News Archive
June 2010
Knockhundred’s Legal Eagles
 It’s official – our translators and interpreters are trusted by over 100 solicitors, police forces, courts and councils around the country.
Here at Knockhundred, we’ve found ourselves specialising in language work for the legal sector. Director, Melissa Ridley, commented,
"It seems that so many solicitors and courts have been let down in the past by linguists who are not familiar with either legal documents or legal processes. Over the last couple of years, our reputation for supplying experienced, legal linguists has spread nationwide. Solicitors seem to appreciate the fact that we understand how the Legal Services Commission works, and that we have so many experienced linguists on our books working in over 150 languages. Having discussed it with the other Project Managers in the office here, we can’t think of a single request that we haven’t been able to fulfil – and I’m proud of that. We enjoy a challenge!"
 Knockhundred not only regularly supplies written translations of legal documents and contracts in different languages, but court interpreters, BSL interpreters, palantypists and also provides a forensic audio transcription service. Using our in-house sound studio, our forensic audio transcription service maximises audibility to ensure accurate transcriptions. This is useful for the analysis of covert recordings or when an original recording requires "cleaning" prior to transcription.
Knockhundred’s linguistic legal expertise is not only relied on by the legal profession. We also provide certified, notarised and legalised translations of official documents such as passports and certificates to individuals. One of our happy clients who used our services commented:
“Thank you very much for the professional translation and fast delivery of my son's birth certificate. The certifying letter was readily accepted by the UK passport authorities, resulting in a quick turnaround of my son's passport application.
I will certainly call on the services of Knockhundred Translations Ltd again should I require any more certified translations, and I would strongly recommend your company to anyone else in need of a certified translation.”
Private individual, Sutton Coldfield
March 2010
People of the Year Awards – Disability Issues
Knockhundred is proud to have supplied BSL interpreters for the glittering event held at Battersea Evolution.
Knockhundred’s British Sign Language Interpreters rubbed shoulders with the likes of John Bercow MP, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Rt Honourable Yvette Cooper, Baroness Jane Campbell, Roger Berry MP, Phil Hope MP, Alastair Campbell, Cerrie Burnell, James Partidge, Mark Harper MP and Sabina Iqbal.
Sabina Iqbal (above on the left) is founder of Deaf Parenting UK, the first ever charity run by Deaf parents for Deaf parents. Julie Jaye Charles (above right) has built a national movement for black and minority ethnic disabled people and carers.
Our BSL interpreters were able to assist during the award ceremony for the following categories:
- Doing Access Differently Award, sponsored by the Office for Disability Issues
- Doing IT Differently Award
- Doing Careers Differently Award
- Doing Money Differently Award
- Doing Care and Support Differently Award, sponsored by the Equality and Human Rights Commission
- Doing Media Differently Award – Factual Programming
- Doing Media Differently Award – Fictional Programming
- Disabled Young Person of the Year Award, sponsored by HSBC
- Lifetime Achievement Award
- Person of the Year Award, sponsored by the Post Office
The general consensus was that it was a very exciting event and our interpreters were thrilled to be part of it.
This month, Knockhundred’s BSL interpreters have worked at union meetings, Brighton County Court, Brent Magistrates’ Court, job centres, a conference in Birmingham and a conference in Manchester. Our Palantypists and Deafblind interpreters have also been busy with assignments in courts and at various leadership conferences being held round the country.
If you would like to find out more about these services, please read our BSL interpreting and Palantype pages.
November 2009
We have seen an increase of over 50% in enquiries for Knockhundred’s transcription services this year. Almost all have been related to either human resources issues, legal cases or medical work.
 Knockhundred is delighted to welcome a London council, an NHS Trust, a police force, numerous solicitors, a major insurance company and a firm of architects to its digital transcription service.
One of the directors here at Knockhundred was particularly satisfied to be able to “clean up” the quality of a poor recording before transcription work began. When he is not project managing complex website localisation assignments in multiple languages, he can usually be found behind the desk with our voiceover recording equipment!
The client was delighted that we were able to produce a verbatim transcription from such poor quality audio. They were even more delighted that we were able to deliver early and under budget.
Working in over 150 languages, including English, we can handle just about any format including CD, DVD, MiniDisc, Hi-MD, tape, video and most digital sound files including dss, wav, MP3, aif, aiff and Real Audio etc.
To find out more about this service, visit Transcription.
October 2009
Interpreting Taster Course
Have you ever thought of getting into interpreting, but don’t quite know where to start? Well, if you speak fluent English and understand at least one other language fully, our ‘Interpreting Taster Course’ could be for you.
This four-day course presents the two broad areas of interpreting: Public Service interpreting and Conference interpreting, as well as the different means of interpreting used in these contexts e.g. liaison, consecutive, and simultaneous, so you can work out which suits you best. It also provides some initial interpreter training, presenting essential techniques which are key to any good interpretation, and giving you the chance to try them out for yourselves and receive feedback from your peers and trainers. Finally, the course provides information as to the next step i.e. what the options are for further training and employment, should you wish to embark on a career in interpreting. We will also be on the lookout for new talent to help with any suitable “real-life” assignments.
Dates of next course: 25 – 28 January 2010
Venue: London
Cost: £245 + VAT
Further details regarding course content can be found in this downloadable course content sheet. If you are interested in attending the ‘Interpreting Taster Course’ and speak fluent English and at least one other language, please download and complete the Course Reservation Form and send it to us at:
Knockhundred Translations Ltd
Bearwood
Leominster
Herefordshire
HR6 9EF
July 2009
Important information about Swine Flu
Below are a number of links of support accessible for people with disabilities or with English as a second language.
The alternative formats (16 languages in simple PDF version, large print, and audio) were posted on the Directgov website on Tuesday 5 May (www.direct.gov.uk
/en/Swineflu/News/DG_177995).
Hard copy audio CDs, Braille sheet, and large print formats are available to order and take up to a week to deliver depending on demand. Hard copies of ten translations are available to order (including Welsh/English bilingual, Polish, Bengali, Chinese, Urdu, Arabic, Punjabi, Gujarati, Somali, French) and take up to a week to deliver, depending on demand.
A video providing information about swine flu in British Sign Language is available at www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Pandemic-flu/Pages/Otherlanguages.aspx.
An ‘easy read’ version of the leaflet is available online at www.dh.gov.uk/en/
Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_098685. DH will be printing a small quantity and distributing them to voluntary organisations who work with people with learning disabilities.
The leaflet has been translated into Welsh and can be found at wales.gov.uk/
topics/health/protection/communicabledisease/swine/?skip=1&lang=cy.
The NHS Choices website has a section on Important information about swine flu aimed at the public which can be found at www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Pandemic-flu/Pages
/Introduction.aspx and also contains Swine Flu Q&As at www.nhs.uk/Conditions/
Pandemic-flu/Pages/QA.aspx
DH also published a leaflet on their website for the public titled Swine Flu: From Containment to Treatment. This document sets out in more detail the approach to managing the pandemic to date, what a treatment phase means, and what this new approach means for people with swine flu.
The leaflet can be found at www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Flu/Swineflu/
InformationandGuidance/index.htm.
January 2009
 Training to become an interpreter
Knockhundred provides interpreters in over 150 languages to both the public and private sectors. The last few months have included requests for Twi, Polish, Kurdish, Russian, Pashto, Punjabi, Mirpuri, Cantonese, Albanian, Gypsy Romanian, Spanish, Arabic, Czech, Welsh and Uzbek. It certainly keeps us on our toes! This of course doesn’t include the British Sign Language interpreting, French Sign Language interpreting and most recently, Iraqi Sign Language interpreting requests.
Knockhundred is very well-placed therefore to provide advice and training on how to become a professional interpreter. The company has been approached to devise and deliver such a course, initially in Sheffield. Knockhundred would also think of delivering the course in Birmingham and London.
The course will cover the interpreter’s role, routes to becoming qualified as an interpreter, opportunities as a qualified interpreter, interpreting role-play with instant feedback, the art of oral sight translation, oral sight translation practice, the art of simultaneous interpreting and when to use this mode, and will include a short paper to assess translation skills.
If anybody would like to register interest in such a course, do please contact us. To help us, please indicate your preferred venue – Sheffield, Birmingham or London.
November 2008
Your website – the ultimate marketing tool
Would you buy something from a website if you didn’t understand the language it was written in? Would you prefer to obtain information about a service, product, event or organisation in your own language – or would you prefer to struggle with a machine translation or dictionary to try and decipher what’s being said? The answer’s obvious.
Knockhundred is finding that many businesses are beginning to understand how critical it is to have their websites accurately and sensitively translated in order to attract extra business or visitors to their site.
Some of our clients have assumed that having their website translated and localised would be expensive, complicated and time-consuming. It really isn’t – much to the relief of the businesses who have already taken the plunge and entrusted Knockhundred with the localisation of their sites.
Knockhundred has in-house, state-of-the-art localisation software that protects your source files during the translation process. You simply need to send us the source files for your website – and we can do the rest! We have a team of qualified and experienced translators working in over 150 languages ready to produce different language versions of your site.
To find out more about this service, visit Website Translation and Localisation.
October 2008
Knockhundred launches its on-line language tuition service
With our system, there is no need to travel to a language school or to arrange for a tutor to visit your office or your home. Simply take classes seated at your desk on a day or at a time that suits you.
We can currently offer live, on-line language tuition in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Hungarian, Romanian and Bulgarian. The number of languages offered is due to increase over the coming months, so watch this space!
An experienced tutor will teach at a level and speed that suits you – and what’s more, the classes are one-to-one so you will get 100% attention and input from your tutor.
All levels are catered for from beginners to advanced students. Classes can be tailored for academic study, business language, learning holiday language basics or simply for the pleasure of learning another language.
All you need is a computer, an internet connection, Skype installed on your computer (which is free), and a Skype compatible computer headset. If you want to see your tutor during the class, you will also need a webcam.
To find out more about this service, visit Online, One-to-One Language Tuition.
October 2008
Knockhundred launches its 24/7 telephone interpreting service
Now you can talk by phone to your clients anywhere in the world, any time of day or night, 365 days per year, in over 150 languages. And what’s more, it is affordable. The interpreting fees for a 2-way, 5 minute call in any language could cost as little as £7.50 + VAT.
We charge no sign-up fees and there are no subscription charges.
2-way conference calls are used when both the caller and the non-English speaker are at the same location and sharing the same telephone line. 3-way conference calls are used when the caller and the non-English speaker are at different locations. We can even organise a call involving more than 3 participants, all based in different locations and countries.
Once you have opened an account with us and you access the service, each conference call usually takes less than 60 seconds to set-up. You do not need any special equipment other than a standard telephone, and you can access the service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
For more information, call us on 01544 388040 or visit Telephone Interpreting.
July 2008
New member of the team
We are delighted to welcome Stéphanie McClune to Knockhundred Translations.
Having studied at Rennes University in France, Stéphanie achieved two language degrees and is fluent in French, Spanish and English.
In between travelling extensively in Peru and teaching French in the UK at a school, she has been translating and interpreting both in-house and in a freelance capacity since 2005. She has translated newsletters, advertisements, brochures, commercial documents, technical reports, web pages, manuals, and even documents about horse dentistry tools! As well as creating and maintaining terminological databases in different languages, Stéphanie also has valuable experience as an interpreter. In 2005, she interpreted for Spanish companies exhibiting at trade shows in Brittany.
 Stéphanie is currently translating our very own website into French and will be overseeing the translation of the site into other languages over the coming months.
She seems almost as excited as we are that she has joined our team!
"Working for a translation company was my professional ambition because it combines translation work with customer relationship management.
My interest for languages started at an early age when I used to travel to Germany with my parents to visit their German friends. At the age of 10, when lessons in foreign languages began at school, my parents “decided” I should take German first (which I didn’t really appreciate at the time as all my friends were taking English...). Luckily, I really enjoyed my German classes! The second language I took was English, and the third, Spanish. Learning a language is not just about learning vocabulary and grammar, it’s about learning a new communication logic, people, history and culture.
I am very excited to have joined the enthusiastic, friendly and professional team here at Knockhundred and look forward to getting to know the clients and other linguists.
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