11/13/2006 - 11/14/2006

u.s. olympic committee undegoes intercultural training on china

The U.S. Olympic Committee for the first time ever plans to train the U.S. delegation, including athletes, in the culture of the host country.

The training began last week in Beijing, where nearly 60 USOC officials and Olympic and Paralympic team leaders — the people responsible for directly managing the athletes and their needs at a Games — learned everything from Chinese dining etiquette to how to build business relationships to how to find the train station. The USOC will bring the team leaders to Beijing again next year; many of them will return several times before the Olympics for competitions and planning purposes.

canada's views on religion, immigrants, islam and diversity

A majority of Canadians accept multiculturalism in principle, but that support evaporates when immigrant religious and cultural practices threaten gender equality, according to a new poll examining Canadians' views of Muslims.

Half the respondents said immigrants and minority ethnic groups should be free to maintain their religious and cultural practices in Canada, while 40 per cent said immigrants should blend into Canadian society and not form separate communities.

police recruitment buoyant despite claims of islamaphobia

Recruitment at the Metropolitan Police is still buoyant despite the current pressurised political climate and constant terrorist threats, according to the service's HR director, Martin Tiplady.

So-called 'Islamophobia' - prejudice against Muslims - has not had a negative impact on the Met's recruitment, nor deterred people from ethnic minority backgrounds from applying, Tiplady said.

The Met is being sued by a Muslim firearms officer who was removed from duty after it was claimed his children attended a mosque with suspected terrorist links. Tiplady refused to comment on this case, but insisted that the Met had made big strides in diversity.

british expats invest heavily in dubai real estate

British expatriates are the largest group of non-national investors in Dubai's real estate sector, according to a latest AC Nielsen report commissioned by Zabeel Investments. "Expatriates are keen to seek investment opportunities in the UAE, particularly in Dubai, and more often in property. However, concerns over clarifications of the UAE property law has left some hesitant," the report said.

gambling.com sees expansion through multilingual website

Following on from the launch of the recently launched PPC search engine geo-targeting functionality, online gaming portal Gambling.com will further broaden its scope by going multilingual, initially by offering German, Spanish and French splash pages, as part of its strategy to expand internationally, which will ultimately give advertisers the option of submitting their listings in a whole host of local languages.

finland tops business internet chart

New figures from Eurostat show Finland had the highest proportion of businesses using the internet at 99%, closely followed by Denmark and Austria on 98%. Only Latvia (80%), Cyprus (86%), Lithuania (88%) and Poland (89%) had fewer than 90% of businesses connected to the internet.

Finland also topped the broadband league, alongside Sweden. Both countries had 89% of businesses using broadband. But figures were far lower in other parts of Europe, with just 46% of Poland’s businesses covered, while figures for Cyprus (55%), Lithuania (57%) and Latvia (59%) were also low.

word of the day: gauche

gauche \GOHSH\, adjective:
Lacking social polish; tactless; awkward; clumsy.

He was largely exempted from the formal socializing he said he found so hard to manage, flustered and gauche in polite company as he had always been. -- John Sturrock, "Well on the Way to Paranoia", New York Times, July 28, 1991

He was by nature intellectual, shy, even gauche and he always believed he lacked the common touch. -- "Editor whose legacy was diversity", Irish Times, October 9, 1999

Bibliography of Translation Studies boycotts israeli academics

The International Advisory Board for Academic Freedom warns against a “silent boycott� in Britain against Israeli institutes of higher education.

The council said that Israeli researchers wishing to publish articles in Britain were asked to remove the name of which ever Israeli academic institute they belonged to as a condition for publishing their articles.

The latest “unofficial boycott� was initiated by the “Bibliography of Translation Studies" journal, owned by a British publishing house headed by Mona Baker, a supporter of the academic boycott on Israel.

Promote ethnic minority staff call

Local authorities were urged to do more to promote staff from black and ethnic minority communities after new research showed that top jobs in many councils in England were only held by white employees.

The GMB union said that in a number of authorities, including Wiltshire, North Tyneside, Hartlepool and Blackpool, none of the top 5% earners employed by local councils were from black or ethnic minority communities.

the intercultural expat

India Inc. has shaped up right. In recent times, India has seen an influx of multinational companies, bringing with them a new asset – the expatriate manager. The expatriate is a global manager who is at ease in any part of the world and can replicate success systems for the parent company in diverse societies. But is it really smooth sailing? Has India Inc. welcomed the expat manager with open arms?

5-year plan to reform English for European use

The European Commission have just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5 year phase in plan that would be known as "EuroEnglish".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c".. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.

fire service translates leaflets for immigrants

A fire safety message is being sent to migrant workers - in their own language.

Somerset Fire and Rescue Service is calling on businesses to hand out the leaflets to staff from abroad who do not use English as their first language. Martin Carnell, brigade spokesman, said: "We are aware that we have a large population of migrant workers from countries within the European Union such as Portugal and Poland, and this could well increase with the EU expansion."

chinese translator sets world records

Sittinh at a desk piled with books and dressed like a typical academic, Donghua University professor Ye Rongding doesn't look like the sort of person whose name appears in a local version of the Guinness Book of World Records.

Ye, director of the Shanghai Translator Association, was officially named the holder of two records by the Shanghai Great World Guinness Book in September for his work translating Japanese novels into Chinese. He holds the record for the most Japanese books translated into Mandarin, 75, and the most words translated, nine million.

Multilanguage Speereo Voice Translator

Speereo Software UK, the winner of 'Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine’, is hear to make traveler’s life easier. Developing all necessary information for business and leisure trips. The most useful and powerful application is Talking Dictionary Phrasebook, which provides perfect communication in a foreign language while traveling around the world.

word of the day: ab ovo

ab ovo \ab-OH-voh\, adverb:
From the beginning.

I will begin ab ovo -- at the very beginning. -- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

The performers do not have to discover these techniques and processes ab ovo; they learn them from the previous generation, who learned them from their predecessors, and so on. -- William L. Benzon, Beethoven's Anvil