Our own French project manager, Heidi Ripplinger, took some time answer a few questions for us. Read on to learn more!

Where are you from (give us some back story!)?                                                          I am from Grand Rapids, MI. If you hold up your left hand and look at the back of it, you’ll see the lower peninsula of Michigan. Grand Rapids is located where your ring would go on your ring finger. It’s about the same size as greater Monterey, but it’s more of a city. San Jose reminds me a lot of home.

When/why did you begin studying your B language and what is your experience with it?
I began studying French, my B language, when I was 12. I have studied it on and off ever since. I’ve studied in France twice. I lived in Aix-en-Provence, which is a beautiful small town made out of former mansions of the royal court. I also studied at Middlebury at Mills two summers ago, which is a language immersion program.

Now language will always be part of my life. I will finish my MBA in Localization Management this summer.

How did you find out about localization?
I found out about localization from the MIIS website, which is funny, since a large part of my job is to help drive traffic to the site. On my campus tour, Jeff Wood spent 2 hours talking to me about localization and its opportunities. He convinced me.

What projects have you worked on for L10N and what are you working on now?                                                                                                                            Over the summer I worked on a pilot project for MIIS gathering research on francophone countries. It’s a continuing project. I also managed the translation of the TLM website and the transcreation of some Facebook ads. Currently I’m directing the transcreation of a second set of Facebook and Google Ads. In addition, managing the French blog (http://blogs.miis.edu/tifrench/), and collecting data on French Google Ad performance is a continuing task.

How many members do you have on your team and what do they do?
I have six team members: two translators, three bloggers, and one alumnus reviewer. I hope to work in a social media manager in the near future.

Anything else you would like people who know nothing about l10n and localization to know?
Localization is one career that is forecasted to grow over the next years, instead of decline. It is fun and exciting to work in this field. Every day has a new task, a new challenge.