Intercultural Communication and Translation News

Changes in the world economy have made many companies change their businesses in an international context. Expatriates are used to share the knowledge from their country and make these businesses a success. Expatriates cost a lot of money, and because of this it is necessary to know who is and who isn’t suited to work abroad. Research has been done to which personality characteristics are important for a good performance by an expatriate, but does this theoretical background suit the reality?

At first four variables used in this research are four of the ‘Big Five personality dimensions’ (Costa & McCrae, 1992): extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness and conscientiousness. Extraversion can be seen in two different dimensions: ambition and social capability. There are different intra individual factors that can be indicative for the emotional stability of a worker. Examples of these are concern, being depressed, anger, embarrassment, emotionality, anxiety and insecurity. Examples of characteristics following agreeableness are courtesy, flexibility, reliability, helping others, soft-heartedness and tolerance. Conscientiousness can be described with thoroughness, responsibility, being organised and the quality of plans.

Read more: Expats 

The website for number 10 Downing Street has just launched a new foreign language section. Visitors to the site are now able to access a selection of information on the British Government in a variety of different languages.

The new addition includes sections on both the present day cabinet and its history, Gordon Brown’s biography, a list of current ministers, a history of the famous building and a full list of prime ministers up to the present day including biographies, facts and figures.

The PM’s website currently has sections in Arabic, French, Italian and Spanish and there are plans for other languages to come soon including Welsh and Portuguese.

Read more: Downing Street 

eading figures have told Personnel Today how HR teams are allowing a minority of racist line managers to make working life tough for migrant medics.

Their comments come after a General Medical Council (GMC) report showed that doctors trained overseas were twice as likely to face formal disciplinary hearings once a complaint had been made as those who graduated in the UK.

Ramesh Mehta, president of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, told Personnel Today: “There is no doubt that bullying of Asian doctors goes on.

“The small minority of racists in the NHS take complaints [about foreign doctors] to HR. HR needs better training in handling these issues.”

Read more: Doctors 

China has set strict standards on the use of both Chinese and English in service industry to better meet the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, according to a report issued by Ministry of Education (MOE)

The report showed that China has regulated the Chinese to English translation for such service as washing rooms, restaurants and hotels to help visitors more conveniently find their destinations.

The regulation also includes ways of translation for Chinese cuisine. And a coordination work team was also established to carry out language training programs for common people.

Statistics of the report showed that by the end of 2005, more than 4.1 million residents in Beijing had learned foreign languages, which accounted for 30 percent of the total residents.

Read more: China

People rely on doctors every day to treat them in emergencies. What would you do, though, if the doctor was unable to help you, simply because you didn’t speak the same language? That was the scary reality for Andrew and Edward Panos, whose older brother nearly died in Mexico from injuries sustained in a car accident because Andrew was unable to communicate with the doctors. Several years later, Andrew heard a physician in Ohio speaking about the same communication problem. He knew something had to be done to breach the language barrier between doctors and patients to prevent mistakes and even deaths.

Language Access Network is the first company to offer live-video interpreters to doctors and their patients 24 hours a day. Using a wireless system called Martti (My Accessible Real-Time Trusted Interpreter), doctors can connect to a call center with the touch of a button, where they’re greeted by an operator and connected to the appropriate interpreter in less than two minutes.

Read more: Martti 

For global corporations, the borderless world offers a glimpse of what’s to come. International success once meant having bodies and factories on the ground from São Paulo to Silicon Valley to Shanghai. Coordinating their activities was a deliberately planned effort handled by headquarters.

The challenge now is to weld these vast, globally dispersed workforces into superfast, efficient organizations. Given the conflicting needs of multinational staff and the swiftly shifting nature of competition brought about by the Internet, that’s an almost impossible task. And getting workers to collaborate instantly—not tomorrow or next week, but now—requires nothing less than a management revolution.

Complicating matters is the fact that the very idea of a company is shifting away from a single outfit with full-time employees and a recognizable hierarchy. It is something much more fluid, with a classic corporation at the center of an ever-shifting network of suppliers and outsourcers, some of whom only join the team for the duration of a single project.

To adapt, multinationals are hiring sociologists to unlock the secrets of teamwork among colleagues who have never met. They’re arming staff with an arsenal of new tech tools to keep them perpetually connected. They include software that helps engineers co-develop 3D prototypes in virtual worlds and services that promote social networking and that track employees and outsiders who have the skills needed to nail a job. Corporations are investing lavishly in posh campuses, crafting leadership training centers, and offering thousands of online courses to develop pipelines of talent.

Read more: Global Teams 

An India-based e-learning portal on cross-cultural skills has been retrofitted for a global launch during the Salaam India expo, which will be held in Singapore between August 15 and 19.

The portal, www.globalindian.com, is targeting members of the Indian diaspora who are keen on cross-cultural nuances, ranging from soft skills to international etiquette. Infosys founder N. R. Narayana Murthy will launch the portal on August 17 at the event, which is co-hosted by Zak Trade Fairs and Exhibitions and Singapore Tourism Board to commemorate the diamond jubilee of Indian Independence.

Read more: Global Indian

Learning foreign languages could be much easier than you thought. Ultimate Language Secrets, the world’s first online accelerated language learning system, is officially launched today to assist aspiring language learners to master any foreign language in the least amount of time and effort.

Knowing a foreign language can be extremely rewarding but learning it can be extremely frustrating. That seems to be the common experience shared by the vast majority of those who ever attempted learning a foreign language.

That’s no longer the case, according to Owen Lee, language expert, best-selling author and owner of www.UltimateLanguageSecrets. “Most language learners don’t realize their own enormous linguistic potential,” says Lee, “everyone can master any foreign language in a short time with the right system, but language learners made mistakes because no one was there to guide them towards the shortcuts.

Read more: Language Secrets 

A French teenager suspected of posting his own complete translation of the latest Harry Potter book on the internet has been arrested.

The 16-year-old, from the southern city of Aix-en-Provence, has been released but could face charges for violating intellectual property rights.

The official French language version of the final book in the Potter series is scheduled for release on 26 October.

Police have closed down the website it was found on and are investigating.Read more: Harry Potter 

Language translation software isn’t likely to allow you to lay off your bilingual staffers — at least not right away. But applied with discrimination and lots of preparation, translation tools can be fantastic productivity aids. And researchers say new approaches to this old discipline are greatly improving the performance of the tools.

Ford Motor Co. began using “machine translation” software in 1998 and has so far translated 5 million automobile assembly instructions into Spanish, German, Portuguese and Mexican Spanish. Assembly manuals are updated in English every day, and their translations — some 5,000 pages a day — are beamed overnight to plants around the world.

Read more: CAT