The Word Gym Ltd.

The Word Gym was first set up in London in January 1990, inspired by the perception that most conventional translation companies and many other text specialists don't draw clear enough distinctions between different kinds of text intended for different purposes.

Procurement departments aren't generally interested in the fact that conventional translation providers tend to treat all translation work as more or less the same, i.e. undifferentiated. Unfortunately, undifferentiated translation work tends to be mediocre or poor, because it hasn't been properly matched to its intended purpose (remember, a quality product is one that is "suitable for purpose"). The end results of this undifferentiated approach are, however, of vital interest to customer services, marketing and PR departments, who are regularly confronted by:

• complaints (often vociferous) from local offices in overseas target markets;
• complaints from customers who cannot read/understand translated or (supposedly) transcreated material;
• loss of face when high-level promotional material is poorly written, translated or mistranslated;
• equipment failures (or worse) resulting from misunderstandings;
• actual damage to the brand or brands in some markets;
• differing perceptions of the company's brand values in different target markets.

We specialise in making words fit for purpose. That's our core value and our core skill. It's what we've based our quality philosophy on. We've built our reputation by satisfying the needs of discriminating brand owners who know that flabby, unfit language can seriously damage their credibility and brand portfolio.

In 1992, The Word Gym was one of the smallest companies in the UK to be awarded ISO 9002 certification by an independent auditor (BSI). Our quality management systems are specifically geared up to deal with the demanding nature of the work we do, and we're very proud of them.

The Word Gym moved to Oxford in November 1996, and now has offices in Aberfeldy, Scotland and Wellington, New Zealand.

A wise man hears one word and understands two.

Yiddish proverb