Left to right: Anne Oosthuizen, Matthew Curlewis, Margreet de Roo.
At the AGM on 28 March, the Society voted in three new members for the SENSE Executive Committee. But who are they and what makes them tick? SENSE Chair Mike Gould provides some more information about each of them.
SIG and Social Events Coordinator: Anne Oosthuizen
Anne, who’s Dutch, was born and raised on the outskirts of Amsterdam Zuidoost. After she finished secondary school, she first spent ten months as an au pair in London. Back in Amsterdam, she did two years of teacher training (TEFL) before taking her education to an academic level. She spent the final year of her BA programme in English in New Zealand, writing a thesis on translation. This is also where she met her partner, Jack. Back in the Netherlands, she worked in door-to-door sales and did charity work, before starting an MA in Translation Studies. That year, Jack moved here from the UK, and they have been living together ever since. She graduated six months ago (cum laude) and has since been working part-time at at fellow SENSE member Ellen Singer’s translation agency AzTech Solutions. When not at the office, Anne is establishing herself as a freelance translator and editor, focusing on the creative and academic sectors. She regularly works for Dave Thomas’ company NST Science (EN-EN revision) and has done translations for cultural festivals, such as the Amsterdam Light Festival, and a book translation (How to Go Meat-Free/100% Vleesvrij by Stepfanie Romine). Her super-special niche, which she has still to find her way into professionally, is song translation.
CPD coordinator: Matthew Curlewis
Our new Continuing Professional Development Coordinator, Matthew, is an Australian. He’s thrilled to have this opportunity to help create workshops and events for SENSE that he will endeavour to make practical and useful at a minimum – while also striving towards making them inspiring, challenging and rewarding as a maximum. ‘Training and re-training’ are pretty much integral to who Matthew is. He moved from New York City to Amsterdam in 2003 to attend the Binger Filmlab and make a career transition from website producer to professional writer. Since then he’s worked as a journalist, screenwriter and copywriter and founded the writers’ workshop Amsterdam Writers. Before moving to New York, he also enjoyed successful mini-careers as a restaurateur, a contemporary dance publicist/manager in Sydney, Australia, and as a dancer and performance artist in Tokyo, Japan, as well as at numerous arts festivals in Europe, Australia and North America.
Secretary: Margreet de Roo
Our new Secretary, Margreet de Roo, is Dutch. She studied German at Groningen University and then worked as a teacher at a secondary school. In 2003, she moved to Nairobi, Kenya, with her husband, who works for the Christian charity Mission Aviation Fellowship as a programmer. During her nine years there, their two daughters were born – now 15 and 13. In 2012, her family moved to Zwolle when she chose a new career: editing and translating. She got some training and set up her business, Maneno tekstredactie, in 2013. Maneno is Swahili for words or text. Since then she has been working as an independent editor of Dutch texts and an English-to-Dutch translator. She enjoys the freedom and flexibility of being a freelancer and working from home suits her very well. As a non-native speaker of English, Margreet wasn’t sure SENSE was the right organization for her at first. However, attending a SIG meeting at the end of 2018 convinced her that it was. She sees the value of a professional organization that combines informal contact with professional development. And the role of Secretary seems to be the perfect fit for Margreet. She says: ‘it will allow me to give back to SENSE in a way that matches my interests and talents.’
