English-speaking countries need to get up to snuff on foreign language study, but funding isn’t following.In a global economy, even if English is the predominant language of business, mastery of other languages is an important communication skill. T…

A new index sets out to define the geographical areas and industry sectors where business English is spoken the best.Last week, we posted about the pros and cons of using English as an international business language. I tend to agree with one of the e…

London’s British Museum is planning an event that will feature two translators “going head to head.”As part of its third annual World Literature Weekend, the British Museum in London is planning a celebration of foreign literature. The 3-day fest…

One might think that geographical names would be universal — but this is far from the case.Languages would be a bit easier to learn if place names were always the same. Of course, different versions are inevitable when alphabets differ. But even amon…

Call me a romantic, but something doesn’t ring true about this pitch…I suspect (read: I hope) that myLanguage’s press release entitled “myLanguage Makes Love a Universal Language this Valentine’s Day” was intended to be a bi…

Two major language services associations have agreed to join forces to provide more member services.The Association of Language Companies (ALC) and The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) have announced the beginning of a joint collaborat…

In the first of a series about fascinating websites for language lovers, we will take a look at the site WordnikBeyond ongoing talk of machine translation, we mustn’t forget that the Internet also boasts a fountain of fun sites for word lovers. …

A new system that translates the names of Ottawa’s bus stops leads to some curious results.Since Canada is an officially bilingual country, all public communication must be presented in both French and English. Thanks to a recent initiative from Ott…

Cross-cultural management is an endless topic, since every culture can be examined as it relates to any other culture. Have you ever thought about what type of managers Romanians make? I haven’t – or hadn’t – but the topic comes…

Total immersion in a foreign language can be a great way to learn, but it is not always a magical solution.You hear it all the time: “the only way to learn a foreign language is to go live in a foreign country.” As a long-time language tea…