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Silingua - hospitality talks

Concept:
Professional ad-hoc translation and proof reading service geared towards the hotel and tourism industry. A service offered by a hospitality professional, who not only speaks the languages offered, but also understands the mentality of the people speaking these languages, as well as the background of the hospitality industry. Basically, someone who speaks your lingo and knows the importance of the message you intend to bring across.

Services offered:
Translation of promotional flyers, brochures, leaflets, online promotions, websites, press kits, in-house collateral as well as Tour Operator brochure proof reading.

Languages offered:
English - German
English - Spanish
English - Italian
English - French

Spanish - English
Spanish - German
Spanish - Italian
Spanish - French

German - English
German - Spanish
German - Italian
German - French

Italian - German
Italian - English
Italian - Spanish
Italian - French

French - German
French - English
French - Spanish
French - Italian

My background:
After my ‘Matura’ (A-levels) in science and languages (German, French, English and Italian) in Switzerland, I decided to take a break from my studies and explore the world. The easiest way to do that, it appeared to me, was within the hotel industry.

My first job was at the reception in a skiing resort in the French part of Switzerland. After a few months of snow I needed a change and headed to the tropics of Jamaica.

Passionate about travel, I fell in love with the hospitality industry and decided to make it a career. This decision lead me back to Switzerland, where I attended the Swiss School of Tourism, a bilingual school (German and French), allowing me to learn about all aspects of the tourism industry. The curriculum included marketing, communication, public relations, languages, tourism geography, accounting and business administration.

On-the-job training was an integral part of my studies and I conducted my mandatory one year training in the Dominican Republic. This gave me the opportunity to learn Spanish and the excuse to return to the Caribbean.

Following my Diploma I continued my career in hotels and moved from Guest Relations to Public Relations and eventually into Sales and Marketing. I had the opportunity to experience individual hotels such as Casa de Campo, all inclusive hotels, small luxury groups such as Rosewood Hotels & Resorts® as well as larger chains such as Hyatt™. My career took me back to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, as well as to Dubai and London.

Having attended numerous trade shows, such as ITB, Fitur, BIT, ATM, WTM and ILTM over the past few years, I learned to appreciate my knowledge of languages more and more. I realized how much it helped me to relate to my clients and that it put them at ease to speak in their respective mother tongue.

On the other hand, I often found the lack of relevant marketing material in other languages somewhat frustrating, but as a Director of Sales, simply did not have the time to translate documentation myself.
This industry insight, together with some rather amusing translations I came across within menus and other documents, as well as conversations held with industry colleagues and friends, have lead me to launch silingua – ‘hospitality talks’. Simply because, I won’t just translate your documents word-for-word, but actually understand what it is you are trying to communicate – in our very own hospitality lingo.

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