Praise for Leah’s work

A funny, sharp, wonderfully readable novel in which a fresh, playful voice takes us to the heart of an obsessive, unpredictable family. This engaging book tells the story of a young writer finding her special place where the “most fragile, tender, and comical parts” of herself come dazzlingly to life in wild escapades and moments of unexpected reflection.

Leah is a brilliant translator: precise and dependable and utterly respectful of the authors’ voice.

I think Leah is a brilliant translator and did a great job with my novel: she created a voice in which I recognize myself, taking good care of the style and rhythm, and she found clever solutions for the tricky wordplay. It was beautiful to read my novel in her translation and it was a pleasure to work with her.

I’ve been working with translated literature for twenty years, and my experience working with Leah has been a true high point. She is a very skilled translator, no question, but she is also a very willing collaborator: incredibly thoughtful, creative—and importantly, fun to work with. I would really welcome the opportunity to work with her again (and again).

It’s quite common to come across someone who’s capable, or kind, or generous. Rarer to come across someone who’s capable, kind and generous all in one. It’s extraordinary to come across someone who, like Leah, is all that not only in life, in her personal relationships, but also in what she creates. To her, translating is a focused, joyfully furious act of “wrestling with the angel” – both when the text to be translated is angelic and when, poor thing, it needs to be saved from itself. In her translations, Leah’s cheerful, collaborative personal exuberance becomes intelligence and taste, creative rigor: a “bright quality” for which an author can only be grateful.

Leah Janeczko is a highly talented, cultured, perceptive and meticulous translator. I’m pleased that Le assaggiatrici found her voice in English, and I was pleased with our conversations about my novel, which she understood so deeply that she showed me things not even I, its author, had yet seen.

Leah was my English and communications coach for many years, and her support was important for my international career, both at Disney and at De Agostini. She’s a talented consultant who helped me craft effective written presentations, always finding just the right tone and wording, and assisted me in preparing for my most important speeches in English. She’s a very creative person who works well with international teams delivering new products and services. Also very active in the field of translations, Leah brilliantly adapted Disney’s worldwide comics hit W.I.T.C.H. for our English-speaking markets.

Leah D. Janeczko well renders the intensity of the original text, capturing the drama of the women’s plight, their tensions, anxieties and despair, and has a fine ear for dialogue that flows smoothly and compellingly.

We turned to Leah with a project that was far from simple: the translation from Italian of a full-length poem for children. Thanks to her experience, the results were even better than we’d hoped for: we managed to keep the rhyme, meter and rhythm without losing a single joke or pun. Leah is not only an excellent translator but also a precious cultural mediator who can suggest alternatives that preserve the clarity of the original as well as its meaning and its effect on the audience.

I’ve been working with Leah for four years now. It all started because I was looking for someone to give me a hand composing lyrics for my songs. I sent Leah some demos with the vocal lines sung in “fake English,” as is often done during composition. Her job was to write lyrics that stuck as closely as possible to each song’s mood and especially to the sounds of the existing vocal lines. The results were absolutely incredible: the lyrics fit both the sense and the sound perfectly. In the second phase of the project we fine-tuned my pronunciation and intonation. Her audio recordings of the lyrics, which she sent me along with the text files, were a big help. Diligent, precise, reliable, great professionalism, artistic taste.

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I didn’t get a chance to study since I was raised a shepherd boy and had to go out with the sheep every night, so I don’t know English. Or French. Or even German. Let alone Japanese or Russian. If you, too, have sad stories to tell and you’re a bigger ass than Candlewick, here’s your chance: a real translator. And I’m not joking. Skilled, fast, friendly (even gifted with a sense of humor!) and full of constructive ideas. Great experience acquired with the folks at Disney. Palmiro worked with her and it was a wonderful experience. See for yourself. She’s called Leah Janeczko and you can contact her here: www.linkedin.com/in/leahjaneczko (and read her resume). Sure, the name’s complicated, but Palmiro has never liked “simple” women.

I worked with Leah many times during my seven-year period as Editor-in-Chief of Topolino and other children’s magazines at The Walt Disney Company Italy. For me she translated comics, presentations, publishing plans and launch issues of comics to be presented to foreign markets. She was also a precious English coach before international meetings with Disney colleagues and executives as well as foreign publishers. On every occasion, Leah not only carried out her task with professionalism, efficiency, punctuality and precision but also frequently suggested creative improvements on my publishing products and presentations, not only in linguistic terms. Leah participates with both her head and her heart, and this makes her much more than a service provider; instead, she’s an ally, a superconsultant who’s always there for you and is sensible, precise and reassuring. At Disney Italy she’s always been considered #1 in the field of translations and language coaching, and working with her is a pleasure, also because of her personal qualities, which everyone recognizes and appreciates.

Leah is a like a many-faceted precious gem. Since she’s a native speaker of English, obviously the first thing you notice is her linguistic skill with translations of all kinds. Leah is capable of interpreting each text and shaping the language in just the right way, to such an extent that many of her translations turn out to be even better for the readership than the original. When she translates a literary work she knows how to delve into the writer’s spirit and render the same thought in the target language. I’m an author and she’s the only person I would want to translate my pages because I know her work would be a perfect translation, never a transgression. Her professionalism goes well beyond that, though. She’s a highly knowledgeable person and before taking on any new task she researches and reads up on the topic in detail. She prepares effective, spectacular business presentations. She has a strong creative flair, which makes her a precious member of creative teams and brainstorming sessions. She’s inventive and thinks outside the box but is also gifted with formidable practicality, making her down-to-earth and focused on successfully accomplishing her goals. She understands company dynamics and interacts with them ably. She’s highly familiar with the web and knows all the latest trends. She’s precise, punctual, always there for you, fast, discreet, extremely honest, reliable and highly professional.

Leah… so unique.

I was on tour in Italy (in 2006, I think) with Iron Butterfly (yeah, the original guys from the Woodstock era with In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida, but now without the drummer and keyboardist…) and I was already playing and recording records in English, like I’ve done since 2003. The bassist (not the original one), Ken from Seattle, kept complimenting me on my voice, on the way I sang, my pronunciation, and when I say to him, “Meh, in Italy everybody’s always quick to put you down, like they were all born speaking English,” he tells me, “Why should you sound American? You’re an Italian with really good, nice-sounding English.” So that was my first real boost, which made me keep doing my thing, singing and writing songs in English…

But… there’s a but…

But if you’re not a native speaker, you don’t think in that language with all the synonyms and expressions, you don’t convert what you want to say into words complete with slang, because you aren’t a part of that language and you don’t experience it in your everyday life.

That’s why it takes a coach. And there may be lots of other coaches out there, but Leah is like no other. She might be one of the few who, beyond being a native English speaker and helping you with your pronunciation and expression, musically transposes ideas into lyrics, like converting a few simple phrases into verses that are grammatically more complex but still musical, keeping the rhythm and making your voice sound right with the harmony.

Leah knows how to translate ideas into music. Could it be because deep down she’s actually an author? I can’t say, all I know is that she has that gift. She transforms your emotions into lyrics, or if you’ve already written them in some form, like in my case, she corrects them, hones them, fine-tunes them for you in the most musical way I’ve ever heard.

Beyond this, she’s helped me when recording many of my songs, correcting my pronunciation and sound. Leah is invaluable, and if I’m able to play, write and do interviews in English today, it’s all thanks to her.

There’s a sweetness to her, which might be what makes her so good at translating emotions into lyrics.

Leah is a great translator with a lot of experience in different fields, such as animation and new media. She’s helped us prepare presentations, adaptations of subjects, and scripts for various animation projects and TV series. She’s fast, reliable, punctual and dedicates great passion and attention to each project.

I’ve worked with Leah Janeczko not only in publishing but even more so in the world of music, with her translating lyrics from Italian into English and coaching singers in the correct English pronunciation. In both cases I loved the results. I especially appreciated how Leah was able to quickly hone in on different linguistic contexts and make precise and at times decisive suggestions, which comes quite easily to her given her truly humanistic culture. I’ll definitely turn to her for help again in the future.

Leah is a very creative and passionate person, and she brings these qualities to the companies and the people she works with. She strives for high standards whilst at the same time looking to stimulate creativity and a happy working environment. Professionalism, dedication, a strong background in publishing as well as her great experience and achievements as a freelance translator and creative consultant.

Leah is a great professional translator who over the years has acquired a deep knowledge of the publishing business. She not only is a trustworthy translator for any publishing business work, from presentations to articles, but has also developed great skills in coaching. She can help in preparing presentations, from the how-to to the final slide. She is a very good translator. She’s fast, reliable, punctual.