11/06/2006 - 11/07/2006

getting ahead in china

As private schools grasp the tiger’s tail and teach their children how to conduct business in Chinese, fears are growing that state pupils will be left behind as their schools are allowed to duck out of teaching languages altogether.

Richard Cairns, the first independent school head to make Mandarin compulsory for all new students, fears the government’s decision to make foreign languages optional in the national curriculum two years ago is leading to a two-tier system, where private school children will thrive in the new Asian-led world markets, but state pupils will be left to flounder without even the basics of schoolboy French.

prisons failing foreign inmates

Failures in the prison and immigration services which led to the foreign prisoners scandal have still not been eliminated, a watchdog has warned.

Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers said there were "systemic failures" at all levels in the care of foreign inmates. Communication with foreign prisoners was difficult, with some officers reporting that a telephone translation service was too expensive to use.

sikh banned from wearing kirpan

A Danish court ruled Tuesday that it was illegal for a Sikh man to carry the “kirpan� ceremonial knife that he traditionally gets at baptism. The Eastern High Court said that although Indian national Ripudaman Singh wore the blunt knife as a “religious symbol,� it was still a violation of a ban on bearing weapons, including knives, except for carrying out a trade, hunting, fishing or other recreational activities.

Pact launches diversity pledge for television industry

Pact, the trade association for independent production companies, has launched a Diversity Pledge for members to sign to show their commitment to raising diversity in the television industry.

Fifty-eight member companies have already signed up to the pledge, which has been widely welcomed by broadcasters and key industry stakeholders.

The voluntary pledge is supported by a Diversity Guide, a toolkit with advice and contacts aimed at helping small and medium-sized creative businesses implement any changes quickly.

human vs gadget? the best translator for iraq

For science-fiction buffs, it's probably a common-sense solution. Two months after arriving in Iraq, a second lieutenant with the 16th Military Police Brigade was handed the Phraselator, a handheld device that promised to digest his English phrases and produce a prerecorded Arabic translation with an Iraqi accent.

But after a brief test last year, the soldier gave up the gadget, deciding that, while helpful in some instances, it wasn't useful to his unit, which conducted raids and provided convoy security. He had even tried to teach himself Arabic using the device but decided that it was no match for the complex language.

word of the day: copse

copse \KOPS\, noun:
A thicket or grove of small trees.

A lit window shone from between the trees below them, then vanished again as the car dipped over a ditch and passed through a copse. -- Kate Bingham, Mummy's Legs

Among the mountains, hills, streams, waterfalls, and little copses, the child rejoiced in "savouring the delights of freedom" that stimulated his boyish dreams and reveries. -- Suheil Bushrui and Joe Jenkins, Kahlil Gibran: Man and Poet