Seeking Nationwide Interpreters

If you want to join our network of translators/interpreters nationwide, you can now apply by going to our website at: www.worldservicesusa.com/apply.asp

Coffee Talk - Learning Spanish Is So Easy!

Our world is becoming smaller as more globalization occurs. The United States is known for its melting pot characteristic. As part of this intercultural exchange that occurs daily, learning new langauges is pivotal to staying relevant in the dynamic workforce and social life. If you are interested in learning Spanish, the most popular language to learn and the second widely spoken language in the U.S., World Services invites you to participate in Coffee Talk.

We will be launching Coffee Talk in January, just in time for you to fullfill your New Year resolutions of learning a new language. If you are tired of stuffy classrooms and hard benches of the schoolroom, then learn Spanish while sipping your latte at a local coffee shop near you! World Services has more than 50 instructors ready to help you speak your second language.

Locations available for Coffee Talk:

• Atlanta


• East Point


• Palmetto


• Stone Mountain


• Gwinett


• DeKalb


• Alpharetta


• Smyrna


• Marietta


• Kennesaw

Learn to speak Spanish at a coffee shop near you! No expensive classes, software, or tutors. Pick a date and location that fits your schedule, and we'll meet you there. Our experienced language instructors are friendly and will leave you feeling confident in speaking Spanish. The cost is only $25.00 per person/per class. A group of 4 is necessary! Don't hesitate, feel free to contact us at 404-486-5986 or coffeetalk@worldservicesusa.com!

Hong Kong Book Fair Seeks to Develop Global Profile

The Hong Kong Book Fair, which is known for its sher enormity, has made an effort to modernize and expand its reach.

Maybe because most of the books are in Chinese-language material to local buyers, or because it is more like a raucous and populist event, the Book Fair has not quite found its place on the global stage yet.

"Our goal is to put it on the map internationally," said Joe Kainz, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, which organizes the fair. In this year's seven-day fair, more international authors, more English-language material, and a new area dedicated to e-books and digital media have been brought in. To help visitors who might be intimidated by that second language they learned in school, the Fair's organizers held sessions like "Chip Tsao's Reading Guide to Renowned English-language Authors."

Mr. Tsao, a British-educated local commentator, addressed a standing-room-only seminar on the first day. After a short introduction, he began reading in a slow, clear British accent while pointing to a screen with the first page of Mr. Horowitz's "Point Blank," part of his "Alex Rider" series of crime thrillers aimed at younger readers. Mr. Tsao translated difficult words into Cantonese and peppered his talk with jokes. "You don't have to run to the dictionary everytime there's a word you don't recognize," he reassured. "You don't need to know what a Beretta sub-compact, semi-automatic pistol is. You just need to know this man has a gun."

"I'm bowled over that there are a million people interested enough in books to show up." said the guests speakers who seemed overwhelmed by the crowds, "I was struck by how by how many young people are here. It made my old heart quite happy."


Source: The New York Times

Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/arts/30iht-fair.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2

English As A Second Language Flourishes

In 2007-2008 the Norriton Area School Dstrict had 615 English as a Second Language (ESL) students, and in 2008-2009 that number increased to 657. Most of the young enthusiastic English language learners are Latinos from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and several Latin American Countries.

Among the at least 20 laguages, which are sopken by the students in the district, Spanish is the majority, which is the native tongue of 95% of the ESL students. Others are Arabic, Chinese, Gujarati, French, and Vietnamese. The reason of the growth of ESL students is that most of them were born in the U.S. or came directly from their mother countires.

Li, who has been teaching ESL classes for 10 years in the district, believes that writing in English is the most difficult task for ESL students to master. Leaf, the district's ESL coordinator, states that it takes an average of five to seven years to reach English language proficiency in reading, speaking, listening, and writing.

Source from: http://www.mainlinemedianews.com/articles/2010/07/22/king_of_prussia_courier/news/doc4c437e785a60f748203787.txt

Referees’ Calls May Get Lost in Their Translation

“We are used to moving our eyes left to right so we have a preference for viewing events left to right,” said Alexander Kranjec, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania.

Because of this preference, events moving from right to left are perceived as atypical, and referees may be more likely to call fouls, Dr. Kranjec said.

Previous studies have suggested that such directional effects are reversed in those whose languages read from right to left.

“It would be interesting to do this with Hebrew- or Arabic-speaking soccer experts,” Dr. Kranjec said.

He and his colleagues conducted the study on varsity soccer players at the University of Pennsylvania. The players assessed foul calls on images of plays, and were then asked to do the same on mirror images of the same plays.

On average, they called about three more fouls on action going right to left.

The news is unlikely to have any application to disputed calls in soccer since the referee’s ruling is absolute. It would also depend on the position of the referee and the language or languages he reads. So there’s little chance that science will calm the arguments that are as much a part of the World Cup as the games themselves.

NY TIMES http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/science/13obrefs.html?_r=1

A version of this article appeared in print on July 13, 2010, on page D3 of the New York edition.

Three Things We Will Never Forget About The 2010 World Cup

In yesterday's final, Spain scored the only goal in the 116th minute, getting a 1-0 victory over the Netherlands. Thus, Spain achieved the country's first-ever world championship, and became the eighth team to win the World Cup.

Though the South Africa 2010 World Cup is over, soccer fans will probably never forget:

1. “Goal! Goal! USA!” Landon Donovan’s stoppage-time score against Algeria was the high-water mark of the Americans’ solid run.

2. Hand of not: Luis Suarez took the most beneficial red card in history in the quarterfinals, clearly handling a sure Ghana goal late. Asamoah Gyan choked on the ensuing PK, giving Uruguay a road to the semifinals.

3. Star-struck: Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo was average at best; Argentinean Lionel Messi looked good on the field, but didn’t score any goals; injuries limited Didier Drogba; Michael Ballack didn’t even play. It was not an auspicious tournament for some of the world’s brightest lights.

Source from: http://metro.us/us/article/2010/07/12/04/2652-82/index.xml

Talk is Cheap

Talk is cheap, but solid communications are priceless in this global economy. World Services can provide you or your company with dependable interpreters and translators nationwide at costs lower than other companies. Visit our website for more information!

Being bilingual is not enough

Being bilingual is not enough. For interpreters, bilingualism is a start and a requisite skill, but by itself, bilingualism is not enough for interpreters to be good interpreters. For translators, bilingualism is helpful. For one thing, it enables translators to communicate better with direct clients who may be reluctant to entrust a job to a translator who cannot speak their language. However, it is not a requisite skill and its importance is far overshadowed by the importance of having a combination of subject area expertise, high-level reading skills in the source language, and excellent writing skills in the target language.

Notes: ATA Cronicle ( July 2008)

Government needs to improve foreign language capabilities

Senators are exploring ways to improve U.S. agencies' ability to understand and translate foreign languages, as experts and government reports express continuing concerns that the foreign-language deficiencies may undermine national security.

"Changing threats to U.S. national security as well as the increasing globalization of the U.S. economy have greatly increased federal agencies’ needs for personnel proficient in foreign languages," the senator's office said in a release.

The concerns come on the heels of two Government

Accountability Office (GAO) reports from 2009 that found that some U.S. agencies were ill-equipped in foreign-language translation. The hearing will be one of many in the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which highlighted a shortage of foreign-language expertise in the government.

One GAO report found that the Defense Department lacked a strategic plan for addressing language skills. Meanwhile, the other found that 31 percent of State Department officials in language-heavy posts were not qualified for their positions in 2009, up two points from 29 percent in 2005.

Experts and officials say that agencies have made varying levels of progress in bolstering their language capabilities in the last decade. But they add that there is no single quick fix and that the problem runs deep, with a lack of interagency coordination and not enough emphasis on foreign languages in U.S. education.

"The U.S. education system ... simply has not made the investment in language required to provide the government with an adequate pool of linguistic expertise from which to recruit to meet its needs," Richard Brecht, executive director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Languages at the University of Maryland, said in written testimony at a 2004 House Armed Services Committee hearing.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said in a statement that the department, which fulfills its language needs through hiring, training and contracting, "is considering the implementation of a more consolidated approach to the Department’s diverse foreign language needs."

Read more at http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/102833-government-still-trying-to-catch-up-on-foreign-language-capabilities

Not lost in translation!

The language industry has survived the economic crisis better than other sectors, according to a survey conducted for the European Commission. The study, the first to analyse the size of the language industry EU-wide, covers translation, interpreting, localising and globalising, subtitling and dubbing, language technology tools, multilingual conference organisation and language teaching. The survey put EU-wide turnover at 8.4 billion euro in 2008. This is set to increase by at least 10 per cent annually, over the next few years, to between 16.5 billion euro and 20 billion euro by 2015. This is one of the highest growth rates in EU industry.

"The language industry has both an economic and a strategic importance. Economic, because of its size, its resistance to the present crisis and especially its future potential. Strategic, because it is essential to preserving people's identities and culture and to coping in a globalised world. This study shows a more accurate image of the language industry in the EU and is a way to put it into the limelight on the employment market," says Leonard Orban, commissioner for multilingualism. Increasing globalisation demands translation and interpreting into new languages, as well as new language-related services.

"The industry is different from what it was years ago. It has seen the rise of new fields such as subtitling, localisation and editing. So professionals working in the field need to acquire new competences. The European Commission supports the development of such competences, for instance by promoting the European master’s in translation," Commissioner Orban said. The analysis was apparently conducted on the basis of questionnaires sent to professional associations, national authorities, individuals, language-service providers and language-service departments. The study included an analysis of each EU member state.

Read more at http://www.sofiaecho.com/2009/11/27/822313_not-lost-in-translation

Spelling Bees, A Peculiarly American Tradition

Having started in 1925, The Scripps Bee is still very popular and has reached new heights over the past decade. "It combines performance and scholarship - two things that we Americans really enjoy," Mr. Thampy, the 2000 Champion says. He thinks spelling was pivotal to his success, teaching him "a love of learning and an attention to detail and incredible appreciation of the languages and systems that underpin our society".

However, some people criticize the bee for encouraging unhealthy levels of stress and competitiveness in its young contestants. As a reply of the concerns, Scripps Spelling Bee spokesman Tim King points out that the camaraderie and fast friendships that develop during the finals can be the proof that the kids are not nursing deep wounds.

Past Winning Words:

· 2009: Laodicean, meaning lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics

· 2008: guerdon, meaning something that one has earned or gained

· 2007: serrefine, meaning a small forceps for clamping a blood vessel

· 2006: ursprache, meaning a parent language

· 2005: appoggiatura, meaning an accessory embellishing note or tone preceding an essential melodic note or tone

This Year's Contestants

· 273 spellers made the national finals

· 68% attend public school

· 42 have no siblings

· 20 have at least one relative who previously made finals

· One speller is competing for the fourth time

· The median age is 13

· One competitor is eight

· The most popular book is Harry Potter, film is Avatar and food is pizza

Source: BBC News

Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10243428.stm

How to say "World Cup" in 36 languages

Not everyone calls this tournament the "World Cup". In French it’s the "Coupe du Monde". In German, it's called the "Weltmeisterschaft". In Spanish, the "La Copa Mundial" and in Italian "Il Mondiale". And in Hindi it’s "विश्व कप", which I cannot begin to pronounce.

Below is a list of every translation I could find:

Afrikaans: Wêreldbeker
Arabic: كأس العالم
Belarusian: Кубак свету
Bulgarian: Световно първенство
Catalan: Copa del Món
Chinese: 世界杯
Czech: Světový pohár
Danish: Verdenmesterskab (or VM for short)
Dutch: Wereldkampioenschap voetbal
Finnish: Maailmancup
Flemish: Weireldkampioenschap sjotten
French: Coupe du Monde
Galician: Campionato do Mundo
German: Weltmeisterschaft (or WM for short)
Greek: Παγκόσμιο Κύπελλο
Hebrew: גביע העולם
Hindi: विश्व कप
Hungarian: Világ Kupa
Icelandic: Heimsmeistarakeppnin
Indonesian: Piala Dunia
Irish: Corn an Domhain
Italian: Il Mondiale
Japanese: W杯
Korean: 세계 축구
Lithuanian: Pasaulio čempionatas
Macedonian: Светско првенство
Malay: Piala Dunia
Maltese: Tazza tad-Dinja
Persian: جام جهانی
Portuguese: Copa do Mundo
Romanian: Cupa Mondială
Russian: Кубок мира
Serbian: Светско првенство
Slovakian: Svetový pohár
Slovenian: Svetovni pokal
Spanish: La Copa Mundial
Swedish: Världscupen (aka VM)
Thai: ฟุตบอลโลก
Turkish: Dünya Kupası
Ukrainian: Кубок світу
Vietnamese: Cúp bóng đá thế giới
Welsh: Cwpan y Byd

(Extracted from Worldcupblog.org)

The Advantages of Speaking 2 Languages

The ability to speak a second language isn’t the only thing that distinguishes bilingual people from their monolingual counterparts—their brains work differently, too. Research has shown, for instance, that children who know two languages more easily solve problems that involve misleading cues. A new study published in Psychological Sciencereveals that knowledge of a second language—even one learned in adolescence—affects how people read in their native tongue. The findings suggest that after learning a second language, people never look at words the same way again.

Eva Van Assche, a bilingual psychologist at the University of Ghent in Belgium, and her colleagues recruited 45 native Dutch-speaking students from their university who had learned English at age 14 or 15. The researchers asked the participants to read a collection of Dutch sentences, some of which included cognates—words that look similar and have equivalent meanings in both lan guages (such as “sport,” which means the same thing in both Dutch and English). They also read other sentences containing only noncognate words in Dutch.

Van Assche and her colleagues recorded the participants’ eye move ments as they read. They found that the subjects spent, on average, eight fewer milliseconds gazing at cognate words than control words, which suggests that their brains processed the dual-language words more quickly than words found only in their native language.

“The most important implication of the study is that even when a per son is reading in his or her native language, there is an influence of knowledge of the nondominant second language,” Van Assche notes. “Becoming a bilingual changes one of people’s most automatic skills.” She plans to investigate next whether people who are bilingual also process auditory language information differently. “Many questions remain,” she says.

Source: Scientific American

Read more at http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bilingual-brains

Fighting Against Misused: Shanghai Is Cleaning Up Chinglish Signage

For 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing replaced thousands of English signages, which included 400,000 street signs and 1,300 restaurant menus, such as Dongda Anus Hospital was rechristened Dongda Proctology Hospital; Racist Park was rechristened Minorities Park. Now it's turn for Shanghai. To greet millions of visitors, Shanghai is taking great effort to eliminate mangled English of Chinglish. "The purpose of signage is to be useful, not to be amusing," said Zhao Huimin, the former Chinese ambassador to the United Sates.

However, while the Chinese people are striving to eliminate Chinglish, Oliver Lutz Radtke, a former German radio reporter, put forward an opinion that Chinglish deserves preservation. "If you standardize all these signs, you not only take away the little giggle you get while strolling in the part but you lose a window into the Chinese mind." Jeffrey Yao, an English translator and teacher offered an example: for the warning "Keep Off the Grass", Chinese version tries to express it into a gentle way, that is "The little Grass Is Sleeping. Please Don't Disturb It." "Some Chinglish expressions are nice, but we are not translating literature here," said Mr. Yao, " I want to see people nodding that they understand the message on these signs. I don't want to see them laughing."

Source: NDTV.

Read more at http://www.ndtv.com/news/world/shanghai-works-on-fixing-the-mangled-english-of-chinglish-22975.php

Most Americans Support Arizona Immigration Law

According to CBS News poll, about 52% of respondents thought the new Arizona law on illegal immigration is about right; 28% said it goes too far; while 17% held the opinion that it doesn't go far enough. Last month, after a controversial immigration bill was signed into law by Arizona Government, the percentage of Americans saying immigration a very serious problem increased to 65.

Because of the new Arizona immigration law, police got more power to question and verify someone's status. President Obama has ordered the Justice Department to review it, in his words, a "misdirected" law. He will send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border soon.

Source: CBS News

Read More: www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20005957-503544.html

Why Choose World Services

• Fast turnaround delivery

• Professional quality guaranteed

• Best translation and interpretation agency rates

• Estimates within 24 hours

• Interpreters available 24 hours/day, 7 days a week

In this world of internet globalization it is essential for your business to expand to this multicultural society. World Services can help you achieve that goal by helping you translate all of your business advertising and products into any language you may need. This is the best investment you can make to expand your business! Call us today, and a World Services agent will be happy to assist you.