My name is Gabriel San Martín and I am a freelance translator who works from Japanese and English into European Spanish and specializes in video games. I still can’t believe my luck of having participated in projects such as Ni no Kuni II and several titles of the Pokémon franchise. As the story goes, my career was incubated, much like a Togepi egg, by taking an interest in video games from an early age. I owe it all to the moment a certain someone decided to buy a Nintendo 64 as a Christmas present for hims…, I mean, for me. In the following years, that interest hatched and evolved into an intense fascination that hasn’t reached its final form. In the blink of an eye, it has led me to acquire insight into the different stages of the localization of games for consoles, PC and mobile devices, and also to dip a toe in teaching that whole process. My work experience and my personal preferences have always gravitated towards role-playing games, but both as a fan and a professional I make sure to broaden my horizons and learn about all sorts of genres on a regular basis. That is one of the privileges of this line of work.

While I was pursuing my master’s degree, I did not only study the intricacies of video game translation, but also multimedia localization, and gained practical experience with subtitling and dubbing techniques. All that knowledge has undoubtedly come in handy afterwards.

English and Japanese have been a part of my life almost from the very beginning. Singing songs by The Beatles with my parents as a child and humming along anime intros taught me the best way to learn a language, but academic stays in Japan and English-speaking countries pushed language mastery to a whole new level.

Besides my main languages, I use the rest of the FIGS combination (when the texts in those languages are available) as a reference during projects to ensure a top quality translation. I studied French for six years in high school, one year of German as part of my undergraduate studies plus a one-week-long course at Goethe-Institut in Frankfurt, and I am learning Italian among other languages by myself (and by eavesdropping on some of my neighboring colleagues’ conversations, back when I worked in an office).

I have been an avid reader all my life and, like most translation students, I longed to translate literature. Recently, I have fulfilled my dream of working in the editorial field, thanks to being entrusted with the translation of some adventures starring the beloved robot Mazinger Z. Translating manga is a whole different process from translating video games, but learning it and finally seeing the words printed on paper is just as rewarding as gazing at them on a screen.

My mind and inbox are open to all kinds of projects. I foster curiosity and enthusiasm towards an array of topics and media, from art to science, so any translation or localization project that I am suitable for is very welcome.

If you are wondering why I talk about gender and LGBTQ+ issues, the reason is that I belong to a couple of those letters, I was a founding member of an association for LGBTQIA+ rights, and gender has been a life-long personal dilemma, which I am constantly trying to solve. I even dedicated my master’s dissertation to the way translation is affected by it. All my work is approached from a sociological point of view with the goal of confronting bias and advancing equity and inclusion. Lately, I have educated myself and others about accessibility and the potential of the localization team to support good practices in video games so that everyone can enjoy video games as much as I do.

I’d be flattered if you were still curious about me after this tirade, but just in case, here is the kooky cooking blog I coauthor with my partner (in English and Spanish), and below this you will find answers to other big questions.

What a profound and completely unprompted question, my inquisitive visitor. Humanity has posited many a plausible answer to this puzzling conundrum. Instead of boring you out of corporeality with my family tree or existentialist theories, I will limit myself to explaining why I occupy this tiny space in the interwebs.

As you must have gathered thanks to your insightful nature, I have come to this plane to impress you with colourful prose, fully written and localized by yours truly, so that you take me to your leader or, if you are fortunate to be your own boss, to persuade you to request my services. The Blog button at the top of the page will take you on an interstellar trip to my other corner of the internet, where I write (in Spanish) and intend to educate on translation and video game localization.