Hi, and welcome to my blog!

This is where you will find out more about me and what I can do for you, I will also be writing about football and motorsport (as you would expect), languages, communication, and probably a few other things, too. 

Before I do that, though, it’s probably worth telling you a bit more about Daniel Williams, translator, transcriber, interpreter, writer and sports fanatic. And they do say it’s usually best to start at the beginning.

What inspired me to become a translator
I have been fascinated by foreign languages since early childhood, and started teaching myself German at seven. When I got to secondary school, I added French, and I took both languages as far as I could in the school system.

At around the same time (as Brits of a certain age will remember) Channel 4 were doing a marvellous job of covering Italian football on UK television. Their programmes served as my introduction to European football, and inspired me to dabble in Italian (something I’ll come back to in a later post). I never had a chance to take that interest further at school, but I never forgot the experience of seeing host James Richardson interviewing Italian footballers in their native language and thinking ‘I could do that!’. I’ve since gone on to work on some of football’s biggest tournaments (including the World Cup and the European Championships) as a translator, writer and transcriber.

I was also fascinated by history at school, and it was that interest that originally prompted me to start learning Russian, on the basis that if I was ever going to understand how Russia worked, I’d have to learn the language. Getting on for twenty years later, I am no nearer solving that particular conundrum, but I’ve had a lot of fun trying, including a five-month stint in St Petersburg while still a student which still ranks as one of the most difficult and rewarding experiences of my life. I spent the other half of that year living just south of Hamburg, which explains how I acquired a pronounced north-German accent. I also insist on starting all my German conversations with “Moin”, a habit that causes much amusement among my friends in the south of the German-speaking world. I’m always on the lookout for opportunities to travel, and I’m happy to meet clients wherever they happen to be.

What happened next
After I finished my undergraduate degree, I decided to indulge my passion for history by completing a Master’s degree. True to form, I focused on European history, and my language skills naturally drew me towards the complicated past of Central and Eastern Europe. After graduating I spent seven years working for the UK Foreign Office, during which time I made extensive use of my language skills and developed an instinct for recognising risk – an instinct that stands me in good stead when working on your corporate communications. Eventually, though, the pull of home proved too strong, and I decided to come back over Hadrian’s Wall to retrain as an interpreter (working with French and German alongside English). That was in 2017, the year in which I started Williams Language Services. I’ve been freelancing ever since, and I love my work!

What do you do when you’re not working?
If I’m not in the office, you’re likely to find me watching football or motorsport, reading, enjoying an orchestral concert or exploring the world with my camera (if I can turn that exploring into CPD by taking in a race or a match, then so much the better) Most of the sport-related photographs on the website are mine, and some of them are not bad for an enthusiastic amateur.

I hope that gives you some idea of the real person behind the WLS logo. If you need a linguist fluent in football or racing driver, or someone you can trust to make sure your official documents are 100% accurate, get in touch. I’d love to help you with your language project!