Who we are
Touché and Guy found each other in the puzzling universe of internet because they know those who have a direction and are persevering arrive at their destination and that was how they ended up in each other’s arms, in December 2002, after long hours and days on ICQ (no Skype at the time), and they never stopped walking together since then. After 4 months suffering the distance imposed by geography, Guy went to São Paulo and brought his tropical love to Antwerpen, where they lived till 2017.
Since the beginning of their relationship – which turned into an official marriage to make Touché’s stay in Europe legally possible – they dreamt about working together and as they both share a love for languages and literature the idea of a translation agency was always there, waiting for the right time to know when to move into this. They both had already years of experience working with translations and reviews but having a company demands more than just knowledge: it requires courage and a positive look towards the future, what is not necessarily easy for those who believe in honesty and hard work.
Besides their love for letters, they also share a deep passion for photography and traveling to other places has been their greatest life investment. Getting to learn how other people think and express their emotions, visiting various types of buildings, tasting new flavours, experiencing new cultures... they never cease to wonder and try to understand how our planet evolves, changes and how nature and people can survive the changing times. As nature-lovers they focus on keeping its wonders and excitement through Guy’s artistic talent with a camera. Their websites are a combination of images and texts that aim at keeping the sense of beauty alive.
As a teacher, Touché chose to work with a person-to-person approach, because this is the way to ‘dive’ into the new world that each student represents, and this personal contact allows a nice way to learn. Modern technologies have opened a wide window for those who need/want to learn another language without the restrictions imposed by physical distance.
Toucheguy is the result of years of dreaming, learning, planning and... doing! We are very happy to introduce our company to you and hope you will be willing to work with.
Welcome!
A website love tale
How do we link a website and all it comprises with the concept of love? Nothing to do? NO. Much to do! Toucheguy is here to prove that love can also influence websites...
Summer 2017. June, more precisely. Here we go, or here we went, on vacations, to Denmark. Why Denmark? Because we wanted to experience life in a country with the best life quality in the world. Yes, we love quality!
Three months later we could settle in our new home! Of course, this demanded lots of all: energy, time, money, perseverance, love and a strong belief in the future. Toucheguy is open and now broadcasting from the adorable island of Fur and we are including Danish among the languages on offer. We are ready for new challenges and you are welcome to join us wherever we are.
Touché Guimarães
(Van Morrison)
Touché is passionate about life and is not afraid to be happy. This has always led her to launch into adventures of various types and unforeseen results. “Everything has its positive side,” she believes, confident in the new horizons that each learning brings.
Poet of the dawn, whose inspiration comes from everything and from nothing, writer of chronicles that translate her point of view on facts and people whose importance exists as an extension of her emotions. She became known for her tenacity, perseverance, intolerance and excessive attachment to the truth, which have always led her to many confrontations and great controversies, which she experiences with the complex totality of her artistic being.
Always interested in different geographies and cultures, she turned the study of languages into the natural way to realize dreams and plans, that became ever more concrete after she found het love, embarking on a journey of romance, sharing and complicity. Supported by her father in the discovery of new sounds and places, guided by her mother on the tracks of the arts, accompanied on her adventures by the affection and concern of her brothers, who know that their rebellious sister is always at the same time far away and nearby, Touché has never given up her dreams.
Born in Rio de Janeiro, her life in Antwerp has allowed her to experience dual nationality and the rich experience of being an immigrant, which she understands as the possibility of translating and diffusing the Latin and European cultures, what she has done through her texts and the beautiful photographs het husband makes.
With her profound sense of organisation, she worked for many years as executive secretary in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a profession that allowed het to develop her natural practicality and to find solutions to problems of varied types and origins, as well as developing an ever growing network of contacts around the world, an attitude that anticipates the current social media. Understanding ideas and behaviours has been a source of study and inspiration for this dissident writer, who refused to publish her literary work, as she believes it to be the right of the artist to divulge her art among those people she chooses as her audience.
It was the knowledge of different languages that showed her the way to freelance work, and made her decide to give private lessons when she finished her activities as secretary. When she returned to Brazil after a frustrated attempt to emigrate to Australia, she developed her own teaching method, directed at each student in particular, taking into account the student’s tastes, needs and abilities. This anti-academic and intuitive way of conducting language courses has proved to be very efficient and the progress of her students gives her great satisfaction as she accompanies their growth and development.
Touché prefers nature and animals and works to contribute to a growing awareness of the need to protect all forms of life. She definitely prefers children over adults, and always kept the enchanted gaze of childhood when looking at the universe.
Guy Voets
Have no boss,
But I'd be raisin' my lonely
Dental Floss"
(Frank Zappa - 'Montana')
Guy hails from a house full of books, full of wisdom and the teachers to pass it on. Books by the Tachtigers (1880) and the Vijftigers or Cobra Movement (1950) for Dutch literature, le nouveau roman for the French. He learned to read with Bulletje en Bonestaak and with Annie M.G. Schmidt.
He felt himself more attracted by nature and in his teens spent almost every week-end in the fields and woods to learn more about plants and animals. He realised quite soon that protecting nature and keeping our environment liveable would require a radical change of society. The workers’ struggles in France in 1968, the conflictive socio-political environment,... it all pointed in the same direction. The intense political contacts that arose from this, brought a constant flow of translations, simultaneous and on paper. The language triangle between Dutch, French and English became a daily activity.
After several fruitless, but fascinating years at university, he found work in the theatre, not on the scene (no, thank you, not under the limelight, nor at the blackboard), but behind the scenes. He was dramaturge, composed program books and school folders, and also translated a few plays (by D. Mamet, A. Ayckbourn, D. Margulies) staged by the company. In a second theatre, he designed the website that went online in several languages.
The first contacts with Touché were held in the internet language ‘by default’, English. But once they knew of each other that they both talked French, they switched to the romantic idiom. When she arrived in Belgium, Touché studied Dutch, but also Italian. Guy enjoyed learning Brazilian... it sounds like a laid-back version of Portuguese. Now they speak some kind of Babylonian among themselves. Every language brings its own nuance to a concept, sometimes you can better use the English word, then again the French version fits the purpose better... or you just take the first word in any language that shoots through your head.