inWhatLanguage is currently celebrating one
of the greatest projects this translation agency has ever had the chance to
undertake!
FIFA, as in, the Fédération Internationalede Football Association -the international governing body of association
football, futsal and beach soccer, comprised of 209 national associations and
responsible for the organization of football's major international
tournaments-, has chosen us to translate its materials into 10+ languages in
preparation for the upcoming World Cup. Just how awesome is that?!
We were selected after a two month
competitive process against 15 other pre-selected translation companies, so I
guess we could say that iWL’s quality and its employees’ skills really shone
through - enough for the seasoned professionals at the FIFA headquarters to
finally pick us as their trusted provider of translation services.
We are already translating website content,
magazines and print media, and we will also begin translating news and press
releases periodically until next April. We will then continue to translate
throughout the world cup and beyond.
So congratulations, iWL! This is the real
deal!!
Since we are on the subject, I would like
to take the chance to ponder a question that has been bugging me for a while.
As a European citizen, I never understood why what we call “football” here is
called “soccer” in America. Well, after doing a little research, I found the
answer in Yellow How To – quite an interesting example of how new words can be
created out of the less significant events. Namely, a word joke, in this case.
“In the mid 1800s in England, two styles of
football were emerging and becoming codified. One, based on passing the ball
with the hands, originated in the posh public school, Rugby, and took that name
for its own. The other, based on dribbling the ball with the feet, came to be
called “association” football after its parent body the Football Association.
Once the forms of football had their
identities and official names, the English penchant for slang and abbreviation
came into play. Rugby was often known colloquially as “rugger” and association
football was shortened to “assoc”.
There is a story that Charles Wreford-Brown,
an official in the Football Association, was once asked by some university
friends to play a game of “rugger” with them. Making a play on that word, he
told them that he’d rather play “soccer” instead.
Whether this story describes the real
origin of the name “soccer”, or whether the abbreviation “assoc” simply evolved
into the more rhythmic and euphonious “soccer” over time, will probably never
be known.”
There are more interesting facts
surrounding this football/soccer phenomenon that you can read directly in the
source article.
For now, let us just rejoice in iWL’s
latest –and possibly greatest!- project, and await even more eagerly the next
World Cup in Brazil. It’s gonna rock!!
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