About Radica Schenck

It was in the year 1996 that I started my career as a freelance interpreter and translator, while also studying English and Italian Language and Literature, Translation and Interpreting, at the University Sv. Kiril i Metodij in Skopje. Thus, I was privileged to study Old English and translate Beowulf, explore the interplay of history, political landscape and linguistic evolution, delve into Chaucer’s storytelling, indulge in the rich, exuberant English language of Shakespeare, Shelley, and Yeats, and gain practical translation and interpreting experience with international organisations working primarily with consultants from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and different parts of the USA.

Upon my graduation in 1999, I became a United Nations staff member working at the UNICEF Office in Skopje as a Programme Assistant for the Emergency Education and Emergency Child Protection Programmes during the Kosovo Crisis, afterwards for the Education and Early Childhood Care and Development Programmes. My main responsibility was to provide technical assistance to the programme implementation in the areas of disaster and emergency preparedness and response, child protection, social inclusion and reforms in preschool and primary education (needs assessment, planning, implementation, liaison with government officials, donors, international and local implementing partners, resource allocation, budget management, monitoring and evaluation, reporting). In addition to this, I developed skills in the management of programme-related translation and interpretation, team recruitment and coordination. During this time, I successfully passed the UN English Language Proficiency Exam for UN staff (United Nations Headquarters, New York).

In 2001, I relocated to Munich, where I live and work as a conference interpreter and translator. Here I learned German, passed the state exam for translators and interpreters for the Macedonian language and became a duly appointed and sworn translator and interpreter for the German courts and other institutions.

Today I have more than 25 years of experience in translation as well as simultaneous and consecutive interpreting for international organisations such as UNICEF, UNESCO, World Bank, EU, for German, Austrian, Bavarian, US, and UK governments and ministries, the judiciary, corporate clients, NGOs, specialised translation agencies, and private persons.

Macedonian is my mother tongue, English and German are my working languages.

I am a member of the renowned associations International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC), the German Association of Conference Interpreters (VKD) within the BDÜ and the German Federal Association of Interpreters and Translators (BDÜ), which are known for their rigorous membership criteria.
In the Bavarian Chapter of BDÜ I have founded the Medical Translators and Interpreters Group and have been serving on a pro bono basis since. In addition, I have been actively participating in various specialist working groups and attending specialised professional development events and courses.
Serbian is my second mother tongue. Italian is my C-language as studied at the University. In addition, I have passive knowledge of Croatian, Montenegrin, Bosnian, and Bulgarian, and basic knowledge of Russian, French, and Spanish.