PREGNANCY IN THE DEPARTURE LOUNGE
I hope everyone has had a great week, it’s been extremely eventful for me. It’s been wonderful news that thebigword has gone up from 17th ranking to 12th in the world’s largest translation companies and we are all very proud of this, especially in the present economic climate. I think it’s a great commitment from our wonderful staff that has helped achieve this but our ongoing investment in technology is also paying off and we are doing some wow! wow! things with technology but I have been forbidden to share them with you until January – I am not good at secrets!!
I have pre-travel nerves. It’s not that I am at all scared of travel, in fact I adore it, but it’s just getting through everything before you leave. If you’re like me you will have to put everything in order almost as if you were never to return. I am such a failure at packing and after all the years of travel and thousands of flights I always forget some vital components such as razor blades, a tie, cufflinks. I have even been known to forget my tickets and passport but that’s between you and me. I think the secret when you forget your tickets, or even worse the baggage is overweight, is to try and make the person at the ticket desk laugh – a great line that has a 50% success rate for me is: “It’s difficult for me as I’ve just found out I’m pregnant”. The reactions are sometimes very interesting, however I advise you only to try this at UK airports as I did not enjoy being strip searched a number of years ago when I tried this in China.
On a serious note I’m really excited to visit our Tokyo office. In Japan we trade under the name Mitaka, this is localisation especially as thebigword is too hard to say. The Japanese market is one of our group’s major markets and I think we are successful because they focus like everyone on price but their service levels are extremely high. They are very demanding customers, more than any other market, but they are also very loyal. I hope none of our other competitors are reading my blog but one of the other secrets of course is our own in-house talented Japanese team in the UK that work closely with our Tokyo office to help avoid a number of cultural misunderstandings.
The good thing about my visits to Japan is I tend to lose a few podgy pounds. It’s not because the food is bad its simply because I don’t seem to be able to master chopsticks but I am too embarrassed to ask for a fork so here’s hoping I can capture those morsels of food without dropping them all over the place.
Have a good week and I hope to update you next Friday on how I’ve fared.
I have pre-travel nerves. It’s not that I am at all scared of travel, in fact I adore it, but it’s just getting through everything before you leave. If you’re like me you will have to put everything in order almost as if you were never to return. I am such a failure at packing and after all the years of travel and thousands of flights I always forget some vital components such as razor blades, a tie, cufflinks. I have even been known to forget my tickets and passport but that’s between you and me. I think the secret when you forget your tickets, or even worse the baggage is overweight, is to try and make the person at the ticket desk laugh – a great line that has a 50% success rate for me is: “It’s difficult for me as I’ve just found out I’m pregnant”. The reactions are sometimes very interesting, however I advise you only to try this at UK airports as I did not enjoy being strip searched a number of years ago when I tried this in China.
On a serious note I’m really excited to visit our Tokyo office. In Japan we trade under the name Mitaka, this is localisation especially as thebigword is too hard to say. The Japanese market is one of our group’s major markets and I think we are successful because they focus like everyone on price but their service levels are extremely high. They are very demanding customers, more than any other market, but they are also very loyal. I hope none of our other competitors are reading my blog but one of the other secrets of course is our own in-house talented Japanese team in the UK that work closely with our Tokyo office to help avoid a number of cultural misunderstandings.
The good thing about my visits to Japan is I tend to lose a few podgy pounds. It’s not because the food is bad its simply because I don’t seem to be able to master chopsticks but I am too embarrassed to ask for a fork so here’s hoping I can capture those morsels of food without dropping them all over the place.
Have a good week and I hope to update you next Friday on how I’ve fared.
