Not Babel. So, I haven’t actually seen it yet, but the general feeling seems to be it was robbed on the weekend. Other feelings seem to involve the Oscar nod going to Scorsese because they’d skipped him five times in the past. Pan’s Labyrinth walked away with some good wins which was nice and the multicultural nominations didn’t all go unrewarded. I’d like to be able to rant on quality of films but since the only one I’ve seen is Little Miss Sunshine, which is definitely excellent, I can’t.
Oscar, Oscar…who will win?
Well tonight’s the night, or day, depending on your time zone. With a host of foreign nominations, these awards are a celebration of the global filmmaking community. Let’s hope I’m still able to say that tomorrow when the awards have been handed out.
Of course, having seen very few of the nominated films so far, my opinion doesn’t mean the most in these matters. But I’m sure I’ll share it anyway.
It’s just good business
Want to obtain and keep precious export contracts? Taking the time to learn your customer’s language and customs may just help you do that. A report for the European Commission found that:
- Just over 10 percent of 2,000 small and medium sized firms in 29 European countries sampled in the study have lost export contracts because of lack of language skills.
- The picture is far more complex than the much-quoted view that English is the world language.
- Individual respondents mentioned that English might be used for initial market entry, but longer-term business partnerships depended upon relationship building and relationship-management and, to achieve this, cultural and linguistic knowledge of the target country were essential. Source - eitb24
The bottom line is always a good motivator and I’m sure continued reports like this will do wonders for new language acquisition in businesses.
12 languages, jealous anyone?
Feel like you can never learn that language? Well, this bright young man has just put us all to shame with his command of 12 languages from self-study.
At the age of 17, Ha Duy Loc, now speaks English, French, Chinese and Russian proficiently and can also communicate fluently in Arabic, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish. Now he’s working on Thai and Indonesian languages.
All that, and he achieved it with financial difficulties. Now that’s commitment that makes me embarrassed.
Another benefit of languages – Thwarting hostage situations
Going travelling? You might even have a chance to put your new language to use before you get off the plane. A clever pilot, with the help of his passengers, managed to thwart a hijacking attempt. He realised when talking to the hijacker that he didn’t speak French, despite trying to force the plane to land in France. So, he told the passengers over the intercom that he was going to do a rough landing to throw the hijacker off balance and that the passengers should be ready to pounce. He even moved the women and children to the back of the plane.
You simply just can’t trust anyone these days.
Playing with languages
Bilingual toys are becoming more popular with parents wanting to expose their children to other languages. Remember all those toys you had that taught you to count and read? How about getting them in another language as well? The benefits of learning a second, third, fourth language are more and more apparent in our multicultural society. So, make the most of your child’s ability to learn different languages and provide them with the resources to do it.
Spread the love
Back in 1967, Barnett Helzberg Jr., came with a novel little idea. Put “I am loved®” you on a pin and start giving them away. This became very popular and you can now pick them up in 11 different languages, with a new one about to be selected.
This just feeds my interest of how to say things in different languages, which led me to this website. For your all purpose reference of words and expressions in different languages, check it out.
The world in your pocket
Tired of learning all those new languages while travelling? Well, of course you’re not. You’re here because you love learning languages and can’t get enough of them. However, there are some people who just want a nice easy solution. And sometimes you may even want to understand the answer to the question you just asked.
Well IBM has been working on a nice little gadget for this very purpose. A prototype has already been developed that translates other languages into English. The aim is not for grammatical perfection, but for understanding. Can’t wait to see what they develop in a few years time. The “Babel Fish” could finally be upon us.
Communicating in relationships
Even when you’re speaking the same language, you can often confuse the message. This is never truer than when it comes to relationships. As the book title says, “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.”
So, since this falls under my goal of “languages and cultural differences explored,” check out this article about a relationship workshop. An interesting part talks about peoples “love languages.” I find this can cause some of the greatest differences, and problems, in relationships. Some people say “I love you,” some people show it through kindness, other people use a different way.
Are you communicating how you love your partner in the way they want to receive it?
Love and language learning
97% of woman would learn a language to better communicate with a partner according to research by Rosetta Stone software company. How many men? 71%.
However, how many men would learn a language to impress a partner on a romantic getaway? 64% compared to only 22% of women.
Who would have thought that men would put being romantic over practical? That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it!