Humans of POP: Christine Imad, Language Services Manager at POP Prague
The secret ingredient is a combination of looking inwards, listening to our own instincts, and letting our individual traits shine.
This is one piece of advice Christine Imad, Language Services Manager at POP Prague, would share with her younger self. As part of the global team behind POP’s fantastic work on transcreation and translation, Christine describes herself as “a polyglot project manager with insider knowledge.” She handles project management tasks, and her studies and experience with translation allow her to evaluate translation, transcreation, copywriting and editing requests, and advise clients on best practices.
Christine was born in Sweden and lived and studied in Lebanon. She’s worked as a language teacher, a luxury copywriter, and the head of a translation department at a non-profit in the development sector. She’s now been a translator for over 13 years, and has been leveraging those skills at POP for almost a year now.
Recently, Christine has been invited to join research on transcreation being done by the University of Edinburgh. The project aims at bridging gaps and encouraging broader conversations about price structure in transcreation by industry leaders. Christine is excited be a part of this important research, which will collect the input of different stakeholders to create a code of conduct for transcreation. Stay tuned to the blog to hear more about this project in the future!
In this inaugural conversation for the Humans of POP series, Christine shares more about the work done at POP Prague, and offers insights on the transcreation process. We also learn more about her as an individual – her creative outlets, love for baking, and even her go-to coffee order. To learn more about Christine and her inspiring reflections on language and originality, you can read the full conversation below.
What is your role at POP?
I am the Language Services Manager at POP in Prague. I am part of a global team that is dedicated to all things language and culture. Together with my brilliant colleague Daria Polishchuk, we make up the language team at the office in Prague. Our colleagues Karthikeyan Venkata Narayanan and Nirmala Devi Manickam support us from Chennai, India, and our team leader, Michael Freitas Moreira works alongside us in Prague. Finally, our Global VP of Languages, Brock Hansen, guides our team’s trajectory, all the way from the US.
POP Prague is truly the hub of language for POP.
As our team deals with multiple languages and cultures, it’s only fitting that its members bring technical knowledge, experience, and talent from all over the world, including Lebanon, India, Portugal, Ukraine, and the US!
What motivates or inspires you, either at work or in your personal life?
My life has always been guided by a pursuit of improving whatever I can see – in very small ways, of course.
Nothing feels as fulfilling to me as seeing people come together, forming a community, and lending their own talents to a common pursuit, leading to spectacular results. Working on this team alongside inspiring people gives me that fulfilment, and it only inspires me to go further. I also feel fortunate to work alongside linguists that are titans of their industry and have helped to craft, word by word, the identity and cultural impact of brands and campaigns that defined the world we live in. It’s both inspiring to learn from these stellar talents and to be a small part of their paths.
What’s something you love doing outside of work that keeps you balanced?
All modern work comes with a fair amount of stress, and the best remedy to that is creativity.
I love exploring creativity in many ways, and the more I get to share with others, the better. I enjoy creating my own recipes to cook and bake, and have loved ones come over to share a meal, or bring a small treat into the office for colleagues to try. I’ve been learning digital illustration for a couple of years, and I’ve recently been drawn to sewing and embroidery; crafts that hold centuries of wisdom, concepts of applied physics, and beauty that is seamlessly understood across cultures!
What’s one part of your job that might be surprising or unexpected to those outside of the industry?
It might surprise people how much work, thought, consideration, and collaboration go on behind the scenes for transcreation, especially before any work is done. We are typically briefed by a client or an agency wanting to convert their English messages into another language.
We begin with a crucial part of the job: gathering background information on the client, what their brand stands for, and the purpose of the campaign. Next, we take note of any word play, and the chord that the source copy strikes, considering emotional, psychological, social, and historical factors.
We ask ourselves: what do we want the public to be inspired to do?
The more we understand all the circumstances that have led to this copy, the better!
We then scan our database for the ideal copywriter to take on the work from a roster of brilliant copywriters in various languages, all with decades of experience. When the time comes to assign work, we choose talents who have extensive experience with the type of campaign we are working on. Only after all these steps can the work actually begin!
This is why we always ask our clients and colleagues across our agencies to give us as much information as possible, and hand over a finalized copy before we brief our linguists.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received about your career, or a piece of career advice you’d give to your younger self?
To trust my instincts, especially in a world filled with people trying to convince us (read: sell us) the things that are missing for us to reach our business goals.
I believe that 90% of jobs are filled by people who have done all the work needed to get where they are.
The secret ingredient that we are missing to push us over the line and reach new heights is a combination of looking inwards, listening to our own instincts, and letting our individual traits shine.
The world desperately needs us to showcase what makes us truly ourselves, and we can’t stand out if all we try to do is force ourselves to conform.
What’s your favourite project you’ve worked on at POP, and why?
My favourite project has got to be the Manor Christmas campaign. It’s a project brought to us by BETC, for a Christmas campaign for Manor, a Swiss shopping mall.
In this project, the visuals, the choice of colour, the wording, and the creators’ playfulness all come together to evoke the magic of Christmas.
It was a true joy to work on this project and it’s clear that the linguists who transcreated the content into German and Italian had a ball!
What’s your go-to office drink/snack?
Oat chai latte, always and forever 😊
Humans of POP is our storytelling series, created to shine a light on the people making it all happen behind the scenes. Our people are at the heart of everything we do – and this series is all about hearing from them directly. Across continents and cultures, these stories remind us how much we can learn from who is around us.
Keep up with the latest on our blog to learn and get inspired by their passions, skills, journeys, and advice.
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