Celebrating the Diverse Range of Language, Part One

INSTANDA is proud of our diversity within the workplace, extending to even the languages spoken within the team. In the latest installment of "Meet the Team," we are highlighting some our multi-lingual employees! Part one introduces our Marketing Executive, Rosalind Simpson.

Did you know?

• Your average language has around 50,000 words… however native speakers typically know 15-20,000 and only regularly use a couple of hundred.
• Russian was the first language spoken in OUTER SPACE
• It is believed that about 70,000 YEARS AGO a change happened in the human brain that allowed humans to suddenly develop complex language and thoughts about things that are not immediately visible. This led to the ability to develop ideas, plans, beliefs and bigger concepts and being able to express these with language.
• According to UNESCO, at least 43% of the estimated 6000 languages spoken in the world are ENDANGERED.
• More than 200 FAKE LANGUAGES have been created for literature and cinema (such as Elvish in “Lord of the Rings” and Klingon in “Star Trek”).

The languages of INSTANDA

15 different languages are spoken at INSTANDA! This ranges from Spanish to Turkish to Hebrew to Tamil! The full list is as follows: English, Spanish, French, Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati, Farsi, Turkish, Portuguese, Italian, Punjabi, Hebrew, Tamil, Polish, and Hungarian.

Meet Rosalind Simpson - Marketing Executive

Languages you speak: English & French

Where did you learn to speak these languages? I was born in London but my mother is French. So, apart from hearing my parents and family speak both languages, growing up I went to an English speaking school during the week and a bilingual French school on Saturdays. There, I learned to read and write French. I’ve spent a lot of time in France also with my French family, and even attended a French school in Brittany for a bit.

Favorite phase: « En avril, n’enlève pas un fil. Au mois de mai, fait ce qu’il te plaît »
Meaning: April weather is unpredictable, so keep your warm clothes on. Literal translation: In April, don’t remove a thread. In May, do what you want!

“En avril, n’enlève pas un fil. Au mois de mai, fait ce qu’il te plaît”

Have your multi-lingual abilities come in handy during your professional life? If so when/how: I studied Fashion Design & Marketing, and after graduating I decided to move to Paris to work for some French fashion brands. I had to speak French every day, which I hadn’t really done before unless I was with French family & friends. It was great learning slang, French jokes, and phrases that I hadn’t already learned from my family or in a text book - which ultimately improved my fluency.

Any advice to anyone thinking of learning a second (or 3rd) Language: Don’t be scared to try! Confidence is key when speaking a foreign language, conversing with a native speaker always helps with pronunciations and picking up new words or phrases.