Today marks a significant milestone for Bluebird Translations, nestled in the heart of the Jordaan district in Amsterdam. It is with immense joy and gratitude that we celebrate the achievement of 500 Google reviews, all contributing to our immaculate 5.0 rating. To add a sweet touch to our celebration, in conjunction with juka design, and with a little help from AI wizardry, we designed this “Creamy Oreo” cake, which was masterfully baked by Amsterdam Cupcake Company.

Bluebird and beyond

We consider this accomplishment to be not only a testament to the quality of our translation services and the satisfaction of our clients but also a reflection of the collaborative spirit that thrives in our shared office space and within the network of other local translators. This milestone is a collective achievement, reflecting the dedication and expertise of not only our team but also the translators we collaborate with. Together, we’ve built a community that fosters collaboration, continuous improvement, and a shared commitment to delivering exceptional translation services.

500 & 5.0: two fives of our dreams

In the dynamic world of Google reviews, our journey to 500 was marked by a thrilling dance with the highest scores, but not always exactly 5.0. As we edged closer to this milestone, we embraced the challenge, vowing to celebrate if we could reclaim the perfect 5.0 rating. It became a shared mission, and we have emerged victorious!

As the holiday season approaches, Bluebird Translations is delighted to unveil the Christmas gifts that we have prepared for our clients, collaborators, and friends this year: we're embracing the art of customization with these unique handmade notepads. Crafted by our talented friend Michał from pearpaper.nl, these notepads are not only a beautiful addition to your stationery supplies but also a sustainable choice for the environmentally conscious.

Michał's dedication to eco-friendly practices is truly commendable. Each notepad is handmade using paper sourced exclusively from waste paper, carefully selected from printing companies in Amsterdam. By upcycling discarded paper, Michał gives it a second life, turning what might have been waste into these “bound canvases” for your creativity to flow!

Behind the design adorning their covers is juka design. My wife Julia and I have transformed our Bluebird logo and the illustration of our office building into captivating mandalas. The mandalas were meant not only to reflect the essence of our company but also embody the spiritual pursuit of Advent and the Christmas season. We were inspired by these “mandalic” visions of Saint Hildegard von Bingen of the Divine and the nine choirs of angels.

We hope that with each stroke of the pen on these pages, your soul takes flight, just like our Bluebird! Wishing you a season filled with joy, creativity, and the simple pleasure of putting pen to paper. Mandalize your Christmas season and your 2024 with Bluebird!

P.S. Some photos of the making process (and even more here!):

Two weeks ago, we discovered that one of our translations made for Horizon, the European Commission's magazine on research projects funded by the EU, was published in Diario EL PAÍS (the leading Spanish-language newspaper in the world), and became one of the most read articles!

This is our translation:

https://elpais.com/salud-y-bienestar/2022-12-03/magia-alucinogena-como-una-combinacion-de-farmacos-psicodelicos-y-terapia-puede-ayudar-a-tratar-enfermedades-mentales-cronicas.html

Christmas and the New Year are just around the corner, and as tradition has it, we are once again sending out a special gift to our clients, co-workers, friends and relatives. This year, why not give something practical and useful that everybody can use in their everyday life?

Introducing Bluebird’s mini measuring tapes! These handy tools are perfect for any DIY project, from measuring furniture to hanging pictures.

Not only are they a practical item that can be used to measure things on the go, but they may also serve as a reminder every time you see our smiling bluebird of our commitment to providing you with our accurate and reliable translations!

And where does this idea come from? Well, it starts with a love story (last year, I was blessed to marry the love of my life, Julia, who is from Poland) and ends with a little act of plagiarism! I basically copycatted the idea of the keyrings from Karwasz Polskie Rozdzielnice, the company of my parents-in-law, but as you can see in the photo, their merchandise project and ours have a love story of their own!

We wish you a blessed Christmas and a prosperous New Year in full measure!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million! This December we are back at it again following last year’s example when we decided to make a video explaining the real purpose of our gifts. We did this after a couple of friends thought we were being quite original with the our supposed “merchandised shower caps” we were giving out during the last Christmas. (if you're curious, you can check here what our presents really were.)

Make your bet for this year: Is it a fridge magnet? A badge you can proudly display on your clothes? Stop wondering and take a look at our 2022 unboxing video!

This year we've come up with a extremely useful gift: a PopSocket, which you can use to hold your phone securely or as a phone stand while streaming videos, for example. And, believe us, this comes from first-hand experience: some weeks ago Laura was using her phone while on the bike (yes, we know she shouldn't), and it slipped out her hand, falling on the ground and cracking her screen and camera lens. If she had only had this tiny little PopSocket attached to it, it would have spared her a few hundred euros on a new phone.

The PopSocket is also easily removable and reusable. We've been running some tests and it clearly seems that the PopSocket can easily be removed without leaving any marks (and just in case, a mobile phone case can be the best place to mount it), ready for reuse. Just make sure to adhere it back to the 3M paper it comes with when you are not using it. For a more precise procedure than just using your fingernails, the manufacturer recommends mounting it on a phone case rather than on the phone itself and dental floss to remove it.  

The PopSocket also has optional accessories (commercially available) for mounting it on your car dashboard or other surfaces. Check the original manufacturer's website or find them on Bol.com. Sadly, we do not earn commissions from either website!

The only thing left to do is to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy, secure-phone-holding 2022!

José Carlos holds ISO 17100:2015 qualified status meaning that the qualification and experience requirements of ISO 17100:2015 are being met.

What is ISO 17100:2015?

It is the internationally recognized standard for translation services providing requirements for the core processes, resources, and other aspects necessary for the delivery of a quality translation service that meets applicable specifications.

It takes into consideration project management processes and workflows, translation and revision process, client-TSP communication, handling of materials, competence and qualifications of professionals involved and Continuing Professional Development.

TSPs and agencies certified under this standard have been externally assessed by a registered body and are subject to regular audits.

The status of "Certified" is not generally used for individual translators, as they usually prove their compliance through the status of "Qualified".

Benefits of holding ISO 17100:2015 qualified status according to Bluebird Translations and the ITI:

• Proof that the translator works to a recognized standard and is committed to maintaining those industry standards
• No need to spend time checking qualifications and CPD records of translators to ensure they meet the standard (easy participation in tenders applied by LSPs)
• Greater confidence for prospective clients
• Evidence that the translator is professional and forward-thinking

Profile of an ISO 17100:2015 qualified translator:

• Translation competence: translating texts in accordance with the client-TSP agreement.
• Linguistic and textual competence both in the source and target languages: understanding the source, fluency in the target language, and general or specialized knowledge of text-type conventions.
• Competence in research, information acquisition, and processing: acquisition of additional knowledge necessary to understand the text and experience in the use of research tools and information sources.
• Cultural competence: making use of information on the behavioral standards, up-to-date terminology, value systems, etc. characterizing both source and target cultures.
• Technical competence: the knowledge, abilities, and skills required to perform the technical tasks in the translation process by employing technical resources.
• Domain competence: understanding content produced in the source language and reproducing it in the target language using appropriate style and terminology.
• Sound translation process in place, characterized by: terminological consistency, semantic accuracy, appropriate grammar, spelling and punctuation, lexical cohesion, compliance with style guides, consideration of the target audience and purpose, etc.

It has come to our attention that a few people thought that the brand-new Bluebird merchandise, specially designed and produced for this Christmas season (an Amsterdam-must for rainy days: waterproof and totally portable bike saddle covers) were shower caps (egad!), so we let our imagination run wild, resulting this short movie:

It was very fun to make! Thanks to Maaike, our fantastic coworker and translator (Chinese/English into Dutch), the amazing acting skills of Mr Charlie Moose (note for Hollywood talent scouts: this is an aka, as he wishes to remain somewhat anonymous), and juka design for the final edits, we managed to create this story in record time. We hope you enjoy both the film and the new dryness of your pants for this coming rainy season! And jokes aside, we wish you all an abundance of Light and Hope for the coming new year.

It has come to our attention that a few people thought that the brand-new Bluebird merchandise, specially designed and produced for this Christmas season (an Amsterdam-must for rainy days: waterproof and totally portable bike saddle covers) were shower caps (egad!), so we let our imagination run wild, resulting this short movie:

It was very fun to make! Thanks to Maaike, our fantastic coworker and translator (Chinese/English into Dutch), the amazing acting skills of Mr Charlie Goose (note for Hollywood talent scouts: this is an aka, as he wishes to remain somewhat anonymous), and Juka Design for the final edits, we managed to create this story in record time. We hope you enjoy both the film and the new dryness of your pants for this coming rainy season! And jokes aside, we wish you all an abundance of Light and Hope for the coming new year.

Given the current state of things, Bluebird is currently and until further notice quarantined and working from home, not only to protect ourselves but also to protect people at risk. Following the government’s advice, we’ve been working from home ever since the first confirmed cases in the Netherlands were reported.

Remote work is in Bluebird’s DNA, it’s a core value of our business (that’s why we chose the name of a migrant bird as our company name, because it really resonated with us, as we love spending periods of time in Spain, our homeland, as long as we adhere to just one golden rule: making sure there is always one bluebird working from the office in Amsterdam) and now, more than ever, we are seeing how our digital corporate culture has become crucial for tackling an uncertain future.

This, which has been our way to do things since Bluebird started, is the present and will probably be the future for other “more traditional” companies, which due to this situation have had no other choice but to reinvent themselves and find a way for their employees to work remotely without this affecting they way they conduct their day-to-day activities. Our two pieces of advice for (translation) teams that suddenly find themselves obliged to work remotely are these two programs: Slack (an instant messaging platform with different channels to bring order to team communication) and Trello (a visual board that helps you to organize translation projects). We will explain how we use them in our day-to-day in a future dedicated blog entry.

The potential impact that this crisis will have on the translation industry is still unknown, but rest assured that we continue to work just as hard as always and are making the most of our quarantine, as now we have plenty of time to pursue further training in our fields of specialization thanks to the online resources available. We have already enrolled in a couple of online courses, such as this interesting management practicum on Trados Studio, and we’re also planning to expand our knowledge on medical translation, which seems a good option for post-corona times.

Should the workload become lighter, we will have precious time at home to spend it with our loved ones, chat and talk to those far from us, to reconnect with friends, to tackle those items on our to-do lists that we never have time for and to explore new (at-home) hobbies. May all humanity become more united after all this crisis is over and more conscious about the reasons we might be here on earth. We have no doubts that better and sunnier days will come.

Stay healthy and stay home!