71. The Surprise in That Subway® Sandwich: Languages

Getting a peek behind the curtain to see how a company truly operates can be eye-opening. I never knew that, you may find yourself saying.

You may start off in this episode, as we did, not knowing much about terms like localization and transcreation. What could they possibly have to do with a Subway Footlong?

As it turns out, a lot. An American bilingual named Carrie Fischer is in charge of communicating with all of Subway’s global partners. She’s created the perfect recipe for doing this: she communicates with them in the language they know best—and that’s not English.

HEAR THE STORY

Listen on Apple Podcasts here: America the Bilingual by Steve Leveen; on Spotify; or wherever you tune in to your podcasts.

LEARN MORE ABOUT LOCALIZATION

Language and localization go together like a Subway Footlong and soft drink. It’s a viable and growing career path for students of languages. Here are four organizations to check out:

Women in Localization, where Carrie served as president in 2023, is a trade organization that’s growing year after year.

Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey is a “feeder school,” as Carrie describes it, that closes the gap between academia and the localization industry. So far it’s one of a kind—the only one to offer a graduate degree in the field. Although based in California, the institute is part of Middlebury College in Vermont, whose language immersion program we reported on in Episode 35.

Language Connects Foundation is part of ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages). Carrie serves on the board, working to highlight localization as another career path for students of global languages.

Association of Language Companies has created the “ALC Bridge,” a collaboration among educators, employers and language students to be ready for the growing number of careers that will favor bilinguals.

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Please share this episode where you socialize, or be a reviewer on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You’ll be part of a blossoming bilingual America, where English unites us and our other languages strengthen us.

Share it with some businesses, too, that have customers outside the U. S. Maybe you work for them, invest in them, or own them.

CREDITS

Thanks to members of the America the Bilingual Project team for this episode: Mim Harrison, editorial and brand director of the America the Bilingual Project, who wrote and directed this episode; Fernando Hernández Becerra and his production house in Guadalajara, Mexico Esto No Es Radio, which provides sound design and mixing; and Karla Hernandez at Daruma Tech, who manages our website.

Music credits, in order of appearance: Komiku, Hélice’s theme; Kevin MacLeod, Quasi Motion; TRG Banks, City; Komiku, Everything Is Groovy (How to Move Your Body); HoliznaCC0, 20 Minute meditation 1; TRG Banks, Horse Ride 2; Komiku, In the Restaurant; Soft and the Furious, Superconnected Sleep; Wax Lyricist, A Bad Death; and Kai Engel, Holiday Gift.

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Be sure to check out our Book page to see to see why the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Kennedy calls America’s Bilingual Century “timely, smart, and refreshingly practical.”