Archive for January, 2008

Liz Athey goes back to school!

Friday, January 25th, 2008

Liz Athey, Operations Manager, was recently invited to speak to students at a Stafford school as part of the Business Language Champions programme.

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Liz Athey (left) pictured with Julia Moorhouse, Head of Languages at Weston Road High School

The Languages Day at Weston Road High School in Stafford gave Year 9 students, who will soon be required to choose their GCSE options, the chance to learn how language skills can improve their future career prospects. Representatives from JCB, Birmingham International Airport, Roevin Translation Services, Staffs County Council and freelance linguists gave interactive sessions on how languages are used in the workplace. The students were also given the opportunity to have a taster lesson in Polish and Chinese.

“The day went really well and it was great to have different perspectives on using languages to remind students of the vast range of opportunities on offer if they continue with their language studies.”

Julia Moorhouse, Head of Languages at Weston Road

Business Language Champions is a programme supported by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, which aims to highlight the growing concern for the availability and level of language skills in the UK and to inspire companies to actively engage in partnerships with a focus on language learning. In particular, it aims to:

  • help students to understand the importance of languages as a practical and critical skill for the workplace;
  • help teachers to grasp the reality of businesses’ language needs and;
  • help businesses to gain an insight into how the education system can support them to tap into crucial employability skills.

“Knowing another language opens up all kinds of opportunities in the workplace and I was delighted to be able to give the students an insight into the translation industry.”

Liz Athey, Operations Manager, Roevin

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Roevin helps celebrate 10 years of Translation Studies at Aston University

Saturday, January 19th, 2008

In November, Natasha Williams, Project Manager at our Birmingham office, spoke at an event to celebrate “10 years of Translation Studies” at Aston University. The day was attended by experts in the field as well as past and current students.

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Natasha Williams

Natasha recently completed a Graduate Apprenticeship at Roevin and was keen to encourage current MA students to apply for the scheme: “My placement at Roevin has been a fantastic experience and has enabled me to build on the skills I developed during my MA at Aston”. Roevin Translation Services is a member of the steering group for the National Graduate Apprenticeship Scheme, which is continuing to develop structured work placements for postgraduate translation students.

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Client Focus: David Austin Roses

Friday, January 11th, 2008

David Austin Roses is best known for its development of the world-famous English Rose which combines the forms and fragrances of old-fashioned roses with the repeat flowering capabilities and wider colour range of modern roses. The company, based in Albrighton, Shropshire was founded in 1969 and remains a family business, run by David Austin now aged 82 and his son, also called David. Together they have created one of the largest garden rose breeding programmes in the world.

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David Austin’s Darcey Bussell rose

Alison Greaves from David Austin’s marketing department, commented on why Roevin plays an integral part in their marketing strategy:

“As a traditionally-minded company, we put great value on the basic principles of business, including relationships, service and high quality. We believe in building strong relationships, not only with our customers but just as importantly with our established suppliers, who help us to maintain the quality our customers expect from a premium brand. Our relationship with Roevin has really stood the test of time. Their translation service enables us to communicate professionally in countries where we have insufficient language skills in-house to create the marketing materials we need. Over time, their translation services have helped us to develop business in our main European markets of France, Germany and Italy and have given us the confidence to continue to expand into newer markets such as Japan and Russia.

Roevin’s prompt and reliable service helps us to take advantage of the many opportunities which arise from all the international shows we attend. And of course, we couldn’t effectively communicate at so many different exhibitions worldwide without a wide range of marketing materials tailored to the needs and concerns of each individual country. We are happy to recommend Roevin’s services.”

David Austin Roses received a gold medal and ‘Best Exhibit in the Festival of Roses’ at the Hampton Court Flower Show in July 2007. In May, they won a gold medal at Courson flower show, Paris. This year they exhibited for the 25th year at the Chelsea Flower Show and David Austin was awarded an OBE for services to horticulture.

Roevin has been working with David Austin Roses for many years, translating materials into French, Italian, German and Russian. Most recently Roevin was commissioned to translate material into Japanese for the IFEX exhibition in Japan.

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Roevin transfers to new independent ownership

Sunday, January 6th, 2008

As a result of Adecco group restructuring, an opportunity arose for Roevin Translation Services to transfer to new independent ownership from 1st December. We are delighted to announce that the business is now under the ownership of Viewcloud Limited.

Viewcloud is devoted entirely to language services and as a result, the company will now benefit from more focused management resource and support in order to flourish and excel within its existing business and also to develop into new areas of expertise. This exciting and positive move will enable our team to build on the solid, reliable reputation they have built up over many years for providing professional translation and multilingual production services to our global client base.

Liz Athey, Operations Manager, will continue to head up the operations team supported by branch managers Alan White, Jasmin Schneider and Sam Bennett. Liz will report to Directors Stephen Wilde and David Nichols.

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David Nichols & Steve Wilde, Directors

Our expert project managers in Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham will continue to handle projects as usual and may be contacted in the normal manner. The business will continue to operate under the name of Roevin Translation Services for the time being and the only immediate effect of the change for our clients is a change of payment details which will be highlighted on our invoices.

We are all looking forward to an exciting 2008!

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Language Spotlight: Danish

Friday, January 4th, 2008

Natasha Williams

Danish is spoken by fewer than 6 million people worldwide, but thanks to the Vikings, its influence can still be seen in many modern European languages. Like Swedish, the Danish language is part of the East Nordic group and as a result the two languages share many similarities. In fact, speakers of the three main Scandinavian languages can often easily understand one another in conversation. The Danes are fiercely proud of their language; the Dansk Sprognævn monitors the way in which the Danish language is evolving, determining which words can enter into the official language by government institutions and which should remain as loan words. There is even a list of approved first names that parents must choose from when naming their child and an application must be made for any unusual-sounding names!

This clearly suggests that your Danish business partners would very much appreciate communication in their language. Roevin provides high quality translations into and from Danish. For a free quotation please contact us.

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Hard work translates into an MA for Joanne Clarke

Friday, January 4th, 2008

Congratulations to Joanne Clarke, Account Manager at Roevin’s Manchester office, who attended her graduation ceremony on 13th December at the University of Manchester and officially became the bearer of a Master of Arts in Translation Studies. Jo, who specialises in French to English translation, learned that she had passed her MA with merit in November.

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Jo Clarke on Graduation Day

The ceremony marked the culmination of one year’s hard study covering various aspects of translation including research methods, translation theory and translation practice with specific reference to legal, commercial, technical and literary translation. Jo, who had been working part-time while she completed her dissertation, has now joined the team on a full-time basis.

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