Meet the team: Becky Dunwoodie, project management team lead

Today we sit down with Becky Dunwoodie, one of Alpha CRC’s project management team leads.

Becky, great to see you. You’ve been with us for a little while now, could you talk us through your day?

I have! Since 2021, so approaching four years now. If I were going to sum up my workday in a word, I think I’d have to go with ‘diverse’. In the project management team, we get involved in a little bit of everything: file prep, launching translation tasks, coordinating with internal teams and clients, and quoting. As a team lead, I work closely with the rest of the group to distribute workloads and manage all the requests that come our way. They could be standard translation requests or investigations into potential workflow improvements that will provide more long-term benefits.

The variation is definitely what I love about my role. It’s very rare for me to be doing the same thing consecutively for more than one hour a day. It keeps my mind active and my day interesting. I also enjoy working with a range of clients – one day I’ll be working on marketing videos for animal care products, and the next I’m working on UI for a leading music engineering software company. Honestly, I feel like I’ve been able to collaborate with a variety of companies from across the world since I started working at Alpha. I like to think I’ve played even a small role in helping them be successful.

I guess I also just love telling people what to do [laughs].

That variety is one of the best things about working in a localization services provider. How did you get started in the industry?

Modern languages have always been interesting to me – I studied them at uni, for example. Translation, by extension, has always been on my radar – I think it always is when you’re studying in that field. Personally, though, I didn’t feel a strong call to be a translator myself, even if I did want to be a part of the localization industry. Being in a project management role gives me the variety that I love, while still getting to contribute to an industry I really respect.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone starting in this field, what would it be?

For aspiring localization project managers, I’d say it’s important to get to know as many translation tools as you can, and learn about the files you’re going to be putting in them. Many tools and file types will have commonalities, but the more you understand how they work, the faster you’ll be able to fix things when an issue arises.

Ultimately, that means you’ll be getting files into a translator’s hands that little bit quicker, which can make all the difference on a quick-turnaround project.

What’s your favourite word or phrase in another language, and why?

It has to be ‘tiquismiquis’. No doubt about it. It means ‘fussy’ in Spanish, and I feel like it really embodies that meaning. As a native English speaker, it’s just such a fun word to say, and it has such a finicky spelling. I love it.

Can you share one of your favourite examples of localization? What makes it stand out to you?

Okay, this is a recent find, and potentially a bit rogue, but I love the Gipsy Kings’ Spanish version of Hotel California. The lyrics have been translated quite literally, although the genre has changed significantly. I think this really speaks to localization as a whole, and how many different choices are made at each stage of the process. What happens if we translate word X as Y? How about if we make a small change here? How does that change the atmosphere? How creative do we need to be in adapting content for a new locale? Can we be quite literal with the language, but more free with associated imagery? For me, this song is basically a microcosm of our industry. Crucially, it’s also just such a vibe.

If you could instantly become fluent in any language, which would you choose and why?

I’d go with German. One of my close friends is from Munich, and it would be nice to be able to speak to her in her own language. It would just be cool to see how her personality would change in a different language.