05/02/2006 - 05/03/2006

mulitlingual websites biggest barrier to international businesses

According to the Internet Standards Assessment Report (ISAR) released by the Web Marketing Association, After a very poor showing in 2000, international business Web sites rebounded and since 2002 have matched the overall ISAR Index. The ISAR study provides industry benchmarks for Web site development and is based on data collected from 9,748 Web site evaluations in more than 80 industries over the past decade.

“International Web sites are above average in design, content, copywriting, and interactivity,� said William Rice, president of the Web Marketing Association. “One of the biggest challenges for international business is language barriers. The best international business Web sites have the ability to bridge the language gap and provide dynamic content in multiple languages.�

german anthem in turkish?

A German politician has triggered a debate by calling for an official Turkish translation of the German national anthem to symbolize how multicultural Germany has become. But conservatives worry it would send the wrong signal about integration.

Somehow it's hard to imagine many of Germany's 2.6 million Turks, even the 840,000 of them with German passports, singing "Unity, Justice and Freedom for the German Fatherland" during the World Cup this summer, even if they get the lyrics in Turkish.

2008 - European Year of Inter-cultural Dialogue?

The European Parliament's Culture Committee Tuesday welcomed the European Commission's proposal that 2008 be declared `European Year of Inter-cultural Dialogue'.

The EP is pressing for dialogue between religions to be the main topic of the year's events. The Committee said the EP is keen to bring inter-cultural dialogue into the mainstream of EU policies. MEPs back the Commission's idea of raising the profile of all EU measures related to inter-cultural dialogue and making them more consistent.

world cup 2006 - phrase of the day: metatarsal

Anyone living in the UK would have had at least one new word added to their vocabulary this week due to constant use by the media. Wayne Rooney's recent injury in the Chelsea vs. Manchester United match has ruined his chances of going to Germany in 2006 - all because of the dreaded "metatarsal". The seemingly innocous bone has now earned its place in crucial football phrases. For more information on the bone and footballers who have fallen foul to it - visit the BBC page.

word of the day: temerity

temerity \tuh-MER-uh-tee\, noun:
Unreasonable or foolhardy contempt of danger; rashness.

The elaborate caution with which the British commander now proceeded stands out in striking contrast with the temerity of his advance upon Bunker Hill in the preceding year. -- John Fiske, "Washington's Great Campaign of 1776", The Atlantic, January 1889

When English merchants had the temerity to set up a trading post or 'factory' -- junior merchants were known as factors -- the Dutchmen defended their monopoly by massacring them. -- Anthony Read and David Fisher, The Proudest Day

cultural assimilation

Cultural assimilation can mean several different things. When used one way, as in cultural fit, it refers to an employee's ability to mesh with an organisation's culture. It can also mean whether they fit with customers, outside vendors, and other company associates.

Cultural assimilation refers to the geographic aspects of culture as well. Even within a given country there may be cultural challenges. For example, a born-and-bred New Yorker who is assigned to manage a plant in the Deep South may have difficulty adapting.And of course cultural assimilation, when viewed in the context of country or region, takes on greater meaning, particularly in today's global economy.

western-chinese intercultural dynamics

In the West, companies want to put on a good face for customers, even if it means having to admit mistakes. Righting wrongs is a big part of a good public image, and a good internal image as well.

In the East, particularly at traditional companies, saving face is important. Saving face means that you don't admit your own mistakes and you don't publicly humiliate co-workers by exposing their mistakes.

This can create management challenges for companies doing business in China. Foreign companies are particularly vulnerable, since a Chinese employee who admits to making a mistake not only shames himself, but also brings shame to his country in front of foreign visitors. As a result, simple problems left undiscovered can easily grow into full-blown crises.

Book Offers Relocation Advice to Americans Moving to Mexico

What happens when you can no longer afford to live in your own country? You find one where you can and move there. Doug and Cindi Bower did exactly that and now they tell you how and why they moved to Mexico.

Expatriates Doug and Cindi Bower have successfully expatriated to Mexico, learning through trial and error how to do it from the conception of the initial idea to driving up to their new home in another country. Now the potential expatriate can benefit from their more than three years of pre-expat research to their more than two years of actually living in Mexico.

Read more: press release

China launches language training for foreign journalists

China has launched a free Chinese language training service for foreign journalists here as part of Beijing's push to popularise its learning worldwide to enhance understanding of the complex Communist giant.

"We decided to offer free Chinese language learning to the increasing number of foreign journalists arriving to live and work in China to help them understand China better," Director of the International Press Centre (IPC) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Meng Mian told PTI.

Foreign Languages a Social Issue Met by Colleges?

We live in an era of globalization, writes Joana Lage, Language Learning Correspondent for FE News.

The world is intertwined at many levels and all cultures are mixed together. One of the remaining culturally definitive references that distinguish nations is languages. It is also through languages that we are able to communicate and make sure that our message is accurately received and understood. This is a basic fact, but not everyone is aware and acknowledges the importance of languages for humanity.

All around the globe, each and every second, people are getting in touch, international laws and agreements are being made, businesses deals negotiated and closed. The power of language is right in front of our eyes and still it is a hard task to convince every one of the benefits of mastering many languages.

google blog on machine translation

Google recently added the following to their blog:
"Because we want to provide everyone with access to all the world's information, including information written in every language, one of the exciting projects at Google Research is machine translation. Most state-of-the-art commercial machine translation systems in use today have been developed using a rules-based approach and require a lot of work by linguists to define vocabularies and grammars."

Several research systems, including ours, take a different approach: we feed the computer with billions of words of text, both monolingual text in the target language, and aligned text consisting of examples of human translations between the languages. We then apply statistical learning techniques to build a translation model. We have achieved very good results in research evaluations

Language Barriers Damage U.S. Mission in Middle East

As former high-ranking military officials call for U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's resignation, one Michigan-based company feels that a more significant day-to-day issue is being ignored: an immediate need for U.S. based interpreters and translators, in the mission critical languages.

"Our nation's deficiency in the Arabic languages and the Middle Eastern culture in critical areas around the world is compromising American-security interests at home and abroad. After five years since 9/11, the United States has failed to address the language barriers that exist between our military and intelligence officers and the regions in which we have our military," said Sam Danou, president, World Trade Center Detroit/Windsor Translation Services and Languages Institute (WTCD/W).

Internet blamed for eroding English language

The Internet is to blame for an explosion of bad spelling and poor grammar that is collectively reshaping centuries-old words and phrases.

Such is the warning from Oxford English Corpus, which reportedly found that the English language is being diluted by words spelt wrongly by bloggers and online commentators.

Drawing on sources including blogs, chatrooms, newspapers, magazines and fiction from around the world, the researchers have approved words such as ‘podcast’ for entry into Oxford dictionaries.

world cup 2006: phrase of the day - flick-on

The flick-on used in commentary refers to the slight header by a striker on a long ball. The purpose of the flick-on is to get the ball to fall into the path of the striker who may be running in front.

word of the day: daedal

daedal \DEE-duhl\, adjective:
1. Complex or ingenious in form or function; intricate.
2. Skillful; artistic; ingenious.
3. Rich; adorned with many things.

Most Web-site designers realize that large image maps and daedal layouts are to be avoided, and the leading World Wide Web designers have reacted to users' objections to highly graphical, slow sites by using uncluttered, easy-to-use layouts. -- "Fixing Web-site usability", InfoWorld, December 15, 1997

He gathered toward the end of his life a very extensive collection of illustrated books and illuminated manuscripts, and took heightened pleasure in their daedal patterns as his own strength declined. -- Florence S. Boos, preface to The Collected Letters of William Morris