Welcome to the team, Karlie!

This week we have the pleasure of introducing yet another new member of the iWL Team, Karlie Bodine!

Here is a little autobiography:

“My name is Karlie Bodine. I grew up in Cottonwood Heights (less than 4 miles from some of the best ski and snowboard resorts in the world) with my parents and one younger brother. I graduated from Brighton High School in 2012. 

I’m a 19-year-old Honor Roll and Dean’s List student at the University of Utah. I’m studying Psychology and minoring in Sociology-- I’ve always been fascinated by other people and passionate about social and civil rights. After receiving my Honor’s BA in Psychology, I plan on attending S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah.

Growing up in Utah, it is hard not to develop a love for the outdoors! In my spare time, you can find me climbing, swimming, wakeboarding, backpacking, hiking, fourwheeling, doing yoga or doing just about anything outside! As I mentioned before, I have lived about 4 miles away from what are considered to be some of the best ski resorts in the whole world for my entire life. 

Ironically enough, with my love of the outdoors but my dislike of the snow, I never practiced ski or snowboarding until I was 18 years old. I went skiing at Alta and instantly loved it! I’m sad I missed out on it all those years growing up, but I did start wakeboarding and fourwheeling at a very young age. Most of my early memories involve being at Lake Powell or the Sand Dunes.

My parents have always valued traveling and experiencing other cultures and I consider this is one of the greatest gifts they could give me. I have been to 19 countries- mostly in the Caribbean and Central America. As a result, the ocean is one of my favorite things in the entire world. My favorite place that I have visited so far is La Romana, Dominican Republic. Not only were the people kind and the food delicious, but the ocean and scenery was the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. In the future, I hope to travel even farther and visit as many places as I can! I love experiencing other cultures.

I’m so excited to start my new journey at inWhatLanguage! I’m looking forward to all of the opportunities IWL has for me to grow and learn! I’m happy to be a part of this team.”

Karlie has started by organizing our latest iWL Cares campaign, to which you can also contribute!

“This month we are doing a Coat Drive and looking to collect all the coats we can to give to those in need as these cold fall and winter months are approaching! We are collecting up until October 31st. Please, if you live in Salt Lake City or the neighboring area and you have any old and gently used adult coats laying around, contact me so I can pick them up. Thank you so much!”

Localization and dialects: Is it worth it?

According to Infoplease, nowadays there are around 6,500 languages currently being spoken around the world. Of course, as one can read in this article from the Linguistic Society of America, counting languages is practically impossible, as new varieties appear every day, the same way as some other languages go extinct. But for the sake of argument, let us say that there are 6,500 languages in the world. Our first question should be: what is a language? Does a dialect count? Does a different accent of a language count?

“Consider the facts of negative sentences, for example,” says the article from the LSA. “Standard Italian uses a negative marker which precedes the verb (Maria non mangia la carne‘Maria not eats the meat’), while the language spoken in Piémonte (Piedmontese) uses a negative marker that follows the verb (Maria a mangia nen la carn ‘Maria she eats not the meat’). Other differences correlate with this: standard Italian cannot have a negative with an imperative verb, but uses the infinitive instead, while Piedmontese allows negative imperatives; standard Italian requires a ‘double negative’ in sentences like Non ho visto nessuno ‘not have I seen nobody’ while Piedmontese does not use the extra negative marker, and so on. The functioning of negation here establishes a parameter that distinguishes these (and other) grammars. (…) scholars have estimated that somewhere between 300 and 500 of these distinct possibilities are actually instantiated in the region!”

 There are more distinctive cases, though. Take Spain for example: a country where Spanish is the official national language, but where “dialects” – which are, as a matter of fact, whole new languages themselves, and some of them older than actual Spanish and with no similarities whatsoever- are co-official in their respective regions, taught in schools and proudly spoken both on the streets and during official events. These people love their language, or “dialect”, and appreciate being addressed in it. They will certainly pay closer attention to a document or speech in their regional language than in common Spanish.

From an international business’ point of view, this might sound like something not worth taking into consideration – we are talking about extra costs that could be avoided just by translating all communications into the national language, which supposedly everybody understands.

But translation – or, more specifically, localization – is not just about making communications understandable. It’s about achieving the biggest impact on your target audience. About getting their attention and making them feel connected to you and your company.

So back to the question “is it worth it?” the answer is: it depends. Obviously, if you are in charge of finding different translators and negotiating rates with them, you probably would want to hire only a few people you can trust with the least amount of work – the less trouble for you, the better. 

But consider this: if you hire a translation agency with years of experience and a vast network of in-country native translators that, on top of that, offers discounts for large volumes on their translation services… That is worth it. At the end of the day, you will have a localized translation that will have a much greater impact on your audience, and the long-term benefits will be significant.

So… yes, it depends. It depends on whether you want to risk it going solo, or you decide to trust the best to take care of it. inWhatLanguage is always there to help – keep us in mind!

The conundrum of branding

Branding a product is always a tough decision, especially when it is aimed at an international audience. Words that sound perfectly logical in one language can mean something completely different –and sometimes unfortunate- in others. An example that often comes to my mind when thinking about branding fails: the detergent Barf, which in Persian means “snow”, but in English… Evokes everything but crispy, white sheets.

It would be like branding a cute line of lipsticks “Kiss”, which would be very becoming… Until it reaches Sweden, where “Kiss” means “pee”. Not something you usually want to put in your lips!

Today I found this interesting article in The Economist. “Branded a fool” talks about this specific problem, namely international branding. There is a whole industry dedicated to this field, and there are strategies and guidelines here and there. And they make all kinds of sense, too: 

• “People avoid extra effort every chance they can; a name that is hard to spell or remember is harder to Google and buy from”: well, a brand is, after all, something created to make the product stick in our minds so that we feel like purchasing it. And every day we have increasing difficulties remembering even our phone numbers. So yeah.

• “Pronounceability in a wide variety of languages may be more important”: duh, try pronouncing “Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän” – hard even for German natives! Certain languages have spelling systems that can be a nightmare for foreign speakers, and words like this one are certainly not going to stick.

• “An evocative name sets off a chain of associations in the mind”: yes… to an extent. Like I said, a lipstick brand called “Kiss” is certainly evocative, but depending on which country we are in, the perception might change dramatically!

While the process of coming up with a brand name for a new product is absolutely fascinating and it has a lot of strategy and know-how involved, taking it abroad without any risk can be just as easy as contacting a good language agency. One that is specialized in the languages spoken in the regions you want to launch your campaigns in, and that have excellent localization services and cultural adaptation skills.

In inWhatLanguage, we can proudly say that we have the best team for these situations. With our worldwide network of native, in-country translators, we can assure that, if a brand has the slightest chance of causing a misunderstanding in the region due to the language, culture or even regional dialects, we can save you the trouble.

Let us help you overcome language barriers and conquer the business world without worries!

Customer service: the key to our success

inWhatLanguage is a fairly young translation company, but even so we have a long list of clients who stick with us for their translation projects. Their loyalty is what allows us to maintain our position as a leading translation agency, and what gives us the incentive to keep improving ourselves and our services. So much so that it is practically thanks to them that we have earned a place among the best translation companies in the US.

But why is that? In this extremely competitive industry of translation, full of capable companies everywhere, how is it that a young company has been able to gain such a standing, to keep growing every year and to look into the future with great optimism?

In other words, why do our customers keep coming back?

The short answer is: our customer service. The long answer?

1. Because, above all, we deliver high-quality services that our clients appreciate and distinguish us from the average jobs done by less professional companies.
2. Because we are consistent with our translations and never break our promises.
3. Because we are FAST, but the speed of our translations and interpreters does not affect the quality of our services.
4. Because we are always happy to talk to our clients; they feel welcome and supported from the moment they make first telephonic contact, or they get the first reply via instant chat, or they receive a response mail in a matter of minutes after sending their original request.
5. Because we reward the customers who commit to us with large projects offering tasty volume discounts.
6. Because we reward loyalty by offering better prices to long-time customers, as well as for client referrals.
7. Because we are always there during the whole translation process, ready to listen to last-minute demands and ask for details to make the end result as accurate and localized as possible.
8. Because we proofread our translations to make sure that we are delivering the best service possible and to save our clients all the trouble.
9. Because we go to great lengths to make sure that what the end translation looks like a mirror image of the original, with the format as intact as possible.
10. Because, even when the project is finished, we stay in contact to make sure that everything is going well, and of course to apply any corrections if necessary.

What our customers think of us is the most important thing, at the end of the day. Their feedback is what drives us in the right direction. 

And for that reason, when we receive comments such as “Thank you for your service. It was timely and everything was performed at a high quality level,” or “Great customer service and delivery. Ryan and Erin were a pleasure to work with,” (those were our latest feedback comments), we feel more excited than ever to continue moving forward!

So thank YOU, our dear customers, for pointing us in the right direction!