Thoughts on Washington Post article about Telephone Interpretation

chinaONEcall was recently featured in the Washington Post. On the whole a very good article. A small part of it was slightly misleading and I have pointed this out in the comments section of the piece.

Good article. I think this would be very helpful for people planning to visit China. However the reference to a 22 hour gap and translations not occurring in real time is a little misleading. Interpretation infact happens instantaneously assuming the party with which the caller wishes to communicate is available. Doing additional research including calling back “several times” and providing extra information is not, at least in my eyes, a negative. That the interpreter was not able to reach the theatre at the time the call was placed is unfortunate but could have been for any number of reasons (time zone differences, opening hours etc). Apologies if this seems like nitpicking but I think its a fairly important point and slightly detracts from an otherwise great article.

Greg Sinclair, Operations Director, China One Call Ltd.

Interview with Greg Sinclair on GoKunming

Chris Horton from GoKunming interviewed me a couple of days ago about chinaONEcall, running a call centre in Kunming and the challenges facing the telephone interpreting industry. The story appeared today.

Earthquake in China: assistance from chinaONEcall

Following the recent earthquake in Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, chinaONEcall is offering free help for victims of the Chinese earthquake, and for anxious family or others needing to contact them or the victims doctors / nurses in the affected area.

Just telephone the service direct within China to 4006 88 66 99 or from overseas to +86 871 805 8503 , quoting “earthquake crisis” and the chinaONEcall team will do their best to help. They operate a 24/7 interpreter service for travellers ( business or leisure ) and are making available their 15 strong team to give interpreter support to those on this present crisis.

Please note we will do our best to help, but cannot locate victims, doctors etc as this will be done by the relevant governmental and aid agencies.

chinaONEcall on Fox Business Network

Michael Sinclair recently appeared on the Fox Business Channel talking about chinaONEcall.

chinaONEcall UK Launch Party

Well, chinaONEcall – the interpreter in your pocket - launched on 16^th October at the very swish and snazzy No 5 in Cavendish Square and what a turn out! There must have been nearly 100 Guests including leading names from large corporates. Guests we talked to were from HSBC, Lloyds TSB, and many more. The room was absolutely buzzing!

Dr Eugene Chang from the China Britain Business Council and Yu Jing, press representative from the Chinese Embassy welcomed the guests and gave chinaONEcall their seal of approval.

Yu Jing expressed sincere congratulations to chinaONEcall on such a useful idea, and felt it provided a bridge between the 2 countries promoting better understanding and friendship between the people of China and the UK.

Dr Chang who opened the proceedings reflected on the fact that there may shortly be almost as many English language speakers in China as there are in the entire English-speaking world – but that doesn’t mean anyone can get by in doing business or travelling by just speaking English. CBBC members would surely be one of the first subscribers to chinaONEcall as China has one of the largest mobile phone networks in the world, with over 200,000 new mobile accounts opened every day - which is pretty awesome!

Michael Sinclair, Managing Director of chinaONEcall spoke of his personal experiences that inspired him to come up with the idea for the innovative service and said that he felt the full house at the launch was a reflection already of the value chinaONEcall can add to travel in China.

After watching a short film of the call centre in China in action, we dined lavishly from copious trays of beautifully crafted morsels based on a far east or oriental theme – miniature spring rolls, sushi, vast amounts of tempura prawns, thai green curry cornets – the food just kept coming. There was also Tsing Tao to wash it down as the guests merrily networked in to the night.

At the end of the evening the chinaONEcall team were found hunched in a corner with several bottles of self congratulatory Tsing Tao and more food! They deserved it – it had been a triumphant evening!

chinaONEcall at NBTA Boston

ChinaONEcall (The Interpreter in your pocket) will be exhibiting at the NBTA exhibition in Boston between 22nd and 25th July 2007. Come and see us at Booth #1826.
Click here to read more.

Industry heads for the neutral zone

Interesting article in the Guardian technology section about carbon offsetting and energy efficient travel in relation the Business Travel Show. chinaONEcall gets a mention towards the end of the piece.

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/businesssense/story/0,,2018717,00.html