faceted, and it is probably thanks to that excellent foundation that I feel comfortable living in Germany. Finally, the years of methodical and passionate instruction in Russian really laid the groundwork for my dealing with Slavic languages and literatures.