11/23/2006 - 11/24/2006

Negotiating Across Cultures

The art of negotiation is critical for any organisation—it can make or break a deal and can significantly impact the business. In a global business environment, the negotiation process becomes more complex on account of intercultural influences that come into play. People from different countries carry their own divergent perceptions and cultural baggages which can lead to complications while talking business. Organisations today realise the need to train their personnel in international negotiation skills as a large percentage of the success of their global business depends on it.

Culture & Language Skills part of U.S Navy's Role in Iraq

Boats and weapons are Lt. Joseph Michaels' priorities in getting his 53-man squadron ready to patrol Iraq's rivers. But a close second is something the Navy sailor hadn't given much thought to before now - Iraqi language and culture.

Michaels and the men of Riverine Group 1 will head to Iraq in January from their training base in Little Creek, Va. While preparing to deploy, they are among the first sailors learning about the day-to-day lives of Iraqis - everything from their more-limited sense of personal space to traditional Arabic greetings.

PC Who Learned Polish Receives Honour

A police officer who learned Polish to work with the growing immigrant community in Wrexham has been honoured.

Pc Keith Sinclair came second in the Jane's Police Review Community Police Officer of the Year Award. Judges praised his efforts, which included learning the language, mostly in his own time, and also travelling to the country.

The Human Touch Critical for Good Translations

When Alain Thienot, a professor of business administration at a French engineering school, decided to translate a classic French finance text into English for his international students, he bought a top-rated computer translation program to do the job, rather than hire a translator.

Among hundreds of errors, the program produced a document that translated the French word "entreprise" as "undertaking," rather than company, and "frais" as "fresh air" instead of fees or expenses. A frustrated Thienot had to labor five hours a day during his summer vacation to correct "so many stupidities," he said.

Translators love collecting stories about these kinds of false economies, in part because it proves that translation still requires the human touch.

"GIVE LANGUAGE IDEAS A GO" says CILT

If CILT were to write a strategy for excellence in languages in the further education sector, we could do worse than to take the National Strategy for England as our starting point.

strategy outlines numerous actions for increasing the number of language learners within all sectors of education and for all age-groups, including post-16 and adults. There is reference to increasing opportunities for learning languages alongside other subjects, including vocational subjects, for increased work-based learning and engagement with employers as well as the social and cultural value of taking languages in Further Education. Everything is here for us to work from, so here are a few ideas from CILT, the National Centre for Languages about how we would build on what is already happening to support languages in FE (assuming, of course, that sufficient funding were available).

immigrants push up translation bill in scotland

The cost of police interpreters has reached record levels, as forces draft in translators to deal with the country's rapidly growing immigrant population.

The rising number of non-English speakers has led to the amount being spent on police translation services going up by more than a third in the past year, to almost £300,000.

word of the day: avoirdupois

avoirdupois \av-uhr-duh-POIZ; AV-uhr-duh-poiz\, noun:
1. Avoirdupois weight, a system of weights based on a pound containing 16 ounces or 7,000 grains (453.59 grams).
2. Weight; heaviness; as, a person of much avoirdupois.

Claydon . . . was happy to admit that he has shed some avoirdupois. -- Mel Webb, "Claydon's loss leads to net gain", Times (London), February 18, 2000

Yet until middle age and avoirdupois overtook her, Mary was no slouch. -- John Updike, "How to Milk a Millionaire", New York Times, March 29, 1987

Detailed study investigates value of international assignments

New research reveals that expatriate performance goes up during the assignment, stabilises during repatriation then rises again.

This was amongst the detailed findings of a new study carried out jointly by Cranfield School of Management and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Many organisations remain unclear about the benefits of sending expatriates on costly assignments – the average cost of an expatriate is USD 311,000 per annum - and how effective their expatriate programmes are as part of the overall talent management strategy.

Call for a new approach to race and faith relations in UK

A call for a new look at race and faith relations was launched this week with the publication of an agenda-setting document by the Guardian newspaper.

Put together by a new group calling itself New Generation Network, and spear-headed by AIM magazine editor Sunny Hundal, it coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Race Relations Act. It calls for "a new approach to tackle discrimination and prejudice and forge a fresh approach to building a modern Britain".

cinema can provide cultural awareness of iran says director

Oscar-nominated Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi believes that Iranian cinema has been a good cultural ambassador for Iran since the victory of the Islamic Revolution.

“Iranian cinema was able to attain a high status in the world,� Majidi said during a meeting at the Iranian Embassy in Beijing on Tuesday. “I have often heard people say that they understood the true image of Iran after they were familiarized with Iranian cinema,� he said referring to the fact that Iran is frequently depicted in a negative manner in many parts of the world. “Cinema and culture are the mirrors of each country, and despite some limitations, Iranian cinema was able to introduce the noble Iranian culture to the world,� he added.

Launch of New Expatriate Hiring Site in Shanghai

For companies who have a need for English speaking expatriates in their China operations, or any kind of expatriate for that matter, there is a new jobs section on Shanghai Expat.

The new site gives you access to a database of job-seekers and employers across China, surprisingly even in Hong Kong. The site should produce results because it has a big audience of expatriates and is the obvious online meeting place for expatriates if they live in Shanghai.

Chilean Mapuches in language row with Microsoft

Mapuche Indians in Chile are trying to take global software giant Microsoft to court in a legal battle which raises the question of whether anyone can ever "own" the language they speak.

The row was sparked by Microsoft's decision last month to launch its Windows software package in Mapuzugun, a Mapuche tongue spoken by around 400,000 indigenous Chileans, mostly in the south of the country.

free translation website

We came across Paris based Cucumis this evening. It is a community site for people who speak at least two languages and want to trade translation services. Translate text to earn points, then spend the points to have text translated into one of 22 languages. As a user’s reputation grows they earn “expert� status and receive more points for translations. The service itself is free, and Cucumis is a one-man project.

word of the day: trencherman

trencherman \TREN-chuhr-muhn\, noun:
A hearty eater.

Quietly, almost stealthily, Livingstone has transformed himself . . . into a knowing gourmand-about-town, whose commitment to lunch is only rivalled by that other fabulous trencherman, Fatty Soames. -- Catherine Bennett, "Vote Ken, vote polenta", The Guardian, March 9, 2000

Expecting that the experience would be too exciting for him to find time to eat, we were amazed to watch him consume a trencherman's breakfast, scarfing down French toast like it was going out of style. -- Sheila Rothenberg, "Disney Bridges the Generation Gap", USA Today, March, 2001