Small World Language Services

Every company starts in a garage, does it not? That is what I have heard from so many companies like eBay and Amazon; I would like to say that mine was, but it did not start in a big office either, or any office, for that matter. Here is the story of Small World Language Services from the mid 90’s until now (June 2025).

Well, let us begin with a confession… My company was literally conceived, yes, literally! I’d like to say that it was an immaculate conception, but no, it was far from that:) Let’s rewind back to July 1996, when I was seven months pregnant with my first son.

I could barely get around, feeling so enormous and none of my clothes fit me anymore… Truth be told, I had given in to all the cravings that a pregnant woman could possibly desire with all the yummy food offerings in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Being a new wife, highly pregnant and soon to give birth, I was still adjusting to life in a new country as a newlywed and was doing my best to learn Spanish. I was immersed in the culture and sometimes it got to be a bit too much…

Every Sunday we would go to church. This day would prove to be different from any other. My husband approached me to say that a woman whom I did not know, wanted to talk to me. She introduced herself to me and bravely asked me if I would cover her maternity leave (she was even more pregnant than I was!) to work as a conversation teacher in her small English school (in Argentina they are called institutes (institutos).) I was thrilled, but I wasn’t sure what a “conversation teacher” was. “What do I need to do?”, I asked nervously.

She told me that all I had to do was go to her little school and start talking to the students in English. I thought to myself, “Really? A new job that only involves speaking in English to students. Is that it?” I smiled and accepted the offer. After all, I was bored out of my gourd at home, so this was something that would get me out of the house and socializing with people, in English…my native tongue! As it turns out, I loved it!

As time passed, my English tutoring (ESL - English as a Second Language) grew into a thriving business. So much so, that before long everyone was recommending me to their friends, colleagues, and family. That is when the work started pouring in, and I could not fit all the students into my busy schedule.

Word of mouth gets around and it is a good thing when you are doing something right. However, when you are spread too thin, it gets to be problematic.

I knew I could not clone myself, so I began recruiting a brilliant team of English native speakers from around the world in countries such as the US, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa and Australia, to name a few. Thus, Small World Language Services was born…

Moreover, it seemed like all of Buenos Aires had caught the English bug and wanted to practice and perfect their English. Everyone on my team was working, and then the corporate services (in-company classes) began to take off. This got especially interesting, as we needed to prepare a specialized Business curriculum according to those clients’ needs. but since we were anticipating this growth, it was exciting to say the least!!!

I loved teaching, but many times it involved traveling to my students’ locations in a large area of 15 million inhabitants.

After a while, it became necessary to reassign some of my students to my team. I then decided to bring my work home, so I opened a small school to be able to give individual as well as small-group classes. Wow, that was a welcome change! This is where things exploded in my business.

Our clientele consisted of not just Argentineans, but also Koreans, Chinese, Europeans and a small assortment of other ethnicities, like French, all equally with their individual, “English ailments”… It became obvious, teaching a language is like being a doctor, you give your “patients” a diagnosis and do your best to “cure” them.

As time passed, I realized I had already been in Argentina for ten years. I remember mainly my corporate clients asking me for help with emails and a variety of other documents in English. I knew this was the direction I wanted to go. So many years of teaching had deepened my knowledge of grammar, good vs. bad writing, making phrases flow naturally and eliminating mechanical phrases that were obviously unnatural to the English native’s ear…

Natural transitions happen in your life for a reason, and little by little, translation clients began to trickle in, asking me to review their work, translate, rework English texts, do transcriptions, editing and proofreading assignments; the list was endless.

In 2004, I was hired on as an in-house translator for an online news service aimed at investors hoping to find opportunities in the Telecommunications industry. Wow, was that a rude awakening! When I started, I knew nothing about technologies in Internet, satellite, mobile and other devices, but with time I became a specialist in Telecommunications which was as fascinating… That job became the base for future work. My online profiles on sites like proz.com and other linguist sites were starting to attract similar but more lucrative clients in Europe and the US who needed linguists like me who could handle their terminology. More proposals followed…

For those of you who are not familiar with this industry, you should know that the general field of Language Services (namely, Translation, Localization, Editing and Proofreading) is so unique in the regard that you can live anywhere and as long as you have an Internet connection, that is all that is needed. Not all professions have those perks, but now you know that this trend is increasing rapidly and many people can now work all around the world. Back then, I think I was one of the original remote workers. My, how things have changed since then!

By 2005, Small World Language Services had a working team of professional English tutors, translators and editors available for written work. Plus, our international client list was growing!

In 2012, personal and business circumstances changed and we moved our family and headquarters from Buenos Aires, Argentina to the greater Salt Lake City, Utah area in the US.

By 2018, my family and I were ready to return to Latin America. This time our family chose to live in the beautiful lakeside area of Chapala, Mexico near Guadalajara. We love the community here, so we will probably stay.

We are currently able to offer the following services for you and your organization:

* Document translation

* Editing & Proofreading

* Interpreting

* Language Tutoring (ESL, Spanish, Portuguese)

We are a small company who can handle large, medium, and small volumes of business. Our focus is on keeping it personalized, with high quality as our priority. We hope you will know you can count on us for your own language services.

*Coming next!

Our tutoring division is being rebranded under a new name: Empalingua “where empathy meets tutoring”

Stay tuned for the unveiling of the new logo!

Kind regards,

Kimberlee ❤️ 

US number: (956) 277-2337

Mexican WhatsApp: +523329450349

[email protected]