Updata One

Our Updata One colleagues just ran their hearts out for a fantastic cause, brought the best vibes, and proved that giving back is the ultimate runner's high! 💙👟

A massive shoutout to Todor Kiriakov, Yolina Petrova, PhD and Gergana Hristova, who recently hit the pavement and represented us at the Run2Gether charity event.

But they didn't just finish a race; they marked the beginning of a company-wide movement. We are officially kicking off our annual tradition: The Updata One Active Summer Challenge! ☀️ Over the summer, our entire company is uniting behind one massive, shared goal: 40,000 kilometers. 🌍

Whether it is running, walking, cycling, or hiking, every active kilometer logged by our team members will count towards our global target. It is about staying healthy, supporting each other, and proving that we can quite literally go the distance when we pull together. And at the end, when (not "if") we reach the goal, the kilometers will be turned into a donation to a cause we support. More on that, in the coming months.

Huge congratulations to Todor, Yolina, and Gergana for setting the pace. Now, let's move!

Our celebration of language takes a delightfully unexpected turn today. So far, our teammates shared some deeply moving stories—but they’ve also reminded us that language is a landscape full of amazing coincidences, and humorous quirks. Like “son shon zhmo"…

🔍 Sans changement (French) — Shared by Todor Kiriakov Like all Bulgarian millennials stuck at home on long and rainy afternoons, Todor heard the phrase that sounded like "son shon zhmo" every day. It was repeated over and over during the multi-lingual radio updates on the Danube water levels. While it means simply "no change," to Todor and his generation, it will forever represent the sound of foreign language, puzzling, funny, and alluring.

🔍 사과 (Korean) — Shared by Gabriela Lazarova
Gabriela fell in love with how Korean sounds over 20 years ago when she watched her first Korean film: "At the beginning, I was really confused when characters kept offering apples along with their apologies," she explains. Driven to do some research, she uncovered a brilliant homonym. In Korean, the word for "apple" and the noun for "apology" are both written and pronounced exactly the same: 사과 (sa-gwa).

🔍 Дънгалеци (Bulgarian) — Shared by Roslava Stoyanova A rare, beautiful dialect word from the Rhodopes, "Дънгалеци" refers to the bells placed on livestock. Roslava's story dates back to an unforgettable evening in the Rhodopi mountains when she was 18. "It's actually related to a phrase 'да си раздрънкам дънгалеците'.

🔍 Αλήθεια (Greek) — Shared by Irina Zhivkova For Irina, who became fluent in Greek, her deep appreciation for "truth" was spark-ignited not just by what the word represents, but by its pure musicality. "Pronounced a'li.ei.a, it has a distinct, beautiful melody that flows effortlessly," she shares. I

🔍 Офлянквам се (Bulgarian) — Shared by Teodora Belezhkova This highly expressive, colloquial Bulgarian verb describes the relatable art of avoiding doing what you are actually supposed to do—usually by wasting time or endlessly making excuses. To Teodora, this is the ultimate "story of my life."

👉 Next up: We conclude our series with a final celebration of pure beauty and adoratio. Stay tuned! 😉

Our journey into the beauty of language continues. Since we launched our series for the Bulgarian holiday of culture and language, we’ve been exploring the meaning of the favoritie words of our team mates beyond their literal translations. Today, we dive into the vocabulary of the heart - a collection of words that capture our deepest connections and the longings that often transcend simple translation.

❤️ Sensizlik (Turkish) — Shared by Mirsen Fehratovic
It’s about the emotional state of longing and incompleteness of life without a specific person. “While talking to a friend about how moving to Turkey had enriched my life with many new experiences, I also expressed that I always felt a void because the person I wanted to share those moments with wasn’t there. That’s when she introduced me to the word that perfectly described my emotional state at that time”, Mirsen shares.

❤️ Пяшчота (Belarusian) — Shared by Valeria Lopez
For Valeria, there is no word that captures the intimacy of care quite like the Belarusian "Pyashchota." It means "tenderness," but it feels softer and more personal. It's about care, warmth, and those quiet moments when you feel close to someone. "It’s one of the first words that made me see the beauty of Belarusian," she reflects.

❤️ Кохай (Ukrainian) — Shared by Mariya Cherneva
Mariya’s love for Ukrainian music led her to a fascinating linguistic discovery: across Slavic languages, we have different words for love depending on its nature. She found that "кохаю" is rooted in the concept of touching (like "докосвам" in Bulgarian). It represents "love through touching or from touching to love."Обич" seems to come from "обикновено, обичай", or in other words, love through getting used to/accustoming to something. The Polish "milosc" ("love") and "milowac" ("cherish"), together with the Bulgarian "милвам", seem to indicate love through caress, or from cherishing to love.

❤️ Mehsoos (Urdu) — Shared by Umair Habib
Umair first understood the weight of this word while reading a ghazal by Faiz Ahmed Faiz. In English, we might say "say what you feel," but in Urdu, "Mehsoos karo" is an invitation to feel in a way that precedes actual words. It is an intuition, a sensation, and a presence all at once. "No English word quite carries that melody," Umair notes. "It's soft, heavy, and exact all at once."

❤️ Милея (Bulgarian) — Shared by Ganime Ilyaz
"Милея" is a word that carries the weight of nostalgia and a deep, almost painful desire for what we love. For Ganime, it is the story of her life, connecting her to the millions of Bulgarians who live abroad. She associates it with her childhood and her father, who worked his whole life as a truck driver. "It describes that feeling of desiring something so much that you feel pain, nostalgia, and truly love," she shares.

👉 Next up: Surprising roots and the quirks of daily life that only language can explain.