Colin Speed is the founder of C.O.L. Translations. He was born in Scotland in the United Kingdom and has more than twenty-five year’s experience in language consulting.

Education

He has a diploma in Spanish Language from the Universidad de Sevilla in Spain, and studied Latin American Studies and Marketing at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. He completed a Masters in Information Technology at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and studied Portuguese at the Universidade Metodista de São Paulo, Brazil, where he achieved Advanced Proficiency in the CELPE-BRAS exam. He has a Master's Degree in Translation and Language Services from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto in Portugal.

He has a CELTA certificate (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) from the University of Cambridge and has been a Proz.com Certified Professional Translator in Spanish and Portuguese since 2015. In 2017 he achieved certification in SDL Trados 2017, the market leader in computer-assisted translation software.

Languages

He is a native speaker of English and has extensive experience with foreign languages, speaking Portuguese and Spanish fluently, but has also studied French, German, Italian and Russian. Mister Colin has travelled extensively and lived in Spain for four years, a year in Germany and came to Brazil for the first time in 1998. He was a resident of Brazil from 2010  to 2020. Currently he lives in Portugal.

Translating Experience

He has been working as a translator since 1992 and has been called “the best translator in Brazil”. Always a consummate professional and with an eye for detail it is no surprise that his work is so highly lauded.

Interpreting Experience

He first worked as a professional interpreter for the City of Glasgow Council in 1995 and has regularly been contracted by companies and private individuals around the world ever since.

Professional bodies

He is a member of professional bodies such as the American Translators Association (ATA), the Brazilian Association of Translator and Interpreters (ABRATES), the Portuguese Association of Translators (APT), the Spanish Association of Translators, Proofreaders and Interpreters (Asetrad) and the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (UK). He also holds ISO 17100:2015 accreditation as a translator.

He is also an active member of Proz.com, the world’s leading translator community, as well as being a veteran Proofreader at Motaword, the world’s fastest business translation platform.