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Language Accessibility Leader: Last Farewells · Resources for your Global Journey · Arvorei Team Profile · Translation 101: Machines vs. Humans

Kim Jacob
January 25, 2025

“Leave no words left unspoken”

Last Farewells: This month’s Language Accessibility Leader

After reading about Last Farewells in Nadia Ladak’s newsletter last year, I reached out to co-founder Estrella Quiroz and we met for a virtual chat. She told me that one of the inspirations for the business was a series of voicemails from her father who died suddenly soon after her 18th birthday. She has kept those audio messages as a living memory of her father and transformed her loss into a beautiful opportunity to help people create similar messages of love for their family members to cherish after they’re gone.

Last Farewells is an end-of-life planning platform that helps people create last messages and a memorial page that is delivered after they pass away. Users can create videos to be played at weddings, letters to be read at graduations, audio recordings to sing happy birthday, or a memorial page filled with self-obituaries, last photo albums, music playlists, and more.

These heartfelt keepsakes can comfort and support your loved ones during times of grief.

Last Farewells’ founders, who have traveled to over 100 countries, understand deeply that death and grief are universal experiences that transcend borders. They know that when someone we love passes away, there is often a silence left behind filled with all the things that went unsaid—stories, laughter, and wisdom that we continue to yearn for. While traditional end-of-life planning focuses on legal and financial aspects, it often overlooks these crucial emotional needs.

What makes Last Farewells a Language Accessibility Leader?

Currently, messages can be recorded in ANY language. Until this week, the platform was in beta test mode so there was no way to track all languages, however, English, Spanish and Waray have been used in this phase. In future, the instructions for using the platform will be in 100+ languages to increase accessibility and help achieve their vision that no words be left unspoken by anyone, anywhere.

Last Farewells' beta platform is now available to the public so be sure to check out the link below. They would love to hear your feedback to keep improving the platform!

Resources for your Global Journey

Ask the Right Questions: The Practical Starter Guide to Harnessing AI for Sustainable Business Growth

Whether you’re expanding to a new foreign market or looking to leverage AI to grow your business right here in Canada, Ask the Right Questions - written by my mentor Sara Phelan - is more than a business book and is so worth your time and money!

It’s your step-by-step guide to using AI in a way that works for you, your team, and your business. It provides practical tools & tips to confidently embrace AI and use it as a catalyst for measurable growth.

What You’ll Discover:

The Evalu8 Framework: A proven, eight-pillar system to assess and optimize leadership, operations, marketing, financials, and more.

Real-World Case Studies and Prompts: Learn from actionable examples that show how businesses like yours are using AI to solve real challenges and uncover opportunities.

Practical Tools for Growth: Downloadable checklists, exercises, and easy-to-follow strategies to implement AI without the overwhelm.

AI Integration Made Simple: Discover where AI fits into your business and how to start today—no tech expertise required.

Why This Book? This book is for anyone asking, “Where do I even start with AI?” It simplifies the complex, providing you with a roadmap to confidently integrate AI into your business strategy. Unlike other AI guides, AI-Driven Success focuses on the practical, actionable steps you can take now to drive growth and streamline operations. "Think of your business like a GPS - without a clear destination and roadmap, you’re wasting time and resources."

Who Should Read This Book? This guide is perfect for: Small Business Owners ready to scale or optimize their operations. CEOs and Leadership Teams looking to stay competitive and future-focused. Entrepreneurs and Professionals eager to use AI for smarter decision-making and long-term success.

About the Author: Sara Phelan is a business strategist, certified coach, and the creator of the Evalu8 Framework. With over 20 years of experience helping entrepreneurs and leadership teams succeed, Sara is passionate about demystifying AI and empowering business owners to unlock their potential. Known for turning challenges into actionable strategies, she helps you ask the right questions to drive meaningful results.

Take Control of Your Business Future: AI isn’t optional anymore, it’s essential. With AI-Driven Success: Ask the Right Questions, you’ll have the tools and confidence to make AI work for your business, not the other way around.

Get to know the Arvorei Team

The Arvorei Team is a unique group of professional translators, writers, and language experts who share our founder’s values for inclusive communication, mutual respect, and making a difference in the world. Each team member has our clients’ highest expectations and needs as their top priority. They are heart-centered and motivated to do good for people and the planet.

Meet Johani

Johani is an English to French translator, reviser, and language teacher. She has worked with Arvorei for many years, often lending her expert eye to projects requiring Canadian French as she is certified by the Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec (OTTIAQ).

A graduate of the University of Surrey in Guildford, United Kingdom, Johani has deep expertise in Caribbean and international affairs, with a focus on environmental and public health, finance, law, and trade facilitation. Also certified by the Government of Togo, she works with international, non-governmental, and governmental organizations in the Caribbean and Canada.

Born in Togo, with ties to Suriname and Guyana, Johani is fluent in French, English, Mina, and is learning Dutch. She is a creative person with a passion for arts and crafts, interior design, travel, new cultures, wellness, singing, and fashion. She has three adult children, loves animals, and has three turtles!

Translation 101: Did you know…?

Machines vs. Humans

The most common question I get when someone learns I run a translation agency: How is AI impacting your business and the translation industry?

Here's the scoop!

For those concerned about accuracy and resonance with the target audience, human involvement in translation is a must. While AI can reduce the cost and speed of translation, you sacrifice quality because machines often struggle with understanding context, idioms, and cultural nuances, leading to translations that may sound awkward or are in fact incorrect. With complex or specialized content, the errors can be even more prevalent.

AI has not - and will not - fully replace human translators, but rather is creating MORE WORK for them. AI has opened up opportunities for businesses to be more accessible to multi-language populations, resulting in more translation of content. With the margin for error that exists when relying solely on AI, there is significant opportunity for human translators to not only edit machine-translated content for accuracy and resonance with the target audience, but also to handle the technical and specialized content that AI is not capable of translating.

If you’re considering machine translation for your business and would like a human eye to make sure it’s 100% accurate and truly resonates with your target audience, we’d love to support you. Learn more about our work via the link below and then please reach out!

If your business is already in a foreign market, we want to hear from you! Arvorei is conducting research with global players to support the development of new service offerings. In return for sharing your story, we’ll feature you in an upcoming issue of Ready-Set-Grow! and on our social posts. If you’re interested in exploring this opportunity, reach out to Arvorei Founder & President Kim Jacob at [email protected].