09/27/2006 - 09/28/2006

Vatican: cultural misunderstanding leads to "new barbarism"

The Vatican's foreign minister said that misunderstanding between cultures is breeding a "new barbarism" of violent extremists, and expressed hope that reason and dialogue would stop fundamentalists who use their faith as a pretext for attacks.

Learn Chinese Language On The Go With Your iPod or MP3 Player

Now you can download Foreign Service Institute Mandarin Chinese course to your MP3 player or computer. Multilingualbooks.com announced today the release of new language-learning products for the iPod and other portable digital music players which make learning the important Mandarin Chinese language easier than ever.

Complete Identity Launches Comprehensive Translation Services

Complete Identity announced today that it will offer translation services for clients needing their marketing and business materials produced in languages other than English. The translation services that CI will provide are performed by human translators and are double-checked by one or more people.

word of the day: aesthete

aesthete \ES-theet\, noun:
One having or affecting great sensitivity to beauty, as in art or nature.

Beijing, with its stolid, square buildings and wide, straight roads, feels like the plan of a first-year engineering student, while Shanghai's decorative architecture and snaking, narrow roads feel like the plan of an aesthete. -- "Sky's the Limit in Shanghai", Los Angeles Times, April 25, 1999

But he was also an aesthete with a connoisseur's eye for the wild modernist innovations with letterforms and layout of the 1920s. -- Rick Poynor, "Herbert Spencer", The Guardian, March 15, 2002

City chamber calls for more languages students

Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry is marking National Languages Day today to call for more investment in training.

Fewer students are leaving school without language qualifications than ever before. BCI policy adviser Kasia Kurowska said: "Language skills are becoming increasingly important for businesses. With the EU expanding, as well as growing economies in the Far East, Britain risks being left behind because people haven't got a second language. Just because the rest of Europe has English as a second language, doesn't mean we don't have to try. The chance of doing deals increases greatly if we at least try to converse with them in their own language."

Employers knowingly risk prejudice in interviews

As many as 70 per cent of employers are using selection methods that they recognise as being potentially discriminatory, research has revealed.

A survey of 450 employers conducted by Reed Consulting, which coincides with the age regulations coming into force on 1 October, revealed that 70 per cent of firms used unstructured interviews when recruiting, even though the same percentage agreed that such interviews might be "to some extent" discriminatory against candidates on grounds of age or ethnicity.

Pool knowledge to find the origins of language

Linguists are calling for an online public database, similar to the human genome project, that would allow researchers to collaboratively share different studies of language impairment.

By gathering together studies of developmental disorders that cause communication impairments – such as autism or Down’s syndrome – they hope to provide new clues about the origins of language.

Such a database might also help treat language disorders or help people learn foreign tongues, they say.

Met Police to launch new-look recruitment diversity campaign

The Metropolitan Police Service will launch its new-look recruitment bus in London tomorrow as part of its diversity campaign.

The launch of the revamped fluorescent yellow bus, in the ethnically diverse area of Brick Lane in the east of the capital, will be attended by Sir Ian Blair, commissioner of the Met, Martin Tiplady, the Met's director of HR, and Lee Jasper, director of equalities and policing for the Greater London Authority.

Google Researcher Speaks on Company’s Latest Innovations

UC Berkeley alumnus Peter Norvig, Google's director of machine learning, search quality, and research, spoke in front of nearly 65 students, staff and community members yesterday about some of Google's newest innovations and the future of data analysis.

Norvig spoke at length about Statistical Machine Translation, a computer translation program currently under development. He said the goal of this program is to improve translation, making it more accurate and human-like rather than choppy and literal. Google competed this past year against companies such as IBM, testing their program's ability to translate from Arabic and Chinese to English, Norvig said.

China lures expatriates but success hard

China is one of the easiest places for recruiters to lure expatriate executives, but is also one of the hardest places for them to succeed, according to a study released on Tuesday.

A survey of more than 140 international recruiters by executive recruitment firm Korn/Ferry International found other popular places for expatriate workers were Western Europe, especially Britain, and North America, as well as Southeast Asia, especially Singapore.

Motorola Introduce First Chinese-Language Mobile Phones

Motorola, Inc. and Red Pocket Mobile today announced the release of the first handsets sold by a U.S. wireless service provider with Chinese-language menus. The world’s most popular mobile phone, the MOTORAZR™ V3, and the curvaceous, entry-level Motorola C139 both now offer users Chinese language options when purchased through new wireless operator Red Pocket Mobile. Both handsets are certified for use on the nation’s largest digital wireless network, an industry first.

Francophonia 2006 Program Features Leading Domestic and International Experts

The upcoming ACCTI Conference 2006, to be held in Montréal, Quebec on November 13-15, has assembled the leading authorities in globalization, localization, translation, language standards, organizational leadership/communication and the technologies that are transforming all of these spheres. These experts are arriving from across Quebec, across Canada, and, literally, from across the globe (France, the United States, China, etc ...). The conference agenda has a special emphasis on issues of import to French-speakers and those with an interest in doing business with the Canadian government and private sector. However, much of the content is of practical value to all those with an interest in improving their understanding and mastery of global business. Moreover, the entire program will be delivered in both French and English to accommodate speakers of both languages.

word of the day: fulsome

fulsome \FUL-sum\, adjective:
1. Offensive to the taste or sensibilities.
2. Insincere or excessively lavish; especially, offensive from excess of praise.

He recorded the event in his journal: "Long evening visit from Mr. Langtree--a fulsome flatterer." -- Edward L. Widmer, Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City

Concealed disgust under the appearance of fulsome endearment. -- Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World