05/30/2006 - 05/31/2006

does cultural diversity make us unhappy?

It is an uncomfortable conclusion from happiness research data perhaps - but multicultural communities tend to be less trusting and less happy. Research by the Home Office suggests that the more ethnically diverse an area is, the less people are likely to trust each other. The Commission for Racial Equality has also done work looking at the effect of diversity on well-being.

WhiteSmoke launches online language tool

Interactive technology firm WhiteSmoke has launched an online language tool designed to help people improve their English language skills. The online ‘date profiling’ program will initially be used to help single people promote themselves in a more articulate and powerful manner on dating and community sites.

The program, which can be downloaded from www.whitesmoke.com and appears as an icon at the bottom of the computer screen, helps people using internet dating programs to express themselves more eloquently and to support them with spelling, grammar and text enrichment suggestions.

Florida Department of Financial Services launches spanish website

As a way to better serve the state's growing Hispanic population, the Florida Department of Financial Services has launched a Spanish-language version of its consumer Web site.

More than 5,000 pages were translated on the department's Web site, including consumer-focused areas that offer information about disaster assistance, homeowners' insurance, financial matters such as mortgages and investments, unclaimed property, victim rights and more.

save welsh - make babies

Welsh speakers are being urged to have more babies to ensure the language doesn't die out.

Sion Jobbins, former mayor of Aberystwyth, said it was a subject politicians had to tackle if Welsh was to be passed down the generations. He said, "The Welsh Language Board acknowledges that it is important to pass a language on within the family but to what purpose if there are no children?"

spanish government offers cash incentives to learn a 2nd language

The Spanish government, fed up with the national reputation for not speaking foreign languages, will give young people up to 1,000 euros (680 pounds) each to study English

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero homed in on his country's linguistic failings in his annual State of the Nation address to Parliament on Tuesday, in which he announced the subsidy for people aged from 18-30. "I have set myself the task of overcoming our traditional shortcomings with regard to languages," said Zapatero, who cannot speak English but once tried his uncertain French in an address to France's National Assembly.

foreign exec loses job due to lack of language skills

The resignation of Bank of China chief risk officer Lonnie Dounn has underlined the difficulties Chinese banks face in recruiting and keeping senior overseas executives.

Chinese bank executives said he had struggled from the time he joined Bank of China to operate effectively, in no small part due to language difficulties.

A senior Chinese bank executive said Mr Dounn had required three full-time translators, two to work on documentation and a third to interpret for him in his everyday duties.

chinese translators can't cope with demand

China's current group of 60,000 professional translators can hardly cope with the fast growing market demand, which has been bolstered by economic prosperity and cross-border exchanges, according to a leading industry figure.

Liu Xiliang, director of the China Association of Translation, said at the First Session of the China Translation Industry Forum held in Shanghai that some 60,000 people have obtained professional foreign language translation proficiency tests authorized by the Ministry of Personnel since the national proficiency certification system was introduced in 2003.

africa trailing in internet use

Internet access remains a rare thing in Africa, where high costs and limited availability drive the technology far out of reach for most of the population. In terms of world Internet usage, Africans represent only 2.3 percent of the total, although they make up 14.1 percent of the world's population.

The Internet penetration figure in Africa is just 2.6 percent, compared to 68.6 percent in North America, according to data from the Miniwatts Marketing Group. Computer hardware remains too expensive for many Africans, but a bigger problem lies in the weak infrastructure.

world cup 2006: phrase of the day - lifeline

A lifeline is usually thrown to a team when they are seemingly losing a match then scrape a goal back which offers them some hope, i.e. a lifeline. "By bringing the score to 2-1 Beckham has given England a lifeline."

word of the day: equable

equable \EK-wuh-buhl; EE-kwuh-\, adjective:
1. Equal and uniform; not varying.
2. Not easily disturbed; not variable or changing -- said of the feelings, temper, etc.

An equable climate, evidently due to the large area of sea compared with the land, seems to extend over the greater part of the southern hemisphere; and, as a consequence, the vegetation partakes of a semi-tropical character. -- Charles Darwin, The Voyage Of Beagle

Now, there can be no doubt that Irving . . . possesses great wit and charm, as well as a temperament that is equable, cheerful, and almost relentlessly easygoing. -- Norman Podhoretz, Ex-Friends