April 11

Thanks to the efforts of our colleague Natalia Mackevics, we managed to bag a longterm agreement with the Russian branch of the pharma giants Novartis. That certainly qualifies her for the inclusion in our team of core members, but since she had the glorious idea to become pregnant, our favourite photographer is still at the drawing board to get his concept right. He quite regularly consults the fabulous Sachin Anshuman, Architect, Web Designer and silent patron of our undertaking, who will now oversee translation projects in this area of expertise and will be added to the people section shortly. In the meantime, his work can be reviewed on www.orangevoid.com.

January 11
As one very proud owner of what healthcare professionals call “lip and palate cleft”, our founding member Stefan, who is always on a kind of mission, decided to give a percentage of the money generated in our network to the charity organisation “Smile Train” (http://www.smiletrain.org.uk). Although he very often looks very grumpy, he is actually grateful (smiling on the inside) to have had the best possible medical care available at the time (roughly the middle of the last century) and parents, who made it possible that he went on to be what he is now: grumpy. But also an expert in linguistics, grammar, rhetoric and modern languages, which is rather unusual for someone with a condition, that secondarily very strongly affects hearing and speaking. Maybe it is consequential. Anyway: we think that he not only has a cleft, but also a point.

November 10
How fast a year goes by – a popular theory goes that at the age of 40 one year is only 2.5% of one’s lifetime, whereas it was 25% when one was four. So it depends. A four your old would probably cope quite well with all these translations and localisations and still find time to make a mess of the veggie mix for dinner, and it would be quite indifferent to clients, who want something “ASAP”, as it only has a vague idea of time.
In client accounts, the question is “when do you need it?” – And the answer: “ASAP”. It could mean anything, couldn’t it? Especially for people, who have, at some point in their life, studied Geology. The next eruption of the Yellowstone Volcano can happen at any time in the near future. It’s overdue. It erupts every 600000 years, but as of today it is 40000 years late. Be sure, it will happen, asap.
Otherwise we are doing well, thanks for asking. Together with our branding specialists we put some intercontinental adverts together, which were all well received, and our network keeps expanding.
And we collect silly abbreviations, which we will publish here, AOEC (at our earliest convenience).

August 10
As a Football World Cup leaves most interested people empty handed and with a little hangover, for us it came just handy to get distracted by some localisations of advertising campaigns, which proved to be very successful – now we are in talks with two major players in this field to extend our cooperation. Therefore we are looking out for more copywriters, to widen the areas and languages we can cover. For pharmaceutical companies, the interest lies in moving east from where we sit, and we very much welcome linguists and marketing specialists native in Turkish, Japanese, Chinese and Russian as well as the different Indian varieties. Cockney is spoken east of here as well, but we have that covered anyway.

June 10
Now that the office staff of all companies in London and elsewhere are gathering around 72’’ screens from midday onwards to focus on what really matters, we are not at risk of being distracted by secondary issues, i.e. work, and we can also undertake linguistic research or just lie in the sun. We know now, for instance, that “Bafana Bafana” is Nguni for “The boys, the boys”, but it must be started with a deep sigh and accompanied by shaking the head as a sign of despair. It is not true that “Bella Ciao” is this year’s official football hymn in Italy, but an old partisan song, and in Germany people still wonder why a South African plastic horn is called “Uwe Seeler”. VU-VU-ZU... they won’t get it. As we head into the third week of this all embracing event, one question that becomes increasingly urgent in England is the origin of the name “Schweinsteiger”. We are on the mission to make people aware of the tiny village of Schweinsteig at the Bavarian border to Austria, but noone likes this explanation. Now we have a break, since Las Charrúas play against the Taegeuk Warriors, but we will continue our quest after the penalty shootout.

May 10
We had to be reminded that it's spring already - the temperatures in London are inconclusive. But then again, Patrick in Canada said he saw a little flower peeking through the melting snow. Rather than updating the news page, we worked on the website altogether and slowly it gets into shape, although we still welcome hints and suggestions. The people page will remain hidden for a while, since we have to tone down a little the beauty of the key members, as we don't want to be mistaken for a model agency. Speaking of beauty, from now on we will have a second basecamp, which will be coordinated by Andreas Quinkert in Germany. As long as the people section remains behind a veil, he can be contacted on +49+203 372730 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

February 10
The network keeps expanding and we welcome new members from China and India – a special mention goes to Dr. May Chen from ‘Advanced Chinese Translations’, who tried to explain us the essentials of the Chinese keyboard, the width of which we estimated at 17 metres. She was very patient. Also, our old initiator Sonic Langweg is back from an extended field study at the beaches of Southeast Asia. As her name suggests, she proves on a daily basis that the quickest way to get around in London is the pushbike. Yet, by the time the bus arrives, one can just finish the much needed shower. At least then she brings a wave of fresh air to the office life.

October 09
We are giving Students of Linguistics or Translation the opportunity to get out of the ivory tower and into the shark tank of our industry. Some applications for internships have already been received and more are welcome. We have to point out though, that we are currently only considering native German speakers with a strong interest in the highly entertaining linguistic sub-subjects of Semantics, Pragmatics, and Text or Discourse Analysis, alongside the willingness to get some invaluable experience in the day to day tasks of a global network and to translate under pressure for high profile clients. Potential times for the internships are around Easter and from June to August 2010. Happy bidding!

September 09
Basistext is in the process of moving the desks to a bright place just outside the centre of London, sharing a building with promising new enterprises in the area of media, design and art. You can check the place out on www.industryworkspace.com, just in case you want to come around for a coffee.
Otherwise it’s about the German idea of “Tapetenwechsel”, changing wallpapers, which is meant to give a new perspective on things.
The contact details in the people section will be updated soon. But first we try out the brand new kitchen.

August 09
Not that July was cancelled this year due to bad weather or recession – quite the opposite. It turned out to be the busiest time of the year, especially when translators try to accommodate some time on the beach while being snowed under with work.
We wouldn’t recommend that in the first place – we suggested March for a holiday - but no one listens. You can not see the laptop screen properly in bright sunlight and usually the internet connection is dodgy…still, we managed to convince some new clients of the quality we deliver and to expand the team. Welcome to Kitoti Miaki, our old friend from the times in Medical Market Research, who will be in charge of the French quality assessment. Also, we are in the process of establishing a Japanese team for the high end clients in the pharmaceutical industry and these guys look as sharp as a Samurai’s sword. Welcome…sorry: Irasshai!

June 09
As if we weren’t sexy enough already, we now managed to strengthen the rest of the major European languages, with the fabulous Angela di Mauro and Maria Teijido, the former first translators for All Global Ltd., to ensure that all Italian and Spanish linguists pull their socks up.
Then there is more Marias for the Latin American market, except they are the promising partnership of Mariana Idiart and Cecilia Palluzzi from the global capital of translators, Buenos Aires.
All good reasons to send our photographer around and add some gloss to our people section. Shortly…

May 09
Localisation, if offered by other language providers, always comes down to the effort of individual translators, who try to make some sense of messages in marketing or market research, which simply don’t translate. For us it is now a team effort, and the close cooperation of translators and copywriters or PR-Specialists in different languages will make the difference. We are in the process of expanding our panel of copywriters, and the first step was an agreement with the Italian specialist partnership of some medical writers and translators from Pistoia in the heart of Tuscany, represented by Lucia Mancini. They can also be contacted directly on: www.al-medicaltranslations.com. Bienvenuto. Applications in other languages are still welcome.

April 09
Back in the eighties new companies used to employ only men, who sported “Vokuhila” (- question of the month for all none-German speakers: what’s that? Best entries win a drink with the Directors), and their names only consisted of three letters. 20 years on, they are pretty established, and good contacts to firms like TNS or GFK can always prove helpful.
WCP, another global player, has just expressed their satisfaction with our services, and they will certainly come for more.
Working for these giants of PR caused some hectic activity on our side (as hectic as it gets: one extra brunch meeting in the local Breakfast-Café), and resulted in recruiting yet another branding specialist, who will be introduced shortly.

March 09
The German partners from Zweiplus-Network launched a new website (www.zweiplus-network.de), and although they ignored our recommended photographer, they certainly get their message across. Congratulations.
If our updating process appears a bit slow, it is due to business, which woke up from hibernation punctually on the 1st of April, despite all these grim forecasts published. So then: March is the month for the annual holidays, if you really need some. What is the best place to go in March?
Please advise.

February 09
After some busy months things are now calming down slightly – finally time to say hello and thanks to all the new colleagues, who offered their services to Basistext. Some of them proved to be an instant hit and we could secure cooperation with two global NGOs, enjoying the additional benefit of working for good causes outside of the usual grand benefits the industries provide for the community.
Coming from the European markets, we started up with 9 target languages for projects on short notice a year ago, but within no time upon going online, applications arrived from all over the place, from linguists with great references and experience. Hence we are now also covering all languages of Eastern and Northern Europe and Asia as well as some, we had to consult a dictionary to get an impression of what they might look and sound like. So a special welcome to the Maltese translators, who we are very much looking forward working with.
All the best for all of you.

January 09
Time to welcome the communication experts from “Zweiplus” amongst our partners, whose founder Andreas Quinkert made his imprint on this site. He is slightly allergic to house dust mites and nuts and to being called “copywriter”, since their services range from raw concepts to pretty glossy magazines of the highest standard. “Networking” is the keyword of their philosophy and they can effortlessly adapt to any project size and complexity – just as we can. Now they added the multilingual option to their services, which is simply a good idea.
Otherwise a Happy New Year to all of you and good luck for the things to come.