Paris-born Corinne Bot came to Australia over twenty-five years ago with her partner, but not much else. She had no plans, and no preconceived ideas about her future, but through her personal challenges she has created a successful global business, all started as a brand new mother working from her kitchen table.
Corinne’s success is a story of open-mindedness, and an open-armed embracement of a brand new country and culture.
Corinne is a Polyglotter, in fact she’s the Chief Polyglotter and now leads a worldwide team of over ninety Polyglotters working directly for her.
“It wasn’t a planned thing, to call ourselves Polyglotters,” Corinne notes, “it just happened.”
Like most entrepreneurs, Corinne was looking for a company name which would stand out from the crowd, but would still be relevant to what she does. In this case, “Polyglot just seemed to fit.”
The dictionary defines polyglot when used as an adjective as knowing or using several languages, for example, ‘a polyglot career woman’. As a noun, polyglot means a person who knows and is able to use several languages.
While ‘Polyglotter’ doesn’t appear in the dictionary, it’s become a colloquial description of those who speak several languages – make sense? It’s almost as if the word was invented just for Corinne, because it describes perfectly what she does.
As Corinne explains, “It’s part of our DNA. All together, the ninety Polyglotters in the company speak just short of forty languages.
“We’re not a language service provider as such: we explain culture, and explaining culture is easier when you speak the language, or when you are from a different culture.
“There’s nothing wrong or right in culture, but setting up a business in another country will be more successful when you can communicate properly and be more culturally aware.”