It’s been almost a year since Acolad Community’s inception. We are counting more and more linguists working for the Acolad group: translators, interpreters, and language trainers too. Indeed, Acolad Community is here to help not only freelance linguists, but also every language expert that makes Acolad what it is today. Also, this year, AAC Global, one of Acolad’s entities specialized in learning services and language training is changing its name from February 18th.
As we wanted to better welcome trainers into the Acolad Community, we organized a meetup dedicated to language trainers with AAC Global on February 7th in Helsinki. In the country of a thousand lakes, trainers got to know more about Acolad and the Acolad Community. They also discovered the new Acolad learning store with new featured training products and exchanged tips and tricks on virtual training for trainers.
A friendly language trainer meetup on the Itämerentorni rooftop
Back to the future of Acolad
We welcomed 34 trainers from all areas of Finland from Oulu to Turku for the entire day on the rooftop of the Itämerentorni Tower in Ruoholahti, not far from the heart of Helsinki. After meeting with fellows and trainer managers from AAC, Danilo Monaco, AAC’s General Manager, opened the meetup and spoke about the essential role trainers have in AAC and in building Acolad:
“We are here today because you represent the new brand and the past and the future of this company. You represent the past the same way I do. When I came here 31 years ago (…), I was young, I was not a Finnish speaker, and AAC as a brand had meaning to me, like for many of you. In a way, you are also the future. AAC is not only a training company anymore. Today it offers many more services, but you still represent the future of this company.
You have an essential role at AAC because you are the face of the company. The way you have contributed for 50 years as trainers and as professionals, building AAC brand is the same reason why you are central in building Acolad brand from now on.”
What Acolad and Community can do for trainers
After Danilo’s speech, Annaelisa Huhtala, Marketing Manager for Northern Europe, presented Acolad and its history, the reasons for the rebranding, what will change for trainers from the 18th of February and what they should tell their students and clients. Then Marion Ettviller, Marketing Manager for translators, presented a retrospective of all events, contests and animations for the Community in 2019 and how it can help trainers expand their contacts.
Annaelisa went back to Danilo’s idea saying that trainers “are the face of the brand”. Indeed, as linguistic experts, trainers contribute to strengthening Acolad’s expertise in the language service area. As Danilo added, trainers help their students and clients “being closer to the customer’s cultures.”
Marion also emphasized the need to grasp every aspect of cultures, not only language: “When you’re learning a language, you are also learning a culture, a way of thinking that is different from your native language. If you don’t, your speech is going to get “lost in translation”. So being local is about embracing all aspects of a language and communication.”.
Acolad, AAC Global, and Community share one goal: celebrating all cultures. “I think that being international is not trendy anymore, being local is more relevant today”, said a trainer. Acolad was born 25 years ago from a family business, so being part of Acolad is like being part of a family where humans and the richness of cultures are at the heart of everything.
Workshop time with managers & senior trainers
After lunch break came another meetup highlight. Trainers got introduced to the Acolad learning store and new digital material by Glennon Kiernan-Lahti and Anu Rummukainen, respectively Learning Content manager and Business Unit Leader, before taking part in a workshop. They had to give their opinion about why anyone would still need language training and what students expected from courses.
To conclude the day, two specialist trainers, Chris Evans and Mia Juthman, animated another presentation with a Q&A session about virtual training. Indeed, as the language service world undergoes massive transformations (especially digital evolutions), language learning and eLearning have changed much. One of the main challenges today is how to use virtual training with students, the pros and cons and how to adapt it to your teaching method.
Trainers were able to have their say in every workshop and presentation, making them more dynamic and insightful for everyone.
Trainers faces: interviews for Acolad Community
Finally, we asked some trainers to talk about language training for Acolad Community. They told us their best and worst experiences, how language training has evolved over the last decades and what their advice to every trainer and student is. Here is our first interview with Merja, check out the next interviews very soon on Acolad Community YouTube channel:
Here at Acolad Community, we are proud to welcome all professional linguistic experts, because you are the face and heart of the language world. Today, despite all technological innovations, we need you more than ever. Acolad Community will keep on paying tribute to each trainer, translator, and interpreter for building bridges between cultures. As Mandela once said: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”
See you soon for the next events and welcome to Acolad Community!