Intercultural Communication and Translation News

When it comes to communicating across different cultures, understanding the language may be just the beginning.

A leading intercultural communications expert said that the ability to “read between the lines” and understanding non-spoken expressions in various cultural contexts is also an important part of communication, one that’s often overlooked when studying foreign languages.

According to Park Myung-seok, professor emeritus at Dankook University, the English-education curriculum in Korean schools does not reflect this fact nearly enough. Park has written several books on the topic of intercultural communications. Most recently he co-edited a book, titled “Communicating Nonverbally: An Introduction to Nonverbal Communication.”

Read more >  ``Communicating Nonverbally: An Introduction to Nonverbal Communication.”

The Open University and British Council, together with Lion Television and the BBC have produced a special free DVD resource pack for schools.

The packs aim to encourage inter-cultural dialogue and draws on three Open University/BBC FOUR TV series – African School, Indian School and Chinese School.

The packs, which are distributed free to interested schools in the UK and overseas, feature short video clips from the three series along with background information and a series of discussion points to raise questions and stimulate debate.

Read more > Open University

The number of employees on international assignments has doubled over the last three years as part of the continuing trends towards globalisation, forcing employers to rethink their benefits provision.

Mercer’s 2008/2009 Benefits Survey for Expatriates and Globally Mobile Employees found that 47% of firms have increased deployment of staff on traditional expatriate assignments, and 38% had increased numbers of staff on ‘nomadic’ assignments.

It found that the growing expatriate culture has led 86% of respondents to consider their benefits package for expatriate staff as a medium or high business priority, with only 26% of organisations admitting to having no overarching policy for providing expatriate benefits.

Robert Lockley, principal in Mercer’s international business, said: “Establishing an international policy is essential to stay competitive, maintain geographical consistency and control costs. Even against a backdrop of economic uncertainty there is still competition for the best talent. Companies that are lax in this area will loose out.”

In terms of benefits on offer, the majority (68%) of companies surveyed keep their expatriates in host or home country retirement schemes. However, 32 percent of companies offer international retirement plans - an increase from 23 percent in 2005. Close to three-quarters (73 percent) of companies with an international plan restrict eligibility to certain expatriates who cannot be kept in the home or host plan.

Read more > Expatriates and Globally Mobile Employees

A major test of the UK’s religious discrimination laws next week could see a record compensation payout, according to reports.

A pair of Muslim twins are taking City firm Tradition Securities and Futures to an employment tribunal on a series of allegations.

The French nationals claim bosses at the company took Jewish clients from them, and gave them to non-Muslim colleagues.

They are said to be seeking damages that could run into millions of pounds for religious and racial discrimination, among other claims.

The sisters worked as brokers at Tradition Securities and Futures from 2002 to 2004, when they transferred to the firm’s London office for two years before quitting.

Read more > PT

If you want the hard facts on languages in London, look no further. The RLN’s  downloadable digest tells you which languages Londoners use, how many languages are spoken, which languages are needed for trade, how many overseas students there are in London - and lots more.

Read more >> Multilingual London

The world is more connected than ever. You see it in the media, on the internet, in sport, even in the turbulent world of finance. Businesses are constantly looking for new countries to sell to. But are foreign language skills still essential in 21st century communications? Don’t we all speak English? Will languages really bring you more opportunities?

Given that 75 per cent of the world’s population doesn’t speak our language, English is not enough. It’s a multilingual world and UK businesses are now realising that they need foreign languages to compete when trading internationally. It helps to speak languages over here as well. More than 300 languages are spoken in the UK, and millions of visitors come to our shores. Public services and the tourist industry need languages too.

This doesn’t mean that you need to learn to speak the language fluently. There is room for all levels, and openings from the switchboard to the boardroom. Although fluency will give you more options, basic ability in languages is in demand as businesses look to break the ice with a few phrases in a meeting.

Speaking languages gives you the key to a whole new world. According to recruitment agencies, languages can even help you earn between 8 and 20 per cent more in your job. Jobs involving languages can be attractive. You might get to travel overseas or take on new responsibilities simply because you have the right patter.

Read more > being Multilingual

Three years ago, Unilever was suffering on two fronts: a soft top line and an elevated cost structure. The company made a radical choice to embark on a total transformation program, emphasizing an approach it dubbed “One Unilever.” Throughout Europe, the organization strove to achieve a single ERP platform, a common European supply chain, and a number of outsourcing initiatives in IT, HR, and finance that would unify the firm’s many iterations across international borders and myriad cultures.

According to Jean Stephane Payraudeau, director and F&A outsourcing senior project executive for IBM ’s Unilever EMEA account, “It was a radical transformation from the Unilever Europe point of view. Unilever needed external help to execute the changes. By enabling people to focus on core business, they were releasing their energies there, exercising their real expertise, and leveraging the scale of outsourcing vendors.” And because the company wanted to achieve a turnaround on the grand scale in a very short timeframe, outsourcing seemed the obvious solution.

Gijsbert De-Zoeten, Unilever’s managing director for Unilever finance business services – Europe, said the real story had three programs for the three different business units of Unilever Europe in every country—food, home, and personal care—all moving toward a single, cohesive operating unit.
“In the European region, Unilever Europe operated as a loose federation of countries,” De-Zoeten said. “We wanted to integrate them into one European organization, whether it was for the supply chain or sales and marketing, but we needed to implement the systems to enable that. At the heart of the program is an SAP standardized platform we rolled out, as well as common systems in finance and HR.”

Read more > Unilever

Anyone interested in finding out more about careers in translation and interpreting should look out for two important events taking place over the coming weeks as part of the National Networks for Interpreting and Translation programme.

On Thursday 30 October, the University of Bath is organising a day dedicated to Careers in Interpreting and Translating, providing essential careers advice for sixth form students, undergraduate and graduate students, as well as to anyone who may be considering a move to the translation and interpreting sector.

The free event will give visitors the chance to talk to recent graduates from the University’s MA in Interpreting and Translation and MA in Translation and Professional Language Skills programmes, as well as to attend talks by professional translators and interpreters from a wide range of companies and organisations. These will include representatives from the European Commission, the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation and the International Court of Justice, as well as speakers from UK-based companies, and freelance interpreters and translators.

On Wednesday 5 November, the Gateways into Languages graduate placement portal will be launched at the National Network for Translation’s one year anniversary celebrations at the University of Salford. The new portal will be used to advertise work placements to students on postgraduate translation courses, and will be hosted by the National Network for Translation.

We have just launched a new set of interactive quizzes for those wanting to test their knowlegde of world wide countries.

There are currently two sets of quizzes:

1) The first test your knowlegde of country locations. For example do you know where Chile is as opposed to Peru? If you really think so then try the South American Countries Quiz.

2) The second set test your knowlegde of world capitals. If you think you know where Paris, Budapest and Athens are then try your hand at the European Capitals Quiz.

To acces all our quizzes please visit > Cross Cultural Quizzes and Tests.

Those coming to do business in the UK for the first time may have preconceived notions of how the British businessperson communicates and acts.

Foreigners may believe that the UK resident is overly formal and focused on etiquette, with conversation based almost entirely on the weather.

However, in reality the communication culture of the UK business world is more open and relaxed than many imagine, with efforts to extend a work relationship into the realms of informality or even friendship.Read more >> UKTI