Good morning, wonderful followers, friends, colleagues, and coffee lovers!

How is the new year going?
In my coffeece we are ready to start a brand new season having creative, funny, and incredible people as guests. The aim is to entertain you and make you understand that there are plenty of inspiring souls out there, but we don’t know it yet. 😉👍🏻

For starters, I want to welcome the first guest of the 2016 Edition.

Hi, Caterina!
Welcome to my coffeece!
Please, make yourself at home! How are you? It has been a long time since we met at the IAPTI Conference last year. It is a real pleasure to have you here with me today.
We are going to talk over a cup of coffee – here you are ☕ and have some biscuits, as well 🍪🍪🍪 – and give the audience more information about you and your lively personality.
Thank you so much for accepting the invitation and being the very first guest of the year! I cannot wait to hear all your answers, it will be an enjoyable time! If you are ready, we can start. 💜

Maybe somebody forgot about how it works, so let me refresh your memory. 😊
I am going to ask you six sets plus a Bonus Qs section of questions covering your personal profile rather than the professional one. Today, you are going to answer the first three sets, then on Thursday the remainder of them.

Make yourself at home and… let’s start!

• What’s your full name?
▷ Caterina Saccani.

• What do you do for a living?
▷ I’m a freelance conference interpreter and translator specializing in marketing and law.

• When is your birthday? I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable with this question, so if you like I just would like to know your birth month or at least your birth season…
▷ I was born on May the 27th 1989 (don’t forget to send me b-day wishes now that you know. 😉

• How tall are you? (*We all know who is taking notes…*)
▷ I totally sympathize with the colleague this question is dedicated to, so I will reveal how “tall” I am: 1,60 more or less. So at least colleagues won’t come to me at translator conferences saying “I imagined you’d be taller”.

• Zodiac – what’s your sign?
▷ Gemini. We are said to have split personalities.

• Where do you live?
▷ I was born and raised in Correggio (Northern Italy, Bologna area), moved to Germersheim (South-Eastern Germany) for my Master’s Degree in conference interpreting in 2011, then spent half a year in Beijing. Now I live and work in Aachen, Western Germany, close to the Dutch border.

• What’s your favourite colour?
▷ Green. In Italy we say, green is the colour of hope, don’t we? 😉

• When you were young what would you like to become when you grow up?
▷ A rockstar of course.

• Do you like animals? Have you got any pets?
▷ I like pets, especially cats, but can’t keep any, since I’m travelling around a lot for my job etc.

• Coffee or tea?
▷ Definitely tea (and infusions)! I drink about 2 litres per day while I’m translating.

• Day or night?
▷ Day! I’m quite useless after 9 p.m. And, regretfully, I have to admit that I’ve never been much of a party girl.

• Sea or mountain?
▷ I need both.

• Early bird or namastay in bed?
▷ Early bird. I always try to get up before 7 o’clock.

• Have you ever played an instrument? If yes, which one? If no, have you got a favourite instrument or would you like to learn how to play one?
▷ Yes, I tried to learn to play the electric guitar, for the reason explained before. 😉 [ **A rockstar must have her electric guitar. I see!** ]

• What’s an absolute must when you go out or travel? (Something you wouldn’t ever leave at home)
▷ The Polar activity tracker I bought a few months ago. Getting quite addicted to it.

• Favourite food
▷ Home made pasta and fish.

• Do you like cooking? If yes, what’s your specialty?
▷ I’m not a great cook, but I do enjoy cooking. I specialize in vegetable cous cous, as it is healthy and quick at the same time.

• Sneakers or heels?
▷ High heels forever!

• Sporty or lazybones?
▷ Quite sporty. Or at least that’s what I force myself to be. 😉

• If you like them, which is your favourite board game?
▷ Oh, that’s a difficult one. I’m hopeless at board games. I tried out Mahjong (麻将) when I was in China and quite enjoyed it.

• What’s your favourite book and the last one you read/you’re reading?
▷ Favourite book(s): almost everything written by Ken Follett. The last book I read: “Inglesi” by Beppe Severgnini. 😊☺

• Do you consider yourself a geek?
▷ Unfortunately not, I wish I were one.

• Pc or Mac?
▷ Pc. Mac looks like another planet to me. But I might decide to explore it some day.

• If you have a smartphone, Android, iOS, or Windows?
▷ Uhm… What’s the difference? I told you I’m not a geek. Just kidding! Samsung Android. 😀😊

• If you use social media, which is your favourite one?
▷ I love Twitter and I’m quite active on XING (the German equivalent of LinkedIn).

• Are you a gamer?
▷ Not really, but my friends like to see me play because I am horribly clumsy and they laugh a lot.

Thank you so much, Caterina for your honest and smart answers! It’s a pity we have just run out of time! I would like to know more about you and keep going with the questions, but it is time to go back at work.
Don’t worry, we will be back on Thursday. So, we could talk again in two days!

Follow me and Caterina to read the latest news!

If you enjoyed the first part of the chat, share it on social media using the hashtag #guesswhonesec and leave a comment.
If you want to take part in the series, just drop me a line.

~Cee

Who’s Caterina? ▷ Caterina (of CSS Translations) is an Italian conference interpreter and translator based in Aachen, Germany. Born and raised in Correggio (Northern Italy), she gained a BA degree in translation and interpreting from Bologna University (Forlì) in 2011 and a MA degree in Conference Interpeting from Mainz University (Germersheim) in 2014. Currently she works as a full-time freelance conference interpreter and translator specializing in corporate communication, marketing and law. She is active on many social media platforms (including Twitter and Facebook) and loves meeting other great #xl8ors at conferences and networking events.

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