As one of the newest members of our team I remember very well my first day in the office. Actually, I will never forget it. It was a disaster!

“Here is your office and your desk, put a password on your computer and come to my office, we will drink a coffee together and speak about your future job” said the nice coordinator and smiled. We have never drunk this coffee. Because only setting up a password took me one hour!

My office

Why? Our unit writes the news about the European Parliament in 22 languages. Do you know what that means? On my language bar I have 21 options for the keyboard setting. I don’t know, which one of them was pre-selected on my computer, but it took me ages before I was able to retype my password again. This was my first big lesson about multilingualism.

When I finally was able to enter into my computer I had already 37 e-mails in my mailbox. I couldn’t decode two-thirds of them. My colleagues spoke about “synopsis”, “visuals”, “ads” and “short stories”. What should the message mean: “Please, send me the update for the focus on budget discharge!” For sure “I liked the tapas on the blue card” was not about Spanish food, but what was it about? And what is IMPRESS? Oh, help!

For sure “I liked the tapas on the blue card” was not about Spanish food, but what was it about? And what is IMPRESS? Oh, help!

The help appeared with the smiling coordinator at my door, who explained me that IMPRESS is our tool to publish articles on the web and suggested to introduce me to the colleagues. All extremely nice, young people, all smiling and suggesting help, one even sung a song in my native language. Maybe it is true – I landed in the nicest unit indeed.

But in this first day everything was difficult. To remember 22 new people at once is complicated enough, but if they are from 22 different countries this is even more confusing. Back in the office I was not sure – was the singer from Slovakia or Latvia? And how is the pronunciation of the name of the French editor?

In the meantime I had 24 new e-mails. Full with “synopses” and “ads” again. I had the heart to ask the Danish colleague. After kindly correcting the spelling of his name, he explained that the synopsis is the draft, the skeleton of our stories (see also “The day we invented the synopsis“). The tapas are also such texts, but shorter, visuals and ads are products to make our page more attractive – with photos, quotas and polls. OK this is enough, I said, enough for today.

I had to go home and have a rest – tomorrow was my second day in the office.