To say that author and award-winning translator David Bellos knows a thing or two about translation would be an understatement. With over 40 years of experience, he has achieved international recognition for his works as a translator and biographer and has an impressive list of acclaimed publications to his name, including his most recently published book, Is that a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything. In his new book, Bellos debunks many of the myths and misconceptions about what translators do (and don’t do), and what translation is (and isn’t), as he ta... ›Read more

Tokyo native Hiroto Tokusei joins us as our new marketing director, bringing his experience as a product manager for YouTube's Asia-Pacific division. As product manager for YouTube, Hiroto was responsible for ensuring that the popular video-sharing site saw success in its localization into the Asia-Pacific, implementing auto-translations and auto-captioning to make user-created videos accessible and enjoyable for people worldwide. He'll be helping myGengo further enrich its marketing approach through identifying user needs, providing feedback to product developers and helping u... ›Read more

Lloyd comes to us via Toronto, where he worked as a healthcare application developer, solving problems and generally making the world a better place before relocating to Tokyo to work with the myGengo team. He'll be working closely with the rest of the dev team as our new Sales and Technical Support Engineer, providing insight and support for technical inquiries from clients and customers. In between fixing bugs and demystifying technical issues, you can find Lloyd geeking out on consumer tech, building his own apps and playing his PS3. ›Read more

Just in case you haven't noticed, the holidays are upon us, which means you literally have half a day to find that last-minute gift for that special (or not so special) translator in your life. Chances are if you've procrastinated until now, you obviously need a helping hand. And since we're not one to leave someone in need out in the cold, let's get a move on it! Whether you're shopping for the detail-oriented translator or the intrepid world-traveling linguaphile, we've got you covered. Here's our list of 6 splendid gift ideas that just might save you from finding yourself on San... ›Read more

Meet Miki Nakata, one of the newest members of our Japanese corporate salesforce. Miki comes to us after working as a freelance copywriter, interpreter and translator in New York and her hometown of New Jersey. As a member of the Japanese sales team, Miki will serve as the in-between for customers and myGengo, in order to help us better integrate into the local business environment. Come say hi to her at myGengo's Tokyo office, where you can find her working with myGengo's Japanese corporate clients (and mourning Japan's sad lack of honeycrisp apples). ›Read more

The Crunchies Awards are hosted by TechCrunch every year, and focus on spotlighting startups that shine in a variety of categories. We're up for the Best International Startup award, but in order to win it, we need your help. It would make our year to win — the Crunchies are like the Oscars of the tech industry.  So if you think we're awesome, vote here and tell all your friends. Voting closes in just a couple of hours, so be sure to vote now! Thanks for all your support! ›Read more

We don't know if you've heard the news, but myGengo has been growing quite rapidly. From acquiring more office space, introducing new languages and hiring new staff, we've tripled our size over the past year. We'll be introducing some of our newest team members over the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned. We hope you'll join us in welcoming Natalia Manidis, who joined last week as our new Translator Community Manager. Natalia hails from Australia, where she worked with Oxfam as a coordinator for Straight Talk, before traveling throughout Central and North America for six months.... ›Read more

We’ve had some really awesome plugins come in from third-party developers working in our API Lab. These plugins make it convenient to order professional-quality translations from within the platform or content management system of your choice, allowing anyone to grow their audience and reach. The next plugin we are covering is G-Gengo by Josh Chia, which allows you to order human translations from within Google’s Gmail. Gmail is one of the most popular Web mail services in the world and, by a recent count, boasts over 260 million users worldwide. Installing the Plugin Before... ›Read more

Steve Jobs, the man behind Apple computers, passed away on October 5. Kenji Yamamoto, the former VP of Apple Japan (and current CRO of myGengo) wrote an intimate four-part article in remembrance of his former boss. We think that it offers an interesting look into the life of Jobs from someone who worked closely with him, and have decided to translate it for our non-Japanese-speaking readers. The original Japanese version is here, and below is the first part of our two-part translation, done by super myGengo translator #1489. It all started by chance, in the office of a headhuntin... ›Read more

Kenji Yamamoto, the former VP of Apple Japan and our current CRO, wrote an article remembering his experiences with Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, who passed away on October 5. Originally published on Yamamoto's personal website, this is our translation of his post, which originally appeared here. This is the second of two parts — this first part is here. At the time, I was trying to decide whether to accept a job offer to become a COO of a large public company. Unquestionably, this offer was for a prestigious position. It was an excellent B2B company, but on the inside, I simply did n... ›Read more