Andrew Ketley: Sharing personal experience

Privat

Andrew Ketley has made it

"In a world in which too many are too eager to foment division any opportunity to help foster both scientific and cultural understanding is as important as it is welcome."

I knew I wanted to support the DAAD-Stiftung from the moment I first heard about it. I got so much out of the year my DAAD e.V. grant allowed me to spend in Berlin: lasting friendships, my first 'proper job' - and also that my relocation five years ago has been easier and smoother that perhaps it might otherwise have been. I want to pay that forward.

What particularly excites me about the DAAD grant program and the DAAD-Stiftung is that support is offered to students from across the world. In a world in which too many are too eager to foment division any opportunity to help foster both scientific and cultural understanding is as important as it is welcome.

I did my degree in linguistics, German, Russian and Hungarian (or 'Modern and Mediaeval Languages', as the university less than helpfully calls it...). My motivation in applying for a DAAD grant was to convert this into something saleable by studying translation and interpretation at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin as preparation for the Institute of Linguists' Diploma in Translation.

Starting while still in Berlin and continuing for some years afterward, I initially worked as a freelance translator - until the loneliness of the long-distance translator finally got to me, and I switched to finance and accounting and thence to IT. These days I work as an IT consultant building data-warehouses, a domain in which the ability to translate accurately between different languages and contexts turns out to be surprisingly useful.

Remnants of my former life as a translator are still available from all good bookstores. One lasting little life lesson from that era: Receiving phone-calls from the Bundestag (because the author you're translating happens to be an MP) is a great way to gain an entirely exaggerated sense of one's significance in the world...

My (British) university's alumni office sends me at least one request for support every year. While sympathetic, I struggle to justify in effect merely replacing inadequate state funding. I have no such reservations in supporting the DAAD-Stiftung, as their remit clearly goes beyond the essential obligations of the state. I am glad to live in a country that actively seeks exchange with the world beyond its borders rather than to seal them against it.

As of July 2022

Note: Andrew Ketley has been supporting the DAAD-Stiftung regularly for a long time by means of a standing order. We are extremely grateful to him.