JanSłobodzian

Jan Słobodzian in a tuxedo at an evening event
LanguageCultureEvents

I’m a Polish translator and event producer in Los Angeles.
I translate American film and TV for Polish audiences, and I’ve spent eight years producing conferences, festivals, and cultural programs.

01

Perspective

Some things don’t translate on their own.

A joke written in Los Angeles has to land in Warsaw, in two lines and a few seconds of screen time. A conference has to work for 1,500 people at once. A culture has to find its way across a border.

That’s my work.

I studied American culture in Kraków, produced events in Kraków and Warsaw, and have called Los Angeles home since 2017.

Native Polish. Fluent English. M.A. in American Studies.

Words on a screen.

People in a room.

Continue
02

What I do

Two crafts.

One test:

does it land?

I

Film & TV Translation

The best subtitles go unnoticed.

I translate and review American film and TV for Polish audiences: features, series, documentaries, and animation.

It’s never word for word. A joke has to stay funny. A character has to sound like themselves. Every line has to fit in two rows and be read before the cut.

When it works, nobody notices. That’s the point.

Subtitle translation / Translation review / Language quality

170+Film and TV assignments since 2017

II

Events & Cultural Production

A room can become a culture.

For eight years in Kraków and Warsaw, I produced developer conferences, festivals, exhibitions, an outdoor food market, and cultural programs.

Venues, vendors, budgets, sponsors, permits, teams of up to 30. I handled everything the audience never sees, so they could focus on what they came for.

Sold-out editions of Central Europe’s largest front-end developer conference

45+Events from a nonprofit I built from scratch

03

Experience

2017-now

Film & TV Translation

Stories, made native.

Freelance subtitle translation, review, and language quality for major U.S. studios and global streaming platforms.

2013-20

Culture Point Foundation

Culture as public work.

Founder. Built a Kraków nonprofit and ran it for seven years: festivals, exhibitions, educational programs, and the web series Project Poland, with partners from the UK, Iran, and Georgia.

2015-17

Zippy Desk / Front-Trends

International ideas, live.

Lead event and project manager for Front-Trends and Falsy Values in Warsaw. Three sold-out editions, 1,500 attendees at peak.

2015-16

Consulate General of Poland, New York

Poland, in New York.

Public diplomacy intern. Diplomatic receptions, delegation visits, cultural programs, and Poland’s 2015 overseas parliamentary election.

Alongside this work: Senior Customer Support Specialist at HubSpot since 2021.

+

Education

Studied culture.

Still curious.

Jagiellonian University

M.A. American Studies · Migration and Ethnicity

Jagiellonian University

B.A. Comparative Studies of Civilizations

Los Angeles City College

Machine Learning certificate · in progress