Kadey, Cape Town
Our Listener – Kadey, Cape Town
“Balancing the calm of the ocean with the rhythm of words.“
For Kadey, transcription flows naturally alongside the tides of her student life. Based in Cape Town, she joined Way With Words eight months ago, looking for work that could fit around her studies while still keeping her mind engaged. What she found was far more than flexible income, it was a world of voices, stories, and learning that expanded her understanding of language.
“Transcribing with Way With Words has given me the freedom to work in my own time,” she explains. “Plus, the extra income is great!” Every new project is a small discovery: one that refines her vocabulary, deepens her research skills, and sharpens her writing. For Kadey, the work is as much about growth as it is about earning.
She speaks warmly of the company’s support and sense of community. “The WWW team is friendly and promptly answers any queries you may have. A pleasant experience all round,” she says. That positive environment and the diversity of the files she works on have made the experience deeply rewarding. With recordings coming in from all over the world, she never quite knows what topic she’ll encounter next. “You learn something new with every file,” she says, and it’s clear that this variety is part of what keeps her inspired.
Away from her desk, Kadey finds her peace in nature and art. She loves snorkelling and freediving experiencing worlds of colour and quiet that contrast the intensity of listening closely for hours. “Being underwater is like stepping into another world,” she reflects. There’s a kind of poetry in that: while her transcription work trains her to listen with precision, diving teaches her to listen to silence. When she’s not near the sea, she’s often sketching, painting, or immersed in a good book, all pursuits that, like transcription, require focus, patience, and the ability to notice the subtle things others might miss.
Her view on the role of humans in transcription is clear-eyed. “I see this all the time in the mishears in ASR files,” she says, referring to automated speech recognition. “It’s especially noticeable with non-English accents or bad audio quality.” To her, it’s proof that human understanding can’t be replaced by algorithms. “It’s useful to have the technology to ease the transcription process,” she admits, “but it’s clear that human transcribers are needed to provide context and accuracy.”
In a digital world that often moves too fast, Kadey’s perspective reminds us that comprehension still depends on empathy and attentiveness. These are qualities that no machine can yet replicate.
When asked which recordings have stayed with her, Kadey mentions those simple yet profound exchanges between parents and children. “They’re casual conversations, but they remind you how differently we speak compared to how we write,” she says. These recordings challenge her skills as a listener and typist, yet they also reveal something tender and universal, the ways people connect through language. It’s work that brings both technical satisfaction and quiet meaning.
As for what makes a great transcriber, Kadey sums it up perfectly: “A good listener with attention to detail.” It’s a modest description, but one that captures the essence of what she does, which is translating fleeting sounds into something permanent and precise. Whether she’s diving in the kelp forests of Cape Town or shaping clarity from a tangle of voices, she carries the same calm focus and appreciation for detail.
Transcription may not always be visible work, but for Kadey, it is steady, thoughtful, and deeply human.
Our Company – Way With Words
Way With Words is an established international transcription company providing accurate, confidential, and secure transcripts to clients across a wide range of industries. Our global community of human transcribers ensures that every project we deliver meets the highest standards of quality and care.