Notes From a Bilingual Content Strategy

(or: what writing in two languages taught me about context, connection, and culture)

When I think about what it means to translate well — I don’t think of Google Translate. I think of Disney VHS tapes from the 90s.

I grew up watching Pocahontas (my all-time favorite — you noticed from the cover, right? <3), The Lion King, and The Little Mermaid dubbed in Portuguese. And I didn’t just watch them — I sang the songs by heart, and they made perfect sense. They rhymed. They carried emotion. And only years later did I realize: “Wait, these were originally in English?”

That’s what good translation does: it doesn’t sound like a translation at all. It becomes yours. It feels native. That kind of language work doesn’t just move words — it moves people.

And that’s exactly what I had in mind when I helped launch a bilingual content and social media strategy from scratch, for a pioneering company in a brand-new industry (at least for me): collective litigation on a global scale.

Same brand. Two audiences. Different starting points.

In English, the brand spoke to an audience already familiar with the idea of group litigation — a common practice in the UK and other countries. In Portuguese, it was a different story.

We were introducing a complex legal concept for the first time, and we had to do it carefully, strategically, and in a way that made emotional and cultural sense to a Brazilian audience.

That meant building a narrative slowly, across multiple channels and tones — from institutional to educational, from legal to human. It meant translating not just the message, but the context. Not just what the brand was saying, but why it mattered to people here.

The power of cultural alignment

You know what else Disney taught me? That language sticks when it feels like it’s speaking directly to you. That’s why I paid close attention to tone, slang, and social cues in both languages.

In Brazil, for example, we needed to build trust, speak directly and warmly, and avoid legal jargon. In English, we needed to build authority, show scale, and position the brand as a global leader.

Same mission. Different routes. And when we got it right, the result wasn’t just reach — it was relationship.

Bilingual content is not copy-paste. It’s co-creation.

As writer and language advocate Lynne Truss once said,

“Language is more than just words — it’s a means of keeping people together.”

And she’s right. You can’t just translate content — you have to reimagine it. You have to ask:

• Who’s reading this?

• What do they already know?

• What do they need to feel to trust us?

It’s almost like writing two timelines for the same brand story. One more mature. One still unfolding. Both demanding clarity, empathy, and relevance.

And it all starts with listening.

Social listening, to be specific. Tracking the questions people ask, the words they use, the comments they leave, and the things they don’t say. Pair that with metrics analysis, and you start to see patterns — not just in what works, but in what matters.

But that’s a conversation for another post (and I’ll be back for it).