Our first blog of the new year includes guest writing from one of our past colleagues, who picked two of his favorite movies of 2022 to review for us. These movies are, of course, fun to watch and come to us highly recommended by our guest writer. But also, as a language services provider and a small business, we like to find bits of ourselves and our work in the things we enjoy. For example, in our first movie, we take great interest in the use of social media and videos, and in the second, we were greatly affected by how the same people can have so many different circumstances.

Scream 5

Scream 5 is not just the latest entry in the Scream series, but also a question. How loyal are fans to a franchise? Though there’s a different director at the helm, the same tone as the other entries in the franchise are present, but with a modern twist.

Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and her acquaintances, are still being stalked by someone in a Ghostface outfit. This time though, social media is at the center of everything. There are online videos of people complaining about the recent Stab movies (the in-universe movies about the murders in the previous Scream movies), saying that they don’t follow the “right” path. This movie focuses on the opinionated fans who openly complain about the “wrong” directions that franchises have taken.

Overall, this is a movie that anyone who’s paid attention to social media or YouTube in the past decade will have fun watching. It’s not the best movie in the franchise, but it’s an enjoyable one!

Everything Everywhere All at Once

This is probably the most surprising movie of the year. It starts out with an ordinary situation where a family goes to social services for help with a topic. It’s as surprising for the audience as it is for the main character when everything changes in the next moment. Just like someone snapped their fingers, you’re brought through several different dimensions. The fun part? Each dimension has the same characters, but in different roles. In short, it’s a movie centering around a multiverse.

The protagonist is a Chinese-American woman (Michelle Yeoh) who experiences her life in several ways across the dimensions, all with the same people, but always different. The best part about the movie is how it managed to be original, funny, and surprising all at the same time. Your instinct might make you try to relate the movie to all the superhero movies from the past decade or two, but don’t. This is a unique movie that has no comparison, and you’re bound to love it. Also be sure to check out the movie if you’re fans of Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan (best known for his appearances in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies)!

Keeping open channels of communication is of utmost importance. To ensure smooth communication, we are sure to leave notes and give explanations. We also have our process documented and written down. When we don’t know how to handle something, we can look to see if there is a relevant guide already written. If there is not, we can write one so that the next person with a similar problem will have more resources at their fingertips. Emails, text messaging, voice messages, and phone calls are ways to communicate and we choose our method depending on the urgency of the task at hand.

There are things that a single person can’t or doesn’t know how to handle alone. This is why we make it a point to always ask for help when we need it. This way, more challenging problems are dealt with sooner rather than putting them off or sweeping them under the rug. For example, we had to figure out our new tax responsibilities. Taxes are usually complex to deal with, but with several people working with different sources, we were able to check our information against each other. This led to clarity. During the process, we found different opinions, but it was that confusion that helped us identify the problem areas and showed us where we needed to focus and research in order to find the right answer.

Teamwork is important when there is too much work for one person, but that is not the only time teamwork matters. Another key aspect of effective teamwork is understanding everyone’s different roles and their strengths as an individual. Recently, for one graphic design project, we asked one of our team members who hadn’t worked on the project at all to read our instructions. A fresh pair of eyes on the project was needed to make sure that the instructions were clear and understandable to someone who hadn’t seen it before.

We always try to keep a positive attitude. Having the right state of mind can help turn a hectic, stressful day into a learning opportunity and a chance to solve new problems. For example, when we work with certain communities such as blind and deaf/ hard of hearing people, there are extra considerations we must think about. We must make sure that our work is compliant with the American with Disabilities Act. We needed to do some research on it, and took this as an opportunity to learn more about our legal system and about how to help different communities that we want to serve.

Staying positive can keep us energized, productive, and satisfied at work. Having a positive attitude also makes it a pleasure to work with our coworkers and clients, and that helps us build teamwork and respect, which in turn makes tackling challenges easier and more interesting. Last but not least, having passion for the projects encourages us to face challenges energetically. At Monterey Language Services, we know that no problem is insurmountable thanks to our energy, teamwork, and passion for our jobs.