05/18/2007 - 05/19/2007

Managing Communication in the Intercultural Virtual Team

Working in an intercultural environment is becoming increasingly common. One of the results of such set-ups is an experience of more communication difficulties. Different approaches to areas such management, communication, time, meetings, conflict resolution and the sharing of information are all culturally relative. When cultures come together and differ in their approaches, misunderstandings can and do occur. It is these that can often lead to poor team performance or morale.

Google prepares for multilingual searches

Google is preparing a future update of its search engine that lets users search content in any language.

The cross-language information retrieval technology uses software to translate queries into English. It then performs the search and translates the results back to the original language. Arabic speakers, for instance, will be able to look for reviews on New York restaurants, even if such information is not natively available in that language.

Disney To Make Chinese-Language Movie

Movie giant Disney is set to make its first Chinese-language movie - about an enchanted vegetable. The studio is teaming up with the China Film Group (cfg) to bring The Magic Gourd to the big screen.

The movie - a mix of live action and animation - is based on the book by late author Zhang Tianyi, and tells the story of a young boy who discovers a gourd (Chinese vegetable) that grants him wishes.

Finnish firm develops machine translation technology

Sunda Systems, of Finland, has developed a new-generation machine-translation tech- nology that can be used to develop efficient machine translators for any pair of languages you care to name. The Sunda MT Workbench provides a set of tools for building high-quality machine translators for even small languages that have been bypassed so far by major vendors.

LA: Hospitals Fail to Provide Interpreters

A growing number of Korean Americans say they are dissatisfied with hospital interpreter services in the United States. Some claim language barriers have led to mistreatment by hospital staff, leading to worsening health conditions.

Word of the Day: bombast

bombast \BOM-bast\, noun:
Pompous or pretentious speech or writing.

A more serious difficulty, though, is that "love" has inspired a vast deal of high-toned rhetoric, and Ms. Ackerman seems determined to boost the bombast that already engulfs this troublesome word. -- "This Crazy Thing Called Love", New York Times, June 26, 1994