LATEST ISSUE

March 2025

Francesca Di Marco: Embracing and Leveraging Diverse Communities

For Women’s History Month, MultiLingual magazine highlights some of the amazing ladies in the language industry, presenting insights on such topics as service differentiation, language digitization, and the power of terminology in AI. We also speak with Francesca Di Marco, Head of Internationalization at Pinterest, about how to wield the power of language for positive ends.

Post Editing

s I write this editorial, I’m nine months pregnant with my second child. As a distinctly feminine experience, pregnancy serves as a constant reminder of womanhood and brings with it a host of changes — some beautiful, some difficult, and some needing accommodation.

The childbearing process is one of the unique challenges affecting women’s lives in both the personal and professional spheres. Others include encountering gender bias, a lack of supportive policies, and even possibly sexual harassment. While society has made great progress toward gender equality, many women continue to face hardships related to their sex over the course of their careers.

That’s why I believe it’s still important to deliberately recognize women’s contributions to the workplace and make a point to celebrate their professional accomplishments. Every March, in honor of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, MultiLingual magazine highlights some of the amazing ladies in the language industry. This year, we feature Pinterest’s Francesca Di Marco, showcase Women in Localization’s top volunteers, and present insights from female authors on topics ranging from service differentiation and language digitization to menopause.

So, cheers to all the lady linguists and localizers! Together, let’s strive to uplift their voices and create inclusive spaces for them to thrive.

Column

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News by Hand

By Tim Brookes

Why would anyone handwrite a newspaper? The Musalman — a four-page Urdu paper that has been written, every day, by hand ever since it was founded in 1927 — suggests that the act of writing by hand (and its sister act, the act of reading handwriting), incorporates far more than the mere transmission of information.

Perspectives

Catalan Literary Translation and the Need to Prioritize Minority Languages

By Ismenia Miranda

The author explores questions related to literary translation quality in Catalonia and greater Spain, urging the publishing and localization industries to consider the social and cultural costs of excluding minority languages.

Menopause: A Conversation Long Overdue

By Sophie Solomon

Like mental health, pregnancy, and parental leave, menopause is a workplace issue that should be openly discussed to ensure that stigma or a lack of accommodations doesn’t result in industries, economies, and society as a whole losing some of its most seasoned, insightful, and resilient minds.

BUSINESS

Translation at the Center

A strategy for better service differentiation

By Sara Palmer

The author presents her research on service diversification in the marketing translation sector and proposes a new differentiation model based on a broader definition of translation that clearly encompasses related services.

profile

Francesca Di Marco

Embracing and leveraging diverse communities

Interview by Cameron Rasmusson

Francesca Di Marco, Head of Internationalization at Pinterest, discusses her journey into the field of internationalization, which was influenced by her upbringing in Italy and her academic background in Japanese history. She emphasizes the importance of understanding culture, history, and language in building global communities.

Language Access

The Essential Role of Language Digitization in Combatting Global Poverty

By Ludmila Golovine

Through broader accessibility of digital technology along with newly established international initiatives, marginalized language communities now have a path towards bridging the digital divide that keeps billions in poverty. In this article, the author argues that the language industry is uniquely positioned to play a major role in this transformation.

Community

Meet Women in Localization’s Top Volunteers

Including STAR Award winner Sıla Alan

By Luisa Serra

Women in Localization (WL)’s 2024 Kudos and STAR Award winners are some of the organization’s most standout volunteers. In this article, WL celebrates their indispensable contributions that inspire excellence and help propel the organization forward.

Artificial Intelligence

Terminology in the Age of AI

By Kara Warburton

Long-standing principles and practices of terminology as a discipline are perfectly suited for developing the semantic resources necessary for various natural language processing (NLP) applications, including generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). To ensure that their contributions are leveraged, terminology managers need to shift the focus of their work from “terminology for translators” to “microcontent for applications.”