Waran Translations has been managed by Michaël Hauspie, a Japan specialist, sworn translator, and sworn interpreter in Japanese, English, and Dutch, since 2009.
Most assignments are handled by him personally, but our growing business has led us to entrust more work to a select set of highly educated, experienced freelancers. Before assigning a project to a top-notch freelancer in our network, we always consult closely with the client to select the best person for the job.
Michaël obtained his first MA from the Japanese Studies Department of Ghent University, graduating magna cum laude in 2003. After receiving a prestigious MEXT scholarship from the Japanese government, he subsequently studied Japanese literature at the top-tier Japanese universities of Waseda (as a research student) and Sophia (in an MA program he completed with a 4.0 GPA).
Having lived in Tokyo for nearly five years, he returned to Belgium in the fall of 2009 to establish Waran Translations. Since then, he has also held a position as a part-time lecturer at the Ghent University Japanese Studies Department.
He is certified as a sworn translator and interpreter by the District Court of Ghent for the Japanese, English, and Dutch languages and has extensive experience in both translation and interpreting (consecutive and simultaneous) across a wide range of fields.
Jekaterina is one of our foremost freelance interpreters. Born in Estonia, she speaks fluent Russian, Dutch, Japanese, and English and won both categories of the Japanese Speech Contest in Belgium.
Halfway through her BA in Japanese Studies at Ghent University, she was awarded the MEXT scholarship to spend one year in a research program at Kanazawa University. She completed her BA at Ghent University summa cum laude in 2014, and has since been involved in many technical and other interpreting assignments, both consecutive and simultaneous.
Izumi graduated from the Department of Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences of Mukogawa Women’s University at the top of her class in 1993.
After working for five years at a leading Japanese pharmaceutical company, she moved to the Netherlands in 1999. There, she worked for another five years as liaison manager at a clinical research institute before becoming a freelance linguist in Japanese, English, and Dutch in 2007.
She handles both translation and consecutive interpreting assignments.
Tom, a native of the United States living in Japan, specializes in translations from Japanese to English.
After graduating summa cum laude with a degree in history from St. John’s University in 2005, he went on to spend a year teaching English in Okinawa, Japan, and then earn an MA in Japanese Studies from Sophia University in 2008.
Since then, he has worked as an instructor at Bunkyo Gakuin University in Tokyo and translated, edited, and proofread documents of all kinds as a freelance linguist.
