Tag: Questions for LocPros

On peut se tutoyer? The impossible task of conveying complex concepts...

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?

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.

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?

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.