ABOUT ME

Els Govaerts fell in love with the English language as a child, when her grandfather emigrated to the United States and started sending her books in English to learn the language. Her fascination with language inspired Els to choose a career based on this passion: to carry not only the meaning, but the spirit of a text from English or German into her native language, Dutch. Having grown up in Belgium, she is fully aware of and fluent in the fine differences between Dutch as it is spoken and written in the Netherlands and in Flanders.

When she isn’t working on the intricacies of translation, her greatest joy is spending time with her three children and her three grandchildren. She has been an ardent dancer all her life, and now regularly practices Tai Chi.

And whence the name “Alcuna” for her company? Els’ inspiration was the great scholar Alcuin, born in the late 9^th century, who was a masterful translator. Among many other significant accomplishments, his translation of the Vulgate Bible was widely used in the Middle Ages. He had corrected many errors resulting from its being copied countless times by monks and was widely after many errors had been introduced into Saint Jerome’s version various monks. He established one of Europe’s most important libraries of the time, was friend and counsel to Charlemagne and tutor to his sons, and played a key role in the invention of Carolingian miniscule. This ground-breaking script made reading more widely accessible then and has influenced the modern scripts we use today.