iWL celebrates the World Cup!

Photo from FIFA.com.

The eyes of the whole world are set on Brazil, since the soccer World Cup has finally started!

For inWhatLanguage, Brazil is not just one of the most beautiful countries in the world – it also holds important ties to our translation agency, both personal and business-related. Some months ago, iWL CEO Cody Broderick had 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 other people from different industries of the state. This helped Broderick develop some very interesting new business relations and discover a world of opportunities.

We also are proud to offer top-quality Portuguese translation services, highly localized and for very affordable prices, and best of all, with all the perks that come from working with a family-structured company like ours.

But that is not all: the World Cup is also a very special occasion for iWL! As we have informed you some months back, one of our most important clients is… FIFA, the international governing body of association football(soccer), futsal and beach soccer!  It feels like yesterday, but it was in fact last Autumn when we started translating its materials into 10+ languages in preparation for the upcoming World Cup. Now, the big championship is here, and we cannot help but feel proud. We contributed to its communication campaigns by making them comprehensible for the whole world!

Once again, our dear iWL linguist demonstrated their talent and translating skills as they gave their all to a project that was not only overwhelming in size, but also in content. Football, or soccer, is not only a sport: it is a whole world of its own, and it has a very specific “dialect” in each and every one of the languages our linguist had to work with. Football terminology is no walk in the park, and in order to do it right, each linguist had to have a heavy base of knowledge –which doesn’t mean that they didn’t learn anything new on the way! Just to illustrate what I’m trying to say, here is an actual Glossary ofFootball Words and Expressions taken from UsingEnglish.com.

But now we are finally reaping the rewards. All that effort was worth it, and now we can all enjoy the emotion of the games with the satisfaction of having been part of it by doing what we love and do best: translation.

Team Riley & iWL Cares: An epic combination for posterity!

Go iWL!

And the day came! As we have announced last week, this Saturday, young Riley Culley’s family had organized a race to raise money to help with the cost of medical expenses after Riley was diagnosed with bone cancer. The campaign turned out to be not only a lot of fun, but also extremely successful!

“I have been struggling for days to find the right words to express my gratitude and appreciation for all of the love, generosity, service, kindness, friendship, inspiration, and support from the most amazing community in the world. We are so blessed. This event was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced!” Young Riley’s mother, Jackey Culley, posted this message in Facebook after the event was over.

Many people answered Culley’s call for help, among whom was, of course, the inWhatLanguage family. As part of one of our iWL Cares initiatives, the members of the core team that were available ran in the race, enjoyed a gorgeous day out and got to meet some amazing people, all the while of course contributing to the fund for young Riley’s treatment.

“It was great! Such an incredible thing for us to be a part of. It was my first 5k and I may have finished last but I finished!” says iWL Office Manager Erin Millet with a big smile.

“Being involved in such a great cause is always such an amazing experience,” adds Natalie Herrera, iWL's Book Keeper. “Knowing that we where a small portion of contributing to the fight in Riley's battle was rewarding and made every step we took even more meaningful. There is something about being around others who want to do good that makes you want to thrive, to be the best person that you can be. It was a great day and we wish Riley the best!”

“It’s always great to be involved in the cause of making someone’s life better, or at least offer some relief,” says Maurice von Zutphen, iWL Vice President of Operations and Project Management. “But in the case where someone is fighting for his life, it is especially rewarding to offer support beyond the financial. The moral dedication and hope that is generated can offer great therapy. I am always impressed with how local communities (neighbors, friends, families, school, student body, rival schools…) respond in such a time of need.”

The iWL team members brought their families along, and they all enjoyed a fabulous day of exercise and fun, taking part also in the activities after the race: for instance, iWL CEO Cody Broderick bid on a University of Utah helmet that was signed by the coaches of the University of Utah and won. A little memento of a magical day for everyone!

We wish young Riley the best of the best, and we are really honored to help him in this time of need!

And now... Picture time!!

Cody reaches the finish line! Congrats!	And there goes Erin! Go team iWL!
From left to right: Natalie Herrera, Cody Broderick, Erin Millet.	Erin Millet, Cody Broderick and Maurice von Zutphen.

From left to right: (Front) Front: Vanessa and Marcus Broderick. (Back) Jackie Cullie,

Brian Bodine, Cody Broderick, Riley Culley, Mark Broderick

with Luke Broderick and Nicki Bodine.

inWhatLanguage Cares runs for Riley!

“Senior Riley Culley had his future planned out for himself. After helping lead Bingham High School’s football team to a 14-0 undefeated season and state championship, he looked forward to graduating, serving an LDS mission for two years, and attending Dixie State University with a football scholarship. These plans were interrupted, however, when Riley was diagnosed with bone cancer."

This is the story of Riley Culley, young football player who has suddenly had a dramatic change in his life, as told by The Prospector, the student news site of Bingham High School. (You can read the whole article here.) From a daily routine full of energy, football games and teen excitement, Riley now faces a daily challenge of fighting cancer, along with the adverse secondary effects that result from its treatment.

“Undergoing chemotherapy for the Ewing’s sarcoma, or bone cancer, will make a large impact on Riley’s future,” continues the article. “Not only can it affect his physical abilities, such as simple activities like walking, but he won’t be able to play football, attend college, or serve an LDS mission for at least a year and a half”.

A 5K race has been planned for the 31st of May to raise funds for the Culleys, and in hearing this, inWhatLanguage Cares hasn’t hesitated to snap into action. This Saturday, all the members of the iWL team that can make it will participate in this race, as well as their available relatives and friends, contributing to Riley’s cause not only financially, but also by spreading awareness and bringing as much people in as possible.

We would like to ask you to help Riley as well by participating in this race, where you won’t only be helping a courageous teenager to get healthy and enjoy a long and happy life, but you will also have the opportunity to do some exercise and have a lot of fun with a great number of awesome people! GO team RILEY!

How to make join the race you ask? All you have to do is next Saturday, May 31st, at 7:30 am head out to the Bingham High School (2160 West 10400 South, South Jordan UT 84095) for your sign in, registration and T-shirt pick up. Also, following the race, there will be a silent auction, raffles, giveaways, face painting, henna tattoos, cotton candy, glitter tattoos, character drawings and a massive bake sale. To sum up: fun for the whole family!

We hope to see you there!!

iWL goes to The Great Salt Lake Business Conference!

Picture -- Brian Palmer says hi!

“Time and time again Utah is ranked tops in the nation as a place to do business, including the last three years as Forbes Magazine's ‘Best State for Business and Careers.’ What makes Utah business so great? It's the people. And in an age of digital everything, you'll also discover that nothing beats a good, face-to-face conversation among great people.”

So reads the presentation text for The Great Salt Lake Business Conference that took place last week (May 13th -14th). It is a statement that rings true and very familiar: in the case of inWhatLanguage, a company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, it’s the human capital what makes our translation agency so great and unique. Hence, it is not all that surprising that inWhatLanguage, for the second time, took part in this huge Business and Technology Expo – the first time around was earlier this year in Orem, Utah.

“We had a great location in the Expo and there was a lot of foot traffic,” says iWL Sr. Account Executive Brian Palmer, who was present at the inWhatLanguage stand (as you can see in the picture) in the conference. “We were able to connect with a lot of local businesses and reconnect with a lot of contacts. It was a blast meeting with so many local businesses, small and large. We had a lot of really good discussions and we were able spread some inWhatLanguage cheer throughout the Expo,” he says with a smile.

Not only was The Great Salt Lake Business Conference an amazing place to meet tons of interesting people from different companies, but also the perfect opportunity to get some exceedingly useful pointers for our very own agency. The Expo was partly focused on new technologies such as software Apps, and that is an especially meaningful area for iWL to explore right now.

Our firm can translate all forms of multimedia, whether it's a web conference presentation, a global training video, or an interactive Flash demo for any website, and mobile Apps are a field we are currently working particularly hard in. Apps are the present and the future, and there is an undeniable demand for them in all languages all over the world with specific localization and technical know-how requirements.

Our translation team understands the importance of providing leading experts in all file types and technologies who can consistently recreate and adapt your multimedia translation project for any language and/or international market. No matter the format, no matter the subject matter, no matter the linguistic or cultural targets, inWhatLanguage will translate and localize your multimedia content with unparalleled speed and accuracy.

And in order to keep up the quality of our services, iWL will continue to attend conferences and expos like The Great Salt Lake Business Conference – not only to learn from the experts, but also… Because it’s a lot of fun!

The iWL ripple effect: the true purpose of inWhatLanguage

iWL's CEO, Cody Broderick 

As a translation agency, inWhatLanguage is definitely one of the best options out there: we deliver fast, reliable translation services in more than a hundred different languages with localized and specialized vocabulary thanks to our worldwide network of linguists. That in itself is pretty remarkable, but iWL is much more than that.

Our customers soon find out that what really makes us different is the fact that we are a team that firmly believes in what we do, that enjoys improving our skills every day, and that has a lot of fun doing what we love. And later on, they also discover something even more amazing: our true goal beyond all that. “I want the company to grow every year, and as we grow in scale, I want to use the company as a vehicle for philanthropy, for creating a positive impact in other people’s lives,” explains iWL CEO, Cody Broderick.

The young CEO likes to call it “the ripple effect”: when a drop falls on a lake’s surface, it produces a ripple that starts small and then keeps expanding. “I want to create a massive ripple everywhere around the world, starting with short-term goal and moving on to long-term successes. It’s a really big vision, but Rome wasn’t built in one day.”

One would think that, in order to make Broderick’s vision come true, the company must have a clockwork like structure and a list of everyday goals that get checked off as the day goes by. And here is the magic of iWL and its team: while perfectly structured and with very well defined goals, the staff still has time to have fun and enjoy their profession.

You want proof? Well, check these out…

Warning!! Warning!! Behold! The inWhatLanguage offices

have turned into a battlefield!

For a working environment, no one can deny that this looks like a lot of fun. And this can only happen in a place where the employees feel valued and satisfied. 

“Each team member knows that their role is really important. When you go to a company that has thousands of employees, what you do feels minimal- it doesn’t look like you are making an impact at all,” explains Broderick.

Take cover, for the attack of the Nerf
guns is imminent! :D

“But when you come to a family-oriented business that believes in its people and that clearly communicates that every single video message, phone call, email, blog or social media post or newsletter is dramatically important, the employees feel recognized – because they are. They are a vital part of the business.”

“In other words, we just love what we do. It’s so much fun!” concludes Broderick with a smile.

Spanish translation services: Bienvenidos a inWhatLanguage!

Reading the press for language-related news, today I stumbled onto an article from Business Insider with the following image:

The article goes on to show the most commonly spoken languages in the United States other than English and Spanish (German would be the third), but I have to admit that I didn’t spent much time reading the rest, as I was pretty much struck by that first map. Spanish EVERYWHERE.

According to Wikipedia, “approximately 414 million people speak Spanish as a native language, making it second only to Mandarin in terms of its number of native speakers worldwide. More than 500 million speakers as a first and second language and 20 million students as a foreign language. Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and is used as an official language by the European Union and Mercosur.”

Also, “Spanish is the most widely understood language in the Western Hemisphere, with significant populations of native Spanish speakers ranging from the tip of Patagonia to as far north as Canada and since the early 21st century, it has arguably superseded French as the second-most-studied language and the second language in international communication, after English.”

So, to sum up: Spanish is VERY important in our world today.

However, as a native Spanish speaker myself –and a perfectionist linguist I must admit-, I easily recognize mistakes in Spanish texts, especially when they have been translated. Not long ago, I actually picked up a magazine during a flight and started reading it for pleasure, but ended up scanning it in order to identify translation mistakes.

English-to-Spanish translation is not as easy as many people seem to think; it’s full of little nuances and obstacles that only experienced experts are able to overcome. It is certainly noticeable when a translation job has been poorly done, or even worse, it’s been done with an automatic translator.

The solution to avoid these problems? One must count on the best linguists out there and the most strict proofreaders for a guaranteed high-quality, fluent, localized translation that sounds perfectly natural and looks flawless to the most trained of eyes. Finding such a goldmine is not an easy task, but luckily there are translation agencies that can do this for you.

And if you want to be sure that you got the best Spanish translation services for an affordable price and quick delivery times, inWhatLanguage is the agency you need to go for. Why? Because here every Spanish language translation project is treated with the same degree of quality and precision, which is why our firm has one of the best reputations in the language translation industry for customer satisfaction and quality translations overall.

¡Les esperamos!

iWL takes little Lilly Alldredge to a world of magic!

It's coronation day!

This month, we are extremely happy about something that doesn’t have anything to do with company growth, project management or languages. inWhatLanguage was able to help a wonderful little girl and bring a smile to her face, even in the roughest of situations in one of our inWhatLanguage Cares initiatives.

Recently we came into contact with the six-year-old Lilly Alldredge, who unfortunately got sick last December. On February 12th she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. This type of Leukemia has a survival rate of 89-95%, but the treatment can last up to 2-2 ½ years. She has not been able to attend school since she was diagnosed with the illness, and she also has to severely limit her contact with other people as her immune system has been compromised. Tiffany, Lilly’s mom, had to quit her job in order to stay home with Lilly. They spend a lot of time driving back and forth from the hospital and doctors visits.

The situation is not ideal for Lilly and her family, but they have managed to move forwards with admirable spirit and strength – something that is clearly noticeable in Lilly’s blog, a true testimony of a little girl’s journey through this hard time of her life.

When inWhatLanguage found out about Lilly and her condition, we decided to step up and offer what little help we could provide for her and her family. We gave her parents some gift cards that can help with the gas bills and help them cover the costs of multiple drives they must take each week to and from medical appointments. We also brought Lilly a pool to use in her yard, as well as a huge pack of bubbles for her to have fun with her little sister, Emery, who is almost 2 years old. They are the best of friends.

But the best was yet to come: we were able to have Princess Elsa, from the Disney movie Frozen, come with us on this visit!

The girls and the Princess: and unforgettable day!

The girls and the Princess:
an unforgettable day!

It was an incredible experience to watch Elsa and Lilly interact. They sang, they danced and read a book together. Lilly is also learning to play the piano, and she was able to play part of the famous song “Let it Go” from the movie, while Princess Elsa sang. Princess Elsa commented that this is the first time anyone had played it for her!

At the end of our visit they sang “Let it Go” together and it brought tears to the people present! Princess Elsa gave both Lilly and Emery crowns to commemorate the day and she crowned Lilly as Queen Lilly :)

“I think all of us recognized how amazing Lilly and her family are!” says iWL Office Manager Erin Millet. “That night, after we did this, I received this text from Lilly’s mom, Tiffany: Thank you again for today!! Lilly is still talking about how she can’t believe the REAL ELSA came to her house!! It’s good to see her happy! Thank you!! I saw them the next night as well. Lilly had chemo that day and Tiffany said she could not stop telling everyone about her visit from Princess Elsa! She told everyone she came in contact with all about it”.

The visit from Princess Elsa was truly a moving experience for everyone, and Lilly has recorded it for posterity in a beautiful entry in her personal blog. iWL could not be more pleased to have been able to leave a mark on this amazing little girl’s life, that will continue to be, for sure, full of fantastic adventures in the future.