HT Localization Blog Anniversary! Another Year of Language Translations for Real Life

Segment 37 – This Summer Has Brought Another Anniversary - HT Localization’s International Blog!

These past weeks, kids across the country embrace the back to school ritual. Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end to summer… a return to crisp autumn mornings, school day routines, and the packing away of summer clothes.  Reflecting on this past summer, I fondly recount the days visiting museums, parks, beaches, family, friends and those lazy pool filled days (and evenings) – catching a cool splash.  This summer closes with another successful vacation, two taller kids, and more frequent flyer miles…but also, another anniversary year of our successful international blog...

Looking back on last year’s anniversary blog entry, I am reminded as to why I started writing this blog series: Language Translations for Real Life - A series articulating multi-lingual influences on the modern life.  Reviewing an old press release from two years ago, I was quoted as saying “Our goal is ‘to make it real’… share some of my personal experiences and observations on how language and translations are impacting lives, at the very least, this should make for some interesting reading”. 

Well, I hope I haven’t disappointed anyone this past year with my epics (some funny, some business, some just because I felt moved to write it…)

So what will I write about this year?  Now that I've lived in Madrid for 5 years (I suppose I can’t continue to claim that I'm a newbie here)… Why don’t I write more business -“how to localized better”- articles like other translation companies out there?  Well, I suppose I will continue to do some of that, but the reality of it is that I enjoy writing about language, culture, and experiences; which naturally intersects with translations and localization practices.  So luckily, I get to mingle topics, add a little spice to our professional blog, and continue to entertain readers.  I'm not trying to win a Pulitzer, or compete with the blog gods or the Goliath of localization firms out there, I'm simply writing what I like, and hoping to share with others, and maybe bring a smile to some faces.

In that spirit, let me share some of my experiences from this summer…

I met up with some old university girlfriends in D.C. for our annual “Gigglefest” reunion.  Granted, we’re all professional women with families now, and well into that marketing demographic range of 35-45 years old, but when we get together – we just cannot stop giggling like 20 year-old school girls.  Anyways, I had not been back to the D.C. metro area for many years, so the ethnic diversity made me so happy.   I decided to “try-out” my new Madrid Spanish accent on the locals just for fun (for an entire evening, with every new person met, I only conversed in Spanish). 

To my delight, this opened up a whole different flavor of America:

• Learning secretly from Abuela - I met a young man, whose mother is Puerto Rican, but refused to speak Spanish in the home – so that her kids (this young man and his siblings), would only know perfect American English. However, he still spoke/understood Spanish (albeit with an American accent) because his abuela (grandmother) – who helped raised him - insisted on speaking only Spanish to him as a child, despite his mother's objections.

• I play for Team USA! - There was a little boy, whose mother is an ESL teacher and is Argentinian/Puerto Rican mix, and father is Thai/Chinese/American mix. The child loved the World Cup Games, cheered on Team USA, didn't understand any Spanish, and refused to try speaking Spanish at all. My son played soccer with him as "Messi" and the boy was "Dempsey".

• Cute as a button! - I met a nice security guard, originally from Cuba, married to a German lady, and living DC with their young daughter.  At home, they speak English, German and Spanish with the child. He had a photo of his daughter – an adorable little blond child with tan skin and light brown eyes...the spicy little apple of his eye.

• Bastille Day in Fredericksburg -  I was wandering in Virginia, when I saw all these French flags... I thought, wait it was just the Fourth of July... Did I take a wrong turn somewhere?  I met a Canadian French lady living in the area for over 25 years... she said that their town has a sister town in France - hence the celebration. Naturally, I switched to French and she switched to European French, rather than continuing in her native Canadian variety for me…

• Polyglot Police Officer - Perhaps the kicker, was when I went to the DMV where I overheard a police officer at the information station speaking to a lady in English, then when he received no response, he tried again in perfect Spanish – to which the lady gave a huge smile and response.  Later, I overheard that same police officer make a call on his cell phone in Thai…

Well, there you go! That's a taste of America!  Thanks again to all my readers for making my international blog a success. I’m looking forward to a great new season of blogging. Keep sending your comments and suggestions. I love to read them, and appreciate the inspiration; and most of all thank you for sharing, liking and re-tweeting.

  … Stay tuned for the next Segment of HT Localization Presents Language Translations for Real Life Series, where we’ll continue … with more stuff.

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This article was written by Rachanee Thevenet, Co-Founder of HT Localization.  Rachanee is an Asian-American expat living in Spain with her family.  She loves all things international including food, art, literature, culture, languages and people.  She has years of professional product marketing expertise and global expansion experience.

HT Localization, LLC. is a worldwide translation & localization agency providing a full range of professional language translation services, including social media localization, marketing translations, website translations, software localization, eLearning materials, documentation translations, etc.  With locations in the US, Spain, France, Zambia & Thailand, and coverage across all languages and most industries, HT Localization is well positioned to provide around the globe services for all translation needs.  

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