Randal Helten

Vancouver-based Randal Helten has been a Japanese-to-English freelance translator for 30 years, with a focus on environmental and sustainability topics, serving non-profit, industry, academic and governmental clients, mostly in Japan.

After working as an entrepreneur, he studied commerce/marketing at the University of British Columbia, then spent a decade in Japan serving in various roles, ranging from corporate strategy consulting to radio DJ, interpreter and environmental activist, increasingly turning to translation as his primary work. In the process, he has picked up techniques and resources he looks forward to sharing with students.

He has observed the translation business change from pencil/paper and fax machines to computer-assisted and neural machine translation, and still sees a valuable role for people who love languages and seek both enjoyment and employment through translation. Most of his outputs have been in the form of reports, documents and communications, particularly on environment and sustainability, but many of the skills are transferable to the myriad forms of the written word in many other fields.