Intercultural Communication and Translation News

Sir, So, Revenue & Customs has mislaid confidential information by entrusting it to an external service provider? Worse could be to come.

Because of the Government’s decision to outsource almost all translation work to two private agencies, thousands of confidential documents are now being handled by unspecified subcontractors, many of whom are likely to be based outside the UK, possibly beyond the reach of our security services. Previously such work was performed by named individuals with many years’ experience in this field, each of whom had to sign the Official Secrets Act; most were also qualified members of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting and/or the Chartered Institute of Linguists, and governed by their respective codes of conduct.

The agencies claim to offer comparable quality and security, in addition to huge cost savings, but by offering rates far below those current in the UK professional translation market, they are inevitably going to attract less experienced suppliers, and/or source them from countries with lower labour costs. One of the agencies concerned already has a substantial operation in China, for example. Given the Government’s recent track record on security, can it guarantee that this is truly in the best interests of the country?

Read more>  Letter

Details of a new study by Selma L. Herfst, Jan Pieter van Oudenhovena and Marieke E. Timmermana of the Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712 TS Groningen, the Netherlands have now been published: 

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is the evaluation of material for a new intercultural training instrument. More specifically, we examine the validity of 21 critical incidents used in the training. The training programme is targeted at natives in Western immigrant countries dealing – mostly professionally – with cultural diversity in their own country. The study yields support for the cross-cultural applicability of 14 critical incidents. Experts from Australia, Germany and the Netherlands largely agree in their judgements about to what extent reactions to the critical incidents are interculturally effective. The validity of the critical incidents is examined by relating personal competences and self-reported intercultural behaviour of lay respondents to their performance on the critical incidents. Results show that, in Australia and the Netherlands, intercultural effectiveness is related to measures of competences, in particular to open-mindedness and cultural empathy. The study yields some support for a relationship between self-reported intercultural behaviour and intercultural effectiveness. Moreover, speaking a foreign language shows a moderate relation with intercultural effectiveness.

Read more>  Science Direct

The UK’s population is growing. Part of that increase is fuelled by women from other countries having children here.

And as the Local Government Association (LGA), representing 400 councils in England and Wales, outlines to a House of Lords select committee how migration stretches community services, one midwife tells how the changes affect her.

For midwife Jayne Cozens, going to work these days is also becoming something of a geography lesson.

She has worked in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, for 12 years, and her caseloads are containing increasing numbers of foreign nationals from across the globe.

Language and culture are becoming more of an issue, as Mrs Cozens’ job becomes ever more multi-cultural and multi-lingual.

“It can be a challenge explaining to a 17-year-old English girl what an amniocentesis is, let alone to a teenager from abroad who doesn’t speak the language,” she says.

There are cultural issues, too, which midwives must handle in the course of giving their advice to non-UK nationals.

“Chinese families tend to sleep together in the same room and the same bed.

“Children, new baby, mum and dad are all together. It’s what they’re used to, so you go to a house and there’s a couple of mattresses on the floor.

“But our advice in relation to cot death is for women to not sleep with their babies, so if you have the whole family in together then that presents a problem.”

Mrs Cozens said that in the course of her work “you do learn a few words” but that this is not enough to clearly explain the full message.

Read more> Language & Culture

Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims joined Britain’s equality watchdog Monday in urging Britons to enjoy Christmas without worrying about offending non-Christians.

“It’s time to stop being daft about Christmas. It’s fine to celebrate and it’s fine for Christ to be star of the show,” said Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

“Let’s stop being silly about a Christian Christmas,” he said, referring to a tendency to play down the traditional celebrations of the birth of Christ for fear of offending minorities in multicultural Britain.

Suicide bombings by British Islamists in July 2005 which killed 52 people in London have prompted much soul-searching about religion and integration in Britain, a debate that has been echoed across Europe.

Read more> Christmas

When English people move abroad, almost half (46 percent) miss traditional dishes such as bangers and mash and black pudding.

More than a third (37 percent) miss their favourite TV programmes, such as Only Fools and Horses, according to a major new survey of expats by BUPA International.

But surprisingly, in spite of craving familiar foods and TV programmes, the majority of English expats say they are actually happier abroad.

Findings from research by the world’s largest expat health insurer show that three in four English expats now call their new country “home”, while a third say they feel healthier since moving abroad, thanks to better weather and an improved quality of life.

Ninety-three percent of the English surveyed also said they would recommend the expatriate life to others, with over half declaring that “they get the best of both worlds”.

Read more> Expatriate

Australians believe the American hamburger and U.S. slang are infringing on their culture and they are “not at all pleased” about it, according to a survey released Monday.

The telephone poll of 1,213 people by the government-funded U.S. Studies Center at the University of Sydney measured Australians’ attitudes about their closest ally, the United States.

Asked to judge the influence of American culture on Australia, 67 percent of respondents said they were “not at all pleased” about the prevalence of U.S.-style fast food in Australia. Australians ranked fast food second only behind U.S. foreign policy as an issue they were “very worried” about.

The survey did not ask respondents for specific examples, though fast food chains selling burgers and french fries are more common now in Australia than the once-ubiquitous corner store selling fish and chips.

Read more> Aussies 

The worst forms of jargon and gobbledygook have been highlighted in this year’s Plain English Awards’ hall of shame. But how easy is it to boil down corporate-speak to a few pithy words? See the examples below, then have a go.

Football has long been a fertile ground for pedants hunting English language misuse, although Ron Atkinson no longer sprinkles commentary with his own dialect, Ronglish.

Now Steve McClaren has joined an illustrious band of previous winners of the Plain English Campaign’s (PEC) Foot in Mouth award, such as Donald Rumsfeld, Boris Johnson and Naomi Campbell.

The former England boss won it for saying, of Wayne Rooney: “He is inexperienced, but he’s experienced in terms of what he’s been through.”

He’s an easy target, says the PEC, and press conferences can be pressured situations where the tongue can easily go astray. Less forgivable, though, is the bureaucratic language and legalese beloved of big companies.

But how easy is it to reduce complicated corporate-speak to a pithy sentence? Here’s your chance to have a go.

To get a taste for it - see how plain English campaigner Ben Beer has distilled three of this year’s worst offenders to a single-line translation. Then, have a go at translating the final paragraph yourself.

BAA SIGN AT GATWICK AIRPORT

“Passenger shoe repatriation area only”

Plain English Campaign translation: Get your shoes back here.

BAA removed the sign on Monday and gave this statement: “We are in the business of repatriation at Gatwick Airport, admittedly more often through arriving passengers than repatriating shoes.”

TERMS & CONDITIONS ON FASTWAY COURIER WEBSITE

“The Carrier shall not be liable for injury or damage to or destruction or loss of the Goods or any other property arising out of or incidental to or in connection with or occurring during the provision of the Services or for the mis-delivery or non-delivery of the Goods and whether or not caused or contributed to by the default (including negligence) of the Carrier or any agent, servant or officer of the Carrier or any other person entitled to the benefit of these conditions.”

Plain English Campaign translation: If anything happens, it’s not our fault.

TRANSLINK (NI RAILWAYS) SIGN AT COLERAINE STATION

“Every Autumn a combination of leaves on the line, atmospheric conditions and prevailing damp conditions lead to a low adhesion between the rail head and the wheel which causes services to be delayed or even cancelled. NI Railways are committed to minimising service delays, where we can, by implementing a comprehensive low adhesion action programme.”

Plain English Campaign translation: We’ll really try not to cancel any more trains.

Read more> Plain English

In the market for an English dictionary - or a translation dictionary for Spanish, French, or German? Ultralingua’s Winter Sale is usually limited to current users, but this year it’s open to everyone. Savings of over 20% (through December 31, 2007) apply across the board.

To take advantage of the Winter Sale discounts, just go to www.ultralingua.com, choose the products you want and enter the discount code ULTW7 in your shopping cart. The discount will be automatically applied.

Sale pricing applies to Ultralingua’s flagship Windows and Macintosh Dictionary/Thesaurus products as well as other multiplatform, multilingual dictionaries: the regular price of $29.95 is now only $23.95. This covers platforms like Windows, Macintosh, Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Windows Smartphone and Symbian. The Collins line of dictionaries, and the Grammatica spelling and grammar checkers are also on sale.

Online dictionary subscriptions are also sale-priced: just $23.95 for a year of high-quality dictionary and translation access for more than a dozen common language pairs (even Latin and Esperanto), including advanced features for most languages, like stemmed searches and verb conjugations for all tenses. The Winter Sale applies to the new iPhone and iPod touch versions as well.

Read more> Ultralingua 

The People

Ukrainians are of Slavic origin. About 75% of the population is ethnic Ukrainian. The largest minority group is the Russians at about 20%. Belarussians, Bulgarians, Poles, Hungarians and Romanians make up the other major minority groups.

Religion

Approximately 40% of the population in the Ukraine describe themselves as atheist. Of those that do adhere to some form of religion, 37% belong to one of the three major orthodox denominations present in the country. There are also a significant and growing number of Jews, Protestants and Muslims.

Despite the large numbers describing themselves are atheist, Ukrainians are extremely superstitious. If you do something that they believe can cause harm such as sitting on stone steps, someone will undoubtedly tell you that you risk doing great harm to yourself as a result of your actions. Superstitions are derived from folk wisdom in rural communities.

Fatalistic

Ukrainians live in a country where everyday life is often unpredictable and unstable and they have learned to adapt to constantly changing rules and laws. The influences of the Russian Orthodox Church plus a long history of turbulent economic times, unstable governments, and adverse climatic conditions produce a rather fatalistic approach towards life.

Generosity

Ukrainians are extremely generous and hospitable. All social occasions include food. Visitors are always offered something to eat as well as a beverage. It is considered the height of rudeness to eat in front of another person and not offer them something.

Read more> Ukraine: Country Profile

It has become a common misconception, amongst a large population of the UK at least, that everybody understands the English language, and thus we need not bother learning any foreign tongues.

However, according to the CIA World Fact Book, only a tiny 5.6% of the world’s population speaks English as a primary language.

That number more than doubles if people who speak English as a secondary or tertiary language are also included, but that still leaves a huge majority of people in the world who do not speak English.

Therefore it would seem that learning a foreign language would be a sensible idea, helping to improve our ability to understand other cultures and communicate with the world around us.

Read more> Language