- Welcome to Albascan CommunicationsCreating hand-crafted translations for discerning clients in business, tourism, arts and culture
Albascan Communications is owned and operated by me, Tom Ellett, a translator in private practice since 1996. Based in Perth, in the heart of Scotland, I translate from the Scandinavian languages to English. Hence the name Albascan, Alba being the Gaelic word for Scotland.
My core business is creative translations from Norwegian to English and Swedish to English. I’m a member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, the Society of Authors and the Swedish-English Literary Translators' Association. I also translate from Danish and German, and offer writing and copy-editing services in English.
Combining deep understanding of the source languages with excellent native English writing skills, I specialise in hand-crafted translations for discerning clients in fields such as marketing, tourism and the creative sector where style and substance are equally important.
Whether you need premium copy for publication or an accurate, well-worded translation for information purposes, I create clear, concise, compelling English text that will persuade and impress your target audience.
- About Tom Ellett
In business since 1996
– a quarter-century of translation experience
In brief …
Background and experience
- Native speaker of English, born and educated in the UK, returned to Scotland in 2017 after 10 years in Canada
- Translator in full-time private practice since 1996, working with corporate, small-business, agency and personal clients in Europe and North America
Professional memberships and certifications
- Member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL)
- Member of the Society of Authors (SoA)
- Member of the Swedish-English Literary Translators’ Association (SELTA)
- Passed the Canadian (CTTIC) translator certification exam for Norwegian and Swedish to English in 2007
- Passed the American Translators Association (ATA) certification exam for Swedish to English in 2014
Education
- Postgraduate Diploma in Translation, University of Surrey, 1996
- General Degree of Master of Arts, University of Edinburgh, 1990
At greater length …
As a translator in private practice, I have been helping Scandinavian businesses and organisations communicate with English-speaking markets for more than 20 years. By delivering ready-to-publish English copy that reads like a piece of original writing, I save you the trouble and expense of hiring a copywriter to polish your English translations prior to publication.
Although commercial translation occupies most of my time, I am also interested in literary translation and am a member of the Society of Authors and the Swedish-English Literary Translators’ Association (SELTA). My translation of Martin Birck’s Youth, a classic novel by Hjalmar Söderberg, was published in 2004 by Norvik Press. More recently I was commissioned by the Swedish author Malva B to translate Desire, her collection of erotic short stories, into English. I have also translated two short e-books of erotic fiction from German. For more about my services in the erotica and adult content field, visit Wicked Translations.
My interest in languages was first kindled through weekly Gaelic lessons at primary school on the west coast of Scotland. I even persuaded my parents to send me for extra lessons after school. At high school I was the only pupil to take four foreign languages (German, French, Latin and Classical Greek). I went on to study German and Scandinavian languages as an undergraduate at Aberdeen and Edinburgh universities, and later obtained a postgraduate diploma in translation from the University of Surrey.
In between, I spent a year as an English teaching assistant at a high school in northern Germany and several years working in the constituency office of a Scottish member of parliament. It was in this latter role that I honed the research and persuasive writing skills that have since proved so valuable in my career as a translator.
After more than a decade in private practice as a translator in Scotland, I moved across the Atlantic with my Canadian wife in 2007. During my decade in Canada, I was one of only two certified translators in Ontario for Norwegian/Swedish to English and one of the first translators to pass the ATA certification exam for Swedish to English.
In the summer of 2017 I returned to Scotland and settled in the fair city of Perth, on the banks of the river Tay where the Highlands meet the Lowlands.
