Background and expertise

Born in Finland, raised in Florida; BA in Philosophy and MA in Anthropology; translating since 2010 (Click to expand)

I was born in Finland and grew up in Florida for almost all of my formative years. This gave me a bilingual and bicultural foundation that sparked a lifelong fascination with cultures in general and equipped me with two distinct lenses for seeing the world.

I started translating from Finnish to English in 2010, and what initially began as a side gig during my academic studies has since turned into a career. That academic training in philosophy (BA) and anthropology (MA) continues to shape how I understand the world and approach language and communication. In a very abbreviated form, I’m trained to think about what we think – and consider the structural reasons behind why we think it. This means I can often identify and understand the cultural and conceptual elements required for effective communication. Put simply, I can distill abstract ideas into plain language and help make sure you say what you mean, and mean what you say.

My academic training spans concepts, issues, and policies in sustainability, as well as professional cultural research methods and statistical analysis. Coupled with my experience translating thousands of pages of text on sustainability at various levels of public and corporate governance, as well as in the third sector (NGOs), I have a strong background for providing practical, actionable ideas to businesses and organizations looking to be more sustainable and communicate both ethically and more effectively.

 

And here’s what I can do:

First and foremost, I can help you communicate. This entire website, if you’ve gotten this far, is effectively a sample of my writing and communication strategy. Of course, here it’s tailored to what I want to do, which is to stand out in a crowded field.

Whether you’re exploring opportunities for more sustainable practices, testing the effectiveness of your messaging, designing a survey, or in need of professional translation, I bring over a decade of experience and a personalized approach to your project.

Beyond that, I bring to the table a toolkit from academia that most consultants lack. As a trained researcher in the social sciences, I can:

Identify Questions and Research Directions

Any research begins with identifying what you don’t know, but probably ought to – which is often easier said than done. It involves having a practical and feasible roadmap from your initial question to the intended (and typically quantifiable) results. For this, it’s good to have someone on board with a solid grasp of hypothesis-testing and appropriate research methods. Even if you’re not looking to produce peer-reviewed research, it’s still useful to have a plan that makes the best use of your valuable resources.

 

 

Design Surveys

Lots of people design surveys. Fewer understand how and why they work. What I do is make sure that you’re indeed measuring what you intend to measure. On the one hand, this can be fairly simple, exploratory data collection that gives you actionable insight based on structured responses and simple descriptive statistics. On the other hand, it can consist of very detailed and statistically rigorous methods that provide a much more nuanced picture of what you want to understand.

In either case, the key to success is having a well-designed survey grounded in how your target group actually thinks, which is something that anthropological research methods can consistently deliver.

Analyze Data

I’m trained in qualitative and quantitative research methods, the latter primarily being non-parametric statistics. These are the tools best-suited for investigating social and cultural phenomena, since the data rarely follow a normal distribution, and interpreting the results often requires qualitative analysis, too. This is highly relevant when interpreting survey results, particularly Likert-scale surveys, but also applies to several other types of data, which many organizations already have but rarely utilize fully.

Sometimes it makes sense to start with existing data to figure out what you need to understand better, which involves exploratory analysis. Whether interpreting results or exploring new questions, I have the toolkit to help you make sense of your data.

Iiro Maki

Owner

Email: info@makiservices.net
Phone: +1-561-315-7249
Proz Profile: https://www.proz.com/translator/1217894