About Mirjam

When Michael was still cute

Without realising it, I chose my profession at eleven years old. When I was that age, Michael Jackson was hot and I just had to know what he was singing. Night after night I went to my room with my Enigma, the dictionary, to decipher his message to me.

My baby‘s always dancin‘
And it wouldn‘t be a bad thing
But I don‘t get no loving
And that‘s no lie.

Knowing what the words themselves meant, I still did not have an inkling what Michael was singing about, but that did not diminish his appeal. Until he brought out Bad and his remodelled face on the LP sleeve eradicated my dreams about the cutie I had longed for.

Circuitous route

I studied English at Leiden University and discovered that I loved British 19th-century literature. After my Master‘s, I wanted to gain a doctorate. In the meantime I worked at Delft University of Technology. I edited the doctoral theses of engineers, built a website with English tips for PhD students, translated all kinds of texts ranging from memos on window cleaners to press releases about the fire in the Faculty of Architecture building, I built a list of English terms, and organised a tender for the university‘s translations.

At that point, I realised that I spent nearly all of my working days checking the work of other people. Valuable work, but I missed the joy of playing with language myself, of making something that has my stamp on it. So I took a course in subtitling, and started FilmVertaling in addition to my regular job. After an internship and three-month stint as as in-house subtitler in Hilversum, tv capital of the Netherlands, I switched to working full-time as a freelance subtitler and translator.

Private life

I have two daughters and a three-year-old cat who still believes she is a kitten. My significant other lives in Brazil, which means that I frequently travel to Latin-America. I like swimming, reading, cooking exotic recipes from scratch and scuba diving in warm seas.

"Eliza, you're magnificent. Five minutes ago, you were a millstone around my neck, and now you're a tower of strength, a consort battleship. I like you this way."

My Fair Lady
Without realising it, I chose my profession at eleven years old. At that age Michal Jackson was hot and I had to know what he was singing. Night after night I went to my room with my Enigma, the dictionary, to decipher his message to me. My baby's always dancin' And it wouldn't be a bad thing But I don't get no loving And that's no lie. I was greatly disappointed that I still did not have an inkling what Michael was singing, but that did not diminish his appeal. Until he brought out Bad.