11/30/2006 - 12/01/2006

Continental Airlines Upgrades Spanish Website

Continental Airlines has expanded functions on its continental Web site to allow customers to check in for flights in Spanish. The new tool, which complements the site`s existing Spanish-language functionality, is part of Continental`s Latinization initiative for Spanish-speaking customers.

Supporting Exporters with Multilingual Students

In the UK, An innovative Staffordshire businessman has provided the solution for any exporter struggling to overcome a language barrier with foreign clients.

Former Staffordshire University lecturer Jim O’Neill set up European Business Exchange to fill any type of recruitment gap with foreign students, enabling exporters to interact with overseas customers and prospects in their native tongue.

Push to Integrate Amazigh Culture & Language in Morocco

Amazigh associations are working to establish the full recognition of the Amazigh language and culture. Despite government approval for teaching Amazigh, the language's integration in education has been problematic.

In 2001, King Mohammed VI said that a revival of the Amazigh language is everyone’s responsibility, and incorporating it into the Moroccan educational curriculum is a necessity -- the Amazighs’ language and culture is a fundamental component of the national culture, he said.

ING Sued over Racial Discrimination

A City worker in London who claims she and another Asian worker were nicknamed The Kumars At No 42 by colleagues is suing Dutch bank ING for more than £100,000.

Meena Sagoo, 42, alleges her career hit a glass ceiling because of her race – and that it was 'double-glazed' by her boss Richard Mutter.

Word of the Day: debouch

debouch \dih-BOWCH; -BOOSH\, intransitive verb:
1. To march out (as from a wood, defile, or other narrow or confined spot) into the open.
2. To emerge; to issue.
transitive verb:
1. To cause to emerge or issue; to discharge.

When the mill hands hassled Pete at the Manchester Cafe, he took off his apron, debouched from behind the counter and beat them senseless. -- Richard Rhodes, Why They Kill

Bangladesh, one of the most populous spots on earth, is virtually the delta of the Brahmaputra and Ganga river systems, where numerous streams and rivers debouch to the Bay of Bengal. -- "Blood on the Border", Times of India, April 23, 2001

Brits Keen to Work Abroad ... But Not to Learn the Language

A survey has found that the British are increasingly eager to work overseas. 86% of people questioned said that they had seriously considered working in another country. Yet the survey, which was carried out by intercultural communications consultancy Kwintessential, also found that over two thirds of those eager to become expatriates could not speak the local language.

The Kwintessential poll was conducted through the company's website starting in July 2006 with a sample of over 300 individuals. The results showed that meain reasons people are tempted to abandon their British posts are for a better work-life balance and the challenges of working in a different culture. Contrary to popular opinion, only 11% of those questioned identified better weather as a strong motivation for moving away from the British Isles.

Head of French Company won’t Learn French

When Patricia Russo takes the helm of newly-merged telecoms gear groups Alcatel and Lucent Technologies on Friday, she will be the only woman and the only American to head a company in France’s CAC-40 index of blue chips. But what is creating more of a stir in some conservative business circles is a statement from the 54-year-old native of New Jersey that she doesn’t plan to learn French.

“I find that shocking,� says Jacques Legendre, a French senator and vice-president of the cultural affairs committee.

China Airline Urges pre-flight Toilet Training

A Chinese airline has calculated that it takes a litre of fuel to flush the toilet at 30,000 feet and is urging passengers to go to the bathroom before they board.

As Chinese airlines come under increasing pressure to cut fuel expenditures, China Southern's latest strategy is to encourage passengers "to spend their pennies before boarding the aircraft", Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.

Support for Internationalised Domain Names Grows

The de facto control that the US government holds over the Internet – most bodies governing the web are based in the States – has always been controversial.

But there is another, and to date less frequently discussed, way in which the Western world has an unfair advantage in the operating of the Internet: the alphabet used in domain names.

Historically, websites originating in Arabic and Oriental countries have had no option but to use the Latin alphabet in their domain names, simply because that is the alphabet used in the Internet’s domain registry.

Shortage of Interpreters in UK Poses Threat

A shortage of trained interpreters in British courts and police stations poses a threat to justice, according to an industry body.

Alan Wheatley, general secretary of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting, said there was a need for better training and rates of pay. Several factors, including EU enlargement, have contributed to an increased demand for interpreters.

word of the day: galvanic

galvanic \gal-VAN-ik\, adjective:
1. Of, pertaining to, or producing a direct current of electricity, especially when produced chemically.
2. Affecting or affected as if by an electric shock; startling; shocking.
3. Stimulating; energizing.

Reading the epic known to us as the Iliad is vastly different from the preliterate experience of hearing and seeing it performed. In place of the bard's galvanic flow of sound and image, the reader beholds a mute tome, the size of longish novel. -- Michael E. Hobart and Zachary S. Schiffman, Information Ages

Hemingway's letters, which often seem to have been dashed off at the end of the day, display little of the galvanic style that animated his early (and finest) fiction. -- Michiko Kakutani, "Tone It Down, He Urged Hemingway", New York Times, November 19, 1996