TechLaw Ventures' feedback: thumbs up for iWL!

This week, inWhatLanguage got another nice surprise from a very special client of ours! Another video testimonial, this time from TechLaw Ventures, “a professional limited liability company created by its founders to be a venture and technology law firm”, as described in its official website.

TechLaw Ventures provides “legal counsel to software, computer, biotech, healthcare, chemical, and other technology and innovative companies”, and they are actively working with clients in Taiwan and Japan.

That is where inWhatLanguage comes into play.

I won’t write much more, since I think that, in this case, the video in itself is more than enough content for this week’s blog post. It is incredibly sweet, and we feel proud to have clients say these things about us. But I’ll just point out a couple of things, really quickly.

First of all, the fact that TechLawVentures trusts us to do their translations says a lot. We are talking about a technology law firm, here. They need very, very specific translation services for which they probably wouldn’t risk going to just anyone for. It is amazing that they've asked us to do it – let alone the fact that they actually produced a video to let others know that we are indeed what we promise to be: a trust-worthy, competent translation agency that is there for their every need.

Secondly, I just love how Mr. Smith, spokesperson for TechLaw Ventures, highlights our selection process in the video. What he says about having read many different translated versions of one text made by different linguists in order to make a decision about which professional is best suited for his projects is kind of our trademark. Because, even though we trust and love all of our linguists, it is the client, at the end of the day, the one who really knows how they want their work to be displayed to the world, and who could get closer to that ideal. The fact that our clients recognize that, and choose us for it, really means the world to us.

And lastly, just one more thing…

Thank you, TechLaw Ventures!

Jackpot in Las Vegas: iWL goes to DevLearn!

The translation industry is a competitive world, and we know that better than anyone. As much as we want to provide our clients and potential customers with high-quality translation and interpretation services at the best prices, we know that there are millions of capable professionals out there who can also do a good job and appeal to those whom we are trying to reach.

Ty Palmer and Cody Broderick at DevLearn!

The more reason to keep improving ourselves.

The best thing about inWhatLanguage may be our youth – that means, our energy, and our will to learn new things. We know that we are living in a time where written translations are quickly losing importance in favor of new media, and we are more than willing to be part of this revolution.  eLearning, in particular, is becoming one of our main focuses, as it grows daily in popularity, and its potential for translation is, well, immense!

And so, it should come to no surprise that inWhatLanguage took grasp of the amazing opportunity of being present at the DevLearn Conference 2013, the most cutting-edge training and learning event in North America, that took place last month in Las Vegas.

In the very own words of the event’s official website, “DevLearn 2013 is for training and learning professionals who are leading or engaged in their organizations’ use of learning technologies.” Who should go to Dev Learn? Those who want to “find out what’s next in the world of learning, discover new technologies and approaches and learn side-by-side with colleagues and experts.” No wonder iWL fit like a glove in there!

iWL CEO Cody Broderick leaves little room for doubt when asked what his opinion of the experience was. “DevLearn was fabulous! It was great to be surrounded by the leading creators and providers in the eLearning and training development industry.”

iWL’s booth at the conference was a cozy, well-lit 10x10 space that was quite well received, in Broderick’s words. “Our presence was definitely felt at the conference. We had countless people complimenting the professionalism of our team and the look of our booth.”

Well, you know what they say, right? Nothing like a good first impression to keep the people coming! The iWL team’s  efforts didn’t go to waste, at the end of the day. “We spoke to hundreds of people and walked away with many valuable new relationships,” says Broderick. “And even better, many new projects!”

Now if that isn’t killing two birds with one stone, what is? Three, actually: the opportunity to learn about an interesting topic, a wonderful experience and atmosphere, and new contacts and projects. Really, iWL hit the jackpot in Las Vegas last October!

“Overall, it was a success, and inWhatLanguage will definitely be expanding as a leading provider of expert level translation services for all developers and service providers in this industry,” Cody Broderick assures with a smile.

Transcription: a job for the chosen ones

Isn’t it funny how, when trying to understand a foreign language, it is always easier to read it than to simply listen to it? Take movies, for instance. How many of us have turned on the subtitles option, even just to have the same dialogues that are being recited by the actors, displayed in its written form at the bottom of the screen?

It is evident that, if you want to convey a message and you don’t want to risk having to deal with misunderstandings, misinterpretations or misspellings, you have to have this message written down. When words are transformed into written text, they become timeless, eternal, and they are never lost.

But, of course, writing down a speech, or more accurately, the act of transcription, is one of the most mind-, patience- and time-consuming exercises I can think of.

The Canadian novelist and playwright Ann-Marie MacDonald said it once: “Writing is a hellish task; best snuck up on, whacked on the head, robbed, and left for dead”. Transcribers could easily add to this: “And transcribing is the epitome of this definition”.

Most people are just not made to be transcribers: it requires a great short-term memory and unbelievable typing speed. And you just have to like it, otherwise it can feel like a punishment. Transcription is simply one of those jobs that one has to leave to professionals: those who are born with the gift to do it, and to do it well.

inWhatLanguage not only provides superior quality transcription services, but it also offers a huge array of languages in which our expert translators and transcribers can deliver perfectly transcribed texts out of any audio and video file you might need. From recorded meetings and telephone calls to video surveillance and legal recordings, you can rest assured knowing that whatever your transcription translation project might consist of, we have the translation experience and expertise to deliver excellent results at our translation firm. Our transcription translation firm handles all file types and we work with over 160 different languages at our office while tailoring solutions to your unique transcription requirements.

Our trick is to combine expert in-country translators, exceptional word-processing skills, detailed quality reviews, and unmatched client support throughout the entire process. In actuality, nothing that we don’t already provide with any of the other services iWL has to offer – but of course, we have the big advantage of a large network of linguist all over the world, some of whom specialized in this particular field of the translation industry.

Need a long, important speech transcribed? Don’t sweat it. Just entrust it to us, and get a load off your shoulders!

Happy Halloween and All Saints' Day!

October 31st and November 1st are special dates in several countries where many different languages are spoken. As an international translation agency with professional translators and clients from all over the word, inWhatLanguage didn’t want to miss the opportunity to wish you all a happy celebration… And to share some general language-related trivia about these holidays.

For example: it is generally known that Halloween is a abbreviation of “All Hallows Evening”. “Hallow” is, in fact, Old English for “holy”. But how exactly did it transform into “Halloween”?

Well, first of all, “Evening” was shortened to “Eve”, same as in many other celebration names.

However, in the Scots language, “Eve” is pronounced “Even”, and this form got shortened to “E’en”. So first take All Hallows Eve, then take off the “All”, the “s” in the middle, and give it a Scots touch… And voilá. We got ourselves a Halloween.

In the same spirit of shortening words, the popular Jack-o-lanterns is in fact a shortened version of “Jack of the lantern” a fictional character whose origins date back to old folk tales. According to the information on Wikipedia, “an old Irish folk tale from the mid-19th Century tells of Stingy Jack, a lazy yet shrewd farmer who uses a cross to trap the Devil in order for him not to take his soul”. 

Unfortunately, this meant that, when Jack died, even though his life had been too sinful for him to be allowed into heaven, he could not go to hell, either. Jack had nowhere to go. He asked about how would he see where to go, as he had no light to guide his path, and the Devil mockingly tossed him an ember from the flames of hell that would never burn out. Jack carved out one of his turnips (which were his favorite food), put the ember inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place. He became known as "Jack of the Lantern", or Jack-o'-lantern.

Nowadays, the popular form of Jack-o’-lantern is in the shape of a pumpkin, but in some parts of Great Britain, turnips are still the preferred option for Halloween!

As for today, All Saints’ Day –or All Hallows-, it is interesting to see the different celebrations –and it’s names in different languages- from around the world. Again, quoting Wikipedia, “In Mexico, Portugal and Spain, offerings (Portuguese: oferendas, Spanish: ofrendas) are made on this day.” Furthermore, in Mexico, this day “coincides with the first day of the Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) celebration. Known as "Día de los Inocentes" (Day of the Innocents), it honours deceased children and infants.”

“Portuguese children celebrate the Pão-por-Deus tradition (also called santorinho, bolinho or fiéis de Deus), going door-to-door, where they receive cakes, nuts and pomegranates. Hallowmas in the Philippines is variously called "Undas" (based on the word for "[the] first"), "Todos los Santos" (literally "All Saints"), and sometimes "Áraw ng mga Patáy" (lit. "Day of the Dead"), which refers to the following day of All Souls' Day but includes it.”

“In English-speaking countries, the festival is traditionally celebrated with the hymn "For All the Saints" by Walsham How.”

So as a conclusion to this blog post, here is a video with this hymn. Enjoy!

Languages similar to other languages: proceed with caution!

Yesterday I did a translation from Portuguese to Spanish. A written translation, of course. Because, as a matter of fact, I don’t speak Portuguese. Never in my life have I studied it. But being a Spanish native speaker, and having studied Italian, French, Latin and other Romance languages, understanding written Portuguese is sort of a given.

Am I writing this text to turn this usual assumption around? No. I did understand it, and I did deliver a good translation, if I can say so myself. But an important part of the reason why the translation was a success, was that I had a talented proofreader who understood the intricacies of both languages and the subtle differences that can mean a world of difference in a translated text.

Romance languages are effectively very close to one another. But precisely because of their similarities, the people who are familiar with only some of them tend to get a little overconfident in understanding them all. Especially when we are talking about Spanish, Portuguese and Italian speakers.

These three cases are so similar that if three people native to any country where these languages are spoken met and talked to each other in their own languages slowly and clearly, they could probably understand most of what the other is saying without much trouble. Reading is usually not that big of a problem, either. They share most their word origins, and the verb tenses are similar in their structures.

But not identical.

Words like “burro” (butter), “salire” (go up) o “genero” (son-in-law) in Italian; “suceso” (event), “vaso” (glass) or “aceite” (oil) in Spanish; and “cena” (scene), criança (child) or “seta” (arrow) in Portuguese; they are all tiny examples that can confuse a translator to the point of delivering a final product that can only be good for a laugh. And whereas that might sound fun for a hobby, it is simply not acceptable for a professional translation agency. After all, they can mean the difference between a choppy job and a translation that can grant you trust and more potential clients.

That is why it is a professional translator’s and proofreader's job to be aware of this, and to put into a translation all the care and the caution that it deserves, even –or maybe “even more so” would be more fitting- when it is a translation from a language that is especially similar to one's own. Because we are not doing something that just looks and sounds “right”. We are providing a service that only we can do, and our knowledge, our added value, is key.

And if you are not sure that you can deal with all of this, then don’t be shy to admit it. Always focus on what you do best: don’t go wandering into uncharted territory when you don’t have a proper map. If you are fluent in only two languages, then stick to those.

Better to deliver one high quality product than a thousand mediocre ones, right?

iWL and FIFA: the new team for the World Cup!

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!!

inWhatLanguage goes to Brazil!

For those of us who knew inWhatLanguage when it was still a tiny new company trying to find a place in the competitive world of translation services, it is truly amazing to see how the agency has grown – in size, in reach, and in reputation.

This is, of course, thanks to the collective effort of the amazing iWL team. Each and every member of the iWL family does his/her bit to turn the company into one of the best, most reliable translation agencies one can find out there.

There is, though, a factor of chance, as well. Or a factor of chance-taking, perhaps. Great opportunities don’t come in huge numbers, and that makes it all the more important to realize when one comes your way. Such is the case of iWL’s latest adventure: a visit to the wonderful country of Brazil.

iWL CEO Cody Broderick didn’t hesitate when he was offered the chance to go there on a trade mission with the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development to promote Utah, along with approximately 30 more people from different industries of the state. Not only was it a great opportunity to discover the wonders that this paradisiacal country has to offer, but also “to create new relationships, explore business opportunities, help represent the state, and most importantly, explore and open new business development ideas for iWL,” Broderick states.

In the six days that iWL CEO was in Brazil (September 22nd – 28th), he got to visit Sao Paulo, Campinas, Curitiba, Londrina, and Rio de Janeiro. In each of these cities, he met with government officials, and discussed ways in which they couldn collaborate for business opportunities. “These discussions included every sector I can think of: gas and oil, finance, energy, telecom, agriculture, retail, services, etcetera,” Broderick explains. “After these talks, we attended dinner and networking events in the evenings."

“Business ideas and collaborations were definitely flowing!” Cody Broderick adds. “It helped to mention that we work with IBM, Harvard, MIT, and other reputable organizations that already have a presence in Brazil.”

That, and the fact that Broderick speaks fluent Brazilian Portuguese. In the true spirit of a professional translation agency, he got to speak with the locals in their own language, achieving a degree of closeness befitting of the Hard at work!representative of inWhatLanguage. Sure enough, though, not everything was business-related: “The people, weather, food, and cities were all wonderful!” Broderick stresses emphatically.

“I am grateful for the relationships I created with the other Utah delegation members and I’m confident that we will have a lot of business that will come from this adventure,” he concludes. “It truly was a trip of a lifetime!”