Movers & Shakers! Language is power for Isabel Galera of translation firm WordwideFX

A new year, a new era of innovation, and in the fast-moving FX industry, those at the cutting edge who are not content with simply going through the motions and emulating their peers before heading home at the end of the working day will likely reveal yet more industry-changing developments.

To give an insight into the personality, charisma and just what makes such things happen, FinanceFeeds met with some of the movers and shakers of the industry for an open and casual discussion on what the industry is likely to look like, with a splash of comedy for those who appreciate.

What’s new?

Full steam ahead!! Our company offers something that truly sets us apart from the competition (agencies), this being is the fact that we carved a specific niche for ourselves by working exclusively for the FX / financial industry. We’ve a team of expert translators and linguists with in-depth knowledge of markets and the financial industry. To ensure our clients receive the best quality, we always use native speakers of the target language.

Something we can certainly say about Wordwide FX is that we move as fast as the markets, delivering translations in record time or practically instantaneously in real time – we are able to translate a technical analysis within 10 minutes, so that the new versions won’t lose it’s edge or validity.

I can say we are pioneers in fast-pace FX/market translations. We are very happy and proud of what we’ve achieved in 5 years (Wordwide FX was founded in 2011); now we feel we’re a part of the growing FX industry, since our clients realize more and more that a good translation is essential to make their own business grow. We have therefore become an important part of their business.

OK, so nobody is perfect. What is the biggest thing you can improve on from last year?

The Asian economy has been booming over the past couple years and we would really like to expand more into Asia. We already work with the most important companies in the industry, but most of them are based in Europe. We’d like to expand into Asia because I’m sure the Asian FX market could offer us many opportunities. I’m sure there are many brokers that need a good translation service. A partner that understands the market flows and the needs of this particular industry.

In addition, we’re working hard to improve our visibility on social media networks and FX sites (we already publish our translations on important media); we also have a blog (Insight by WFX) where we explain our ventures. The number of visitors it receives on a daily basis keeps increasing steadily.

What is the funniest thing or incident that happened in the office last year? Any cringe or epic fail moments?

Ok, this is more of a joke for linguists, but since languages and translations form part of our business, we definitely had a good time with this one. One day we tried out a new place for lunch. It was a typical Catalan bar (our main offices are in located in Barcelona) specialized in local dishes like “pa amb tomàquet” (tomato bread) and tapas.

The servers working there were not Catalan or Spanish, they were from somewhere else. There was a sign in the bar in Spanish that read “Lavabo solo para clientes”, which means “Toilet reserved exclusively for customers.” A more literal translation for this sign is “toilet only for customers”. Below the Spanish text, the English translation appeared that read “Toilet only the clients”!

Well, you can imagine all the jokes that started to pop in our minds: “That’s discrimination, why should customers be ‘toileted’ versus servers,” “How much water do you need to toilet a customer,” or “These guys, instead of the bay-harbor-butchers, are the ‘Barcelona customer-toiletters.’“In addition, we also had images come into our minds of that old X-Files season 1 episode with the mutant sewage system monster…

If we are sitting here in one year from now discussing what you as a company have achieved in 2016, what do you hope to be the big achievements?

Changes occur at such a quick, rapid pace in the financial industry that we often don’t even have time to react properly to them. Because of this, everything (and everyone) moves at an alarmingly fast pace. Translations we handle for companies in the financial industry must keep up with this swift rhythm. These projects, normally required for “yesterday,” become automatically labeled “RUSH,” “AS SOON AS POSSIBLE,” etc.

Our greatest fear with rushing through so many projects and providing a speedy delivery is that our clients do not receive the best possible service. Clients don’t just pay for translations; they also pay for a personal touch. Here at Wordwide FX, we prefer having close relationships with our clients. Instead of being our “partners,” we often refer to them as our “friends.”

With this in mind, our main goal for 2016 and the coming years is to be fast, courteous, aware of all potential problems, react promptly to them, and help our clients reach new customers across the world. At the same, we aim to evolve with the financial industry and continue to increase our own client portfolio.

If your company morphed into a super-hero or animal in 2016; what would it be?

Spiderman, just like our company, is a superhero capable of climbing up fast and steadily without falling to the ground. As a growing company that serves the financial industry, we have set our expectations very high. We foresee steady, upward growth throughout 2016. Even if Dr. Octopus or another super villain tries to hit us hard, we know how to get back on our feet just like Spiderman and will start climbing again.