A little about the person behind Amharic Interpreter
Learn more about Kidest Beyene, her interpreter training, her decade of work with the NHS, courts and Home Office, and the calm, accurate support she offers Amharic-speaking service users across the UK.
Qualified & Vetted
DPSI-trained, enhanced DBS-checked and working to NRPSI and NHS England interpreting standards.
Strict Professional Ethics
Full confidentiality, accuracy and impartiality on every assignment — in line with the NRPSI Code of Professional Conduct.
Hello, I’m Kidest Beyene
I’m a freelance Amharic interpreter based in Middlesbrough, working in the Ethiopian Amharic ↔ English (UK) language pair for clients right across the United Kingdom — and remotely for organisations worldwide.
Before moving to the UK in 2010, I worked in Addis Ababa as a reporter for one of Ethiopia’s leading English-language newspapers, and as an English-language teacher. That background — daily writing, editing and explaining English to Amharic speakers — trained the ear and the discipline that public-service interpreting demands.
For more than ten years I have interpreted full-time for the NHS, mental-health trusts, local authorities, solicitors, the Home Office, the courts and international NGOs. The work has taught me that an Amharic-speaking patient, client or witness is rarely just looking for translation. They are looking to be properly understood, treated with dignity, and given the same chance to be heard as anyone else in the room.
That is the standard I hold myself to on every booking — and the reason professionals across the UK come back to me when the words really matter.
Meet Kidest
A British-Ethiopian Amharic interpreter, former newspaper journalist and English teacher, with over a decade of full-time public-service interpreting in the UK.
Certified Amharic ↔ English Interpreter
Kidest holds a BA (Hons) in Therapeutic Counselling from Teesside University, with further counselling training and CPD in online and telephone counselling.
My Interpreting Philosophy
Good interpreting is invisible. When it’s done well, the clinician, solicitor, caseworker or business partner barely notices the interpreter — they simply have a clear, honest conversation with the person in front of them. That is what I work towards on every booking.
My practice is built on three things: rigorous accuracy, total impartiality and genuine respect for the people on both sides of the conversation. I read the brief in advance, learn the terminology, and arrive prepared. In the session, I interpret in the first person, in full, without softening, summarising or taking sides.
Where culture matters — and in Ethiopian Amharic it often does — I will flag a cultural cue transparently to both parties so meaning is preserved without anyone’s words being changed.
A respectful space for every Amharic speaker
I work with Amharic speakers from across the Ethiopian diaspora — newly arrived asylum seekers, long-settled UK residents, students, business visitors and British-born Ethiopians supporting older relatives.
You are welcome to bring faith, family expectations, identity, region, dialect, trauma, migration journey or any part of your story that feels important. The session moves at your pace, with care, curiosity and respect for the whole of who you are.