Schneider’s talent translates into any language

Rachel Schneider’s enjoyment of translating began long before she earned her master’s in anthropology with a focus in archaeology from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

It began before she graduated from Washington University in St. Louis (Missouri), where she double majored in archaeology and German.

It even began before she graduated from Holyoke High School in 2013.

Schneider has had an interest in translating since she was in eighth grade.

In addition to translating books, she stays busy with substitute teaching at Holyoke JR/SR High School and working on genealogical projects at Phillips County Museum. She plans to pursue her doctorate in the same field as her master’s in the future.

Her latest translation endeavor is “Inkarrí,” the second book of the “Secret File” series by German author André Milewski. The 11th book of the series is forthcoming this fall. The books are inspired by Indiana Jones but are set in the 1950s with original characters.

Schneider’s translation, which Milewski is very happy with, will be released on Amazon as an e-book Aug. 23.

Schneider said it was a long process with a lot of moving parts that led to the author getting in touch with her.

Enterprise article leads to string of contacts

An article in the June 26, 2014, edition of the Enterprise outlines how Schneider translated the novel “Gardelegen Holocaust” by Torsten Haarseim from German to English for Holyoke’s Elton Oltjenbruns.

He was a World War II veteran and part of the first battalion to reach the site of the massacre that occurred outside Gardelegen, Germany, near the end of the war, in which 1,016 concentration camp prisoners were deliberately burned alive in a barn.

Haarseim had been in touch with Oltjenbruns, whose testimony aided the author in writing the historical novel.

Schneider secretly ordered a copy of the book, translated it into English and presented Oltjenbruns with a printed and bound copy that he could read for the first time.

A year or so later, a person from England contacted her after reading the Enterprise article. As the head of an Indiana Jones online fan magazine, he had been looking for someone who could translate a series of eight German Indiana Jones books into English.

Schneider said she had already translated all eight of the books on her own. In fact, she said that wanting to read that series was one of the main reasons she wanted to learn German.

“That’s why they were the first books I translated,” she added.

She said because the books were her first translations, they needed heavy editing. She has begun that lengthy process and has sent electronic copies of the edited translations of four of the books to the head of the Indiana Jones online fan magazine so they can be enjoyed by English speakers who don’t know German.

Schneider made her next contacts through the Indiana Jones online fan magazine, which is written in English but accepts contributions from all over the world.

Juergen Mathy from Germany contacted Schneider, asking for her help in polishing his English for a few of his articles he wanted to post in the fan magazine.

Mathy also helps with the major Indiana Jones convention in Germany, which Schneider said is similar to comic-con.

In getting ready for last year’s Indiana Jones convention, which was ultimately canceled due to COVID-19, Mathy had commissioned a short Indiana Jones story to be written in German. He asked Schneider to translate it into English.

She accepted the task, and at 60 pages, the story turned out to be longer than she thought. She translated it and sent it back electronically.

Mathy let her know that the author of the story, Milewski, really liked the translation. Mathy contacted her again last May saying Milewski was so pleased that he wanted Schneider to translate the second book of his “Secret File” series.

Milewski’s first book of the series had been translated by another person several years earlier, and the author wanted to try a different approach in translating his other books.

Schneider hadn’t read the first book of the series until he contacted her, and then she read it in its original German.

“You want to capture the author’s original style,” she said of translating. “I wanted to read it as he had written it.”

Schneider said the “Secret File” books are fun reads that are very well researched. She added that even though the book is part of a series, the individual books can be read as independent works. She said she plans to continue translating the rest of the series if this translation is a success.

Schneider demonstrates efficiency time after time

Schneider could read German very well even before she began studying it in college. She learned by immersing herself in German books.

She told of a time in a German class during her sophomore year of college when the students had to read a young adult book in German. Schneider, who at that point had already read approximately 50 different books in German, breezed through the book much faster than anyone in her class.

Her level of efficiency has continued into her translation work. She has recently joined an online forum of translators and discovered that she translates exceptionally fast.

Many people in the forum said they would need more than six months to translate a large piece of writing like a book.

In contrast, Schneider translated the 382-page “Inkarrí” in a month and a half. Milewski had given her a September deadline to complete the work, but she was done in June — well ahead of schedule.

Schneider noted that she would have been done even faster ­— a week earlier ­— if her cat had not knocked her laptop off her chair, requiring her to recover her data.

Schneider’s translation process evolves with technology

Schneider’s laptop was not always one of her translation tools. She acknowledged that she has become more reliant on technology.

When she first started translating, she had a notebook and pencil, the book she was translating and a German-English dictionary.

Her latest translation was done completely on her computer using an electronic copy of “Inkarrí.” She also had an online dictionary open, which she said has more slang and idioms than a bound dictionary. It also assists with figures of speech.

“I really like plays on words and seeing how you can make them work in different languages,” she said of her favorite part of translating.

She also offered words of advice for anyone interested in translating.

“You just have to have lots and lots and lots of practice,” she said. “It’s not something people can pick up just by being bilingual.”

Regardless of what happens with the book, Schneider said she will continue to translate — even if it’s just for fun.

She is the daughter of John and Lynn Schneider of Holyoke.