What are we up to in week 18?

on May 04 in Interpretation, Proof reading, Transcription, Translation, Typesetting tagged by

Missed updating last week, sorry! Anyway, THIS week we’re having lots of fun…

  • Rescued a (very embarrassed) new client’s website – they’d machine-translated it via the web, launched it in country, and had terrible feedback (surprise!) just DAYS before a national newspaper published their advertorial. We had only 3 days to re-translate the pages into proper French before stuff hit the fan for them – we did of course, and a happy client tells us they’re now swamped in enquiries!
  • Delivered lovely big Health & Safety project – 80000 words in 3 languages in 6 weeks for a global blue-chip
  • Biscuits galore, with 8 new projects landing in the last week – busy generally on Food & Drink translation (including lots of typesetting) at the moment
  • Hospital and legal interpreting all over the place (of course) – Urdu, Cantonese, Polish, Italian, Turkish, Bengali, Lithuanian and Gujarati (and that’s just today!)
  • 13000 word proof reading project for an online portal in 5 languages
  • Finishing transcription of a 5-day international conference in Finland – just in time for a 3-day one to land!

And updated our main webpages for Google’s new +1 widget – look forward to seeing the effects of that! We’ll shortly be firing up our web Guestbooks too – we’ll post and tweet when these are live of course

That’s far from everything, but probably enough for now – should post another update next week!

So what did BPW ever do for me then? Well? – er, quite a lot actually

on May 03 in People tagged by

Our MD Lynn Everson attended the National Conference of Business and Professional Women (BPW) in Chester. A huge BPW fan, she writes about the organisation and what it’s done for her and for others

“Look – attack things with your eyes.  See them fiercely.  Hear everything.  Ignore nothing.”

Terrence McNally, “A perfect Ganesh” (quote collected in April 1999)

 

One of the best rules for living by I’ve ever encountered, this ethos seems central to Spanish telephone etiquette with a caller opening the conversation “Oigame” (“Pin your ears back!”) to which the recipient meekly responds “Dígame” (“Let me have it!”).

A friend of mine – an international trucker – once told me the same while hauling 20 tonnes of onions back from Spain “Don’t miss anything!  Whatever you’re doing, keep your eyes open and ears pricked – your next BIG opportunity could be just around the corner!”  Ever since, I’ve collected quotes like these and tried to live by them – and I’m baffled how anyone can fall asleep on buses or trains, there’s always so much new stuff out there to learn!

We all have unmissable dates we book into our calendar every year.  For me, the national BPW Conference (www.bpwuk.co.uk) is one and I’m just back from this year’s event at the Hilton Doubletree in Chester.   Business & Professional Women is a fantastic international organisation (www.bpw-international.org) –  I’ve been a member since 1989, and it’s given me enormous support in both my business and my personal development.

When I lost my job the same year, members who barely knew me would take me to club meetings, helping me rebuild my shattered self-esteem.  Guest speakers inspired us, describing how they built their successful companies, and BPW also trained us on public speaking and hosting formal dinners for hundreds of guests and local dignitaries – I did both, including hosting a Single Europe Event and several black tie dinners (very good for your confidence!).  BPW essentially convinced me that I really could make my dream happen, and I started Lifeline as a telephone interpreting service for truck drivers the following year.  We featured in the local and national press and I travelled the UK building a client base and speaking at BPW events.

 

Meanwhile, BPW generously awarded me 2 sets of funding: the MacLaren Award to attend European Conference in Vienna, and the International Award to return to Spain to develop my undergraduate dissertation research into the consequences of women joining the ranks of the Civil Guard and National Police (which was revolutionary back then – under General Franco women had to ask their husbands’ permission to travel out of their home area).  Partly thanks to BPW’s assistance I’ve retained this lifelong interest in the interface between police and public, which went on to form the theme of my dissertation for my Masters degree in Translation, graduating from the University of Bristol in 2010.

As well as the intensive networking and mentoring at BPW, the organization’s international dimension means we learn a great deal about the status and roles of women around the world, and the fantastic part BPW plays in global affairs (which includes Consultative Status at the UN and CSW). As importantly to members, we also have a great deal of fun – this year’s event was no exception!

 

BPW represents a tremendous force for good worldwide – with no political, denominational or other bias and members drawn from most communities on earth, BPW really does succeed in drawing together the will of its members for positive change. It’s done a lot for me personally and for many women I know – so if you’re a professional woman, anywhere and any age, reading this (or you know some) and are looking for something that will help you to develop yourself AND help women worldwide to access opportunities they may otherwise never see, why not look for your local BPW group and give it a go? Here’s a great place to start: www.bpwuk.co.uk

 

I’ll close with a few snippets from conference:

  • 12.5% of board members in UK FTSE companies are women (but it’s 32% in Norway…)
  • There are only 4 centres in the UK for male rape victims (as against 38 for women).
  • People find Community Support Officers a reassuring presence on the streets (there’s that police fascination again!).
  • Leymah Gbowee from Liberia was one of 3 Nobel Peace Prizewinners in 2011

But the most important piece of advice…

  • You have to store hats upside down in their boxes (or else the rims go soft!)

 

 

 

What are we up to in week 16??

on Apr 19 in Interpretation, Language, Transcription, Translation, Typesetting, Uncategorized tagged by

Welcome to our first weekly update! We’ve tried to tweet the major stuff before – and partially succeeded  – but now there’s just waaaay toooooo much happening and you can’t say a lot with 140 characters. So instead, every week or so we’ll try to blog a round-up of stuff we’re doing that may be of interest and tweet THAT instead – but we’ll still be tweeting other good bits so don’t stop watching.

So THIS week we have…

… and more. Plus, this week we’re at the UK National Conference of Business & Professional Women – this is a leading international women’s organisation, with Consultative Status at the UN. This year the event’s in Chester, and BPW NW region are proud to host this excellent networking forum. This follows their International Conference held in Helsinki.

 

But, busy = good!

 

Back next week with more… if we get time!

Our MD on video!

on Apr 18 in People, Uncategorized tagged by

You don’t often see an MD on camera like this – here’s ours, Lynn Everson MA (Dist). As well as holding exceptional language qualifications  (she’s a full Member of BOTH the Institute of Translation and Interpreting AND a full Member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists – you really don’t find many linguists this qualified!), she’s also a fully-qualified International Transport Manager holding a full International CPC – she spent several years bouncing trucks around Europe before setting up Lifeline. You can read all about us here!

You don’t find many like her – here she’s talking about who we are and what we do, why we really ARE the USER-FRIENDLY language company, and why we really are different.

If you’ve got pop-ups blocked by the way you may need to override them – usually you just need to hold down Ctrl when you click the link.

Lifeline’s a member of the High Growth Foundation, who were good enough to handle the video side for us – they’re great people, and you can learn much more about HGF here.

And HERE’S the video – enjoy! It’s high-res so best watched full-screen, just click the “four corner box” thingy at bottom-right of the video window.

If they’re shooting at you…

on Apr 02 in Interpretation, People tagged by

… you must be doing something right! These words from classic series The West Wing are apt today as we’ve experienced attempted sabotage and other stuff in recent days.

Sabotage in the form of a rather unsubtle hospital interpreting “plant” from another language supplier who got one of their stooges at a medical appointment to complain about the interpreter the hospital supplied – one of ours, and a very good one – then demand that “another language supplier” provide the interpreter for her next appointment. Fortunately the hospital manager handling the case knew all about “another language supplier” – whose interpreters she’d previously barred due to ongoing problems – so she checked with the consultant who confirmed the excellent quality of our guy’s work and was in fact most complimentary. Can’t mention names – obviously – but have to say that in our experience the manager concerned totally rocks in her attention to all her service users, whether patients or hospital staff.

Other stuff – don’t want to elaborate at this stage as we’re still investigating, but it looks like we’re managing to make someone unhappy with our still being here – although after 22 years, you’d think they’d be used to it! 2 goes in 2 days? Do YOU believe in coincidence?

Amazing the lengths some competitors will go to. If they’re reading this, they know who they are – and so do we.

So, they’re shooting at us – which reinforces what we already know, we ARE doing something right – just ask any of our happy customers or suppliers!

Manchester bike show!

on Mar 20 in Uncategorized tagged by

Cool but sunny Saturday was ideal for the Manchester Bike Show held at Event City near Trafford Park. NEC’s better but this one’s very new so still developing. Great range of machines – had a play on a couple of the Victory V’s, considering an 8-ball as a move up from my much-loved Nightster. But the image of the show for me was our MD trying out a Harley Forty-Eight for size:

Cool huh?! Certainly funkier than your average MD!

Must get back to writing some more businessy stuff   :)

Building a strong language supply chain – why reputation matters

on Dec 16 in Uncategorized tagged by

The importance of your reputation in building your supply chain is really well illustrated by an encounter Eva, our Translation Manager, had at a legal translation workshop last weekend in London. Chatting to an interpreter over coffee, Eva asked for the interpreter’s contact details for possible assignments…

Interpreter:     “I’m sorry, I never work for language agencies, they can’t be trusted”
Eva:     “Oh, I didn’t know -  I do work for a language company – Lifeline Languages?”
Interpreter:     “Lifeline? Oh, but you guys have a fantastic reputation here in London – I’d be happy to work with you of course!”

So we connected with another excellent resource, while she’s found another avenue to high-quality well-paid work.

That’s why reputation matters!

Always look after your people – you’ll have seen in the press over recent months another language company really suffering as a result of NOT doing so. Here’s our Sourcing Policy – and we mean every word.

 

Harley Davidson Rideout! YAAAAY!

on Aug 01 in People, Plain fun tagged by

We’re SO NOT just another boring company blog… summer’s here (at last) so the Harley’s out, an 09 orange and black Nightster 1200 from Milwaukee’s finest that I take Lynn cruising on if I’m not hustling solo. Following our blats to Blackpool, Manchester and Southport (just for ice cream), the last Sunday in July saw our local dealership – the excellent Preston Harley Davidson – hosting a big rideout. We were – as usual! – sadly too busy to take the day and go, but we were there for the off and wanted our readers to share in the sights and sounds. There’s some pix below, but for the REAL experience you NEED to check out the video too – my little cameraphone was overwhelmed by the sheer volume so the audio doesn’t do justice to the ground-shaking rumble of 50+ V-twins taking off together, but I think you’ll get the idea.

What’s this got to do with translation and interpreting? Frankly, not a lot – hey, get over it…

Oh yeah – pix: mine’s the one at top left   :)

Here’s the video!

Legally French!

on Jul 15 in People, Translation tagged by

How many language companies do you know with a fully-qualified LLB (Law graduate) on their team?

Linda, our mother-tongue French Project Manager, graduated today from UCLAN with flying colours – amazingly she did her final year while working 2 days a week for us, which shows REAL commitment. I know there’s no way I could have done that during MY final year!

Many congratulations to Linda – having worked with us part-time for a year she’s decided that we’re more fun than legal work (we agree!) so she’s been here full-time since finishing her studies in July. We’ve not only gained a really nice, and excellent, PM but we also now have serious legal expertise on our team for all our own legal translation, as well as excellent mother-tongue project management for our French translation and French interpreting work

Here she is, with Lynn our MD, in all her graduation finery (Linda, not Lynn – Linda’s the one on the left. Sorry, bit obvious I s’pose!)

Linda, our French PM, gowned from her LLB graduation from UCLAN

Keeping our heads above water!

on Jul 12 in People tagged by

Fran, one of our Project Managers, took part in the UK’s Great North Swim (a challenging 1-mile open-water swim in Lake Windermere) in June – not the warmest of months, and of course Windermere – the UK’s largest lake  – is a massive body of water so hasn’t really warmed up much yet… Fran takes up the story!

It was sometime back in February or March that my friend Claire dropped into the conversation the topic of the Great North Swim. We may have been in Starbucks eating cake, or possibly having a quick drink at the pub – but whatever we were doing, I was enjoying it too much to actually take seriously the idea of swimming a mile in a lake!

However, Claire kept raising it and eventually I caved in. I enjoyed swimming in a pool – how different could swimming in a lake be? Training in my local pool was fun, and I even began to feel a bit smug about the whole thing. Big mistake…

Then I stepped into the lake on the day. It was cold – much colder than 16.2 degrees sounds like it should be.  Reluctance had begun to creep in as Claire and I sat on the ferry to Ambleside – the weather was less than balmy with a distinct lack of sunshine. Then Claire uttered those words of doom: “I’m starting to think this was a bad idea”...

By the time I’d got to the acclimatisation pool, I completely agreed… The zip on my new wetsuit had kicked things off by deciding to break as I was being zipped up, so I wandered barefoot, Bridget Jones-esque, through the crowds of swimmers to find the wetsuit stall in the hope they had one left I could hire. Luck was in – the ladies at BlueSeventy sized me up and squeezed me into a more robust suit, before sending me on my way. Making it to the start line with minutes to spare, I attached the timing chip (which measures your time) around my ankle, and located Claire. A swim in the acclimatisation pool, then a quick warm-up  – and off we go!

Wow… if anyone tries to cajole you into open water swimming in the UK, consider this: the water will be cold. No, not cold – I’m talking C-O-L-D. The instant you go in, your heart starts racing trying to warm you up. Some enjoy the feeling, but to me it felt as I imagine having a panic attack would – utterly terrifying. However, here I was – so it was either get back out again, or get going…

To my considerable surprise, I actually made it the whole mile – past the yellow buoys, out to the pink halfway buoy (with a couple of short stops to relax my aching muscles and chat to the rescue duty kayakers), then on past the other yellow buoys on the seemingly never-ending swim toward the finish.

Open water swimming is WAY different to swimming in a pool. In a pool, you move your arms and legs, and progress is immediate. But, in a freezing lake you move your arms and legs in the best semblance of a stroke your tired cold muscles can manage, and it feels as if you moved 2 or 3 inches at most. The hardest part is the sheer willpower to keep going – well, that and the fatigue and cold… Eventually, after slightly less than an (incredibly, hideously, long) hour of this I finally made the finish, did my (rather wobbly) walk up the boardwalk, handed in my timing chip and collected my goody bag.

I proudly wore my t-shirt into the office the following day!

Having entered the Swim too late for official sponsorship, Lifeline and I decided to donate to the Great North Air Ambulance, which rescued the swimmers who got into difficulties during the race – one of whom later sadly passed away.

What a day…

Well then – go Fran! She hasn’t yet mentioned next year’s event and none of us is brave enough to… so we’ll see…