Stefan Huyghe
Stefan Huyghe is Vice President of Localization at Communicaid Inc. where he focuses on running high-level operations, workflow optimization, database development, social selling and community building. He has over 20 years of experience working in the language industry is fluent in Dutch, French, German, and English.
Solving the language gap in scientific research
It estimated that non-English language research could expand the geographical coverage of biodiversity scientific evidence by 12% to 25% and the number of species covered by 5% to 32%. All this raises a pressing question: Just how much scientific research is being obscured due to language barriers?
Tetyana Struk: LSP work during wartime
At the beginning of this month, Tetyana Struk sent her husband off to war with a heartbreaking post on social media. In between bomb alarms, she made time for us to tell us what it is like to manage a localization firm from war torn Ukraine.
Eight tips to launch your app abroad
Most of the potential market or audience across the world does not speak English as a native language. Would you buy a product in a language you don’t understand?
The Russian Z: from military identifier to pro-war symbol
All language uses symbols for representation and classification, just like names. But these symbols' meaning can rapidly evolve, and the Russian Z launched during the invasion of Ukraine is a perfect example of such dynamic language significance.
Working in a warzone: LSP manager Maria Malykhina shares her story
MultiLingual reached out to Ukrainian LocLunch ambassador and Localization Production Manager Maria Malykhina to see how she was doing and how we could help.
German interpreter breaks into tears while interpreting for Zelensky
In a press conference given by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today, the Ukrainian-German interpreter couldn’t help but break into tears on live TV at the end of the president’s speech.
On peut se tutoyer? The impossible task of conveying complex concepts in limited space
With more foreign language content coming to popular streaming platforms like Netflix, the art of subtitle translation continues to be front and center. Have you also noticed how, sometimes, localization is an impossible task?
Meta announces new real-time translation projects
The ambitious aim is to create real-time translation technologies that include everyone in the world by teaching AI to translate hundreds of spoken and written languages.
Doric-speaking MRI scanner eases patient worries
The University of Aberdeen in Scotland decided to run a £1.2 million upgrade to their MRI scanner. Supporting 17 languages including Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, and French, the language offerings now also includes Doric, or Northeast Scots.
Employee experience: the new company-health barometer?
Customer experience has long been touted as the ultimate barometer for the health of companies, but isn’t the employee experience just as foundational to business performance? Improving your brand or product and building a strong customer experience certainly requires the support of your employees.
The Era of Localization Influencers is Here
People buy from people. Although word-of-mouth marketing has been around since the beginning of time, it is only with the advent of social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram that it truly gained the proper reach to have an impact globally. It now accounts for $6 trillion of annual consumer spending and is estimated to account for 13% of consumer sales. That is a lot of talking power.
Looking to engage localization clients? Take a cue from social media!
If you have a message you want to test drive, social media is a great way to gauge public perception. Feedback about how your message is perceived will be instant.
Why Chinese New Year means two weeks off
Every winter, close to 17% of the world ‘s population, including more than 1 billion Chinese citizens, celebrate Chinese New Year. The 15-day festival, also known as the spring festival, kicks off on the second new moon after the winter solstice.
Questions for LocPros: Do you have an accent?
Are you speaking a second, third, or even fourth language fluently? Chances are, like me, no matter how hard you try, it is difficult to speak completely without a foreign accent.
Foreign press struggles to make Pork Pie Plot header make sense abroad
For the second time this month the international press is having fun trying to get a translation in the world of politics right, or, in this case, get it into proper context. This time around, it’s the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who's in trouble and throwing international translators for a bit of a loop.
How do you deal with your difficult name?
Do you have an unpronounceable, weird sounding, long or complex name? How do you deal? Have you given up or doubled down on the original name you were given? Do you have a cool name story to share?
What niche skills make your job easier?
Have you also found that, very often, it is not your basic educational credentials but specialized niche skills that can make the biggest difference professionally?
Macron trips up translators
The controversy started when President Macron used the verb “emmerder” in an interview with Le Parisien. He was quoted as saying: “J’ai très envie d’emmerder les non-vaccinés,” voicing his intent to make the lives of the non-vaccinated difficult.
New Year celebrations around the world
Historians estimate civilizations around the world have been commemorating the New Year for about 4,000 years. Humans developed increasingly sophisticated calendars, typically pinning the first day of the year to an agricultural or astronomical event.
What’s your Christmas tree tradition? The origins of a holiday symbol
As far as we can tell, the use of the first modern Christmas tree was developed in medieval Livonia, in current day Latvia and Estonia. Tallinn claims to have set the first modern Christmas tree ceremoniously on fire in their town square in 1441, while Riga claims to have done the same thing in 1510. The latter still has a plaque commemorating the occasion.
Do you ever give your customers international business advice?
One of the toughest tasks has been to bite my tongue when advice falls outside of the linguistic realm. Luckily, I have close relationships with a lot of my business partners, so I occasionally contribute to their success with some key recommendations. What are some of the things you wish you could consult your clientele about when it comes to starting an international expansion?
Kentucky Fried Chicken, Krampus, and more global Christmas traditions
Yuka Kurihara shared that growing up in Japan, she always looked forward to her family's traditional Christmas meal: a KFC "party barrel" brimming with salad, cake and lots of fried chicken. According to Statista, no less than 58.2% of Japanese eat fried chicken at Christmas.
SignAloud gloves
When you first read about the SignAloud glove, a high-tech device to automate sign language, it’s easy to feel like the future is finally here. However, although a technological feat, it seems the real needs of the Deaf community might have been overlooked. Is this a feel-good story or not-so-fast? As so often, unfortunately, the reality seems to be a bit more complex.
Inglehart-Welzel: Are Belgium and the United States truly cultural neighbors?
Are you familiar with the Inglehart-Welzel World Cultural Map? Upon coming across it for the first time, I was intrigued to find that, according to the World Values Survey Association's most recent research data, the two countries I am most familiar with — Belgium and the United States — were determined to be some of the closest cultural neighbors.