Successful foreign language use requires not only knowledge, but communicative skills.I don’t know if it’s a European thing, but suddenly I’m hearing the term “soft skills” everywhere. According to Whatis.com, a specializ…

A recent report by Common Sense Advisory shows the telephone interpreting market resisting the recession.According to Common Sense Advisory, a leading source of language service industry research, telephone interpreting has held steady through the rece…

Recent industry news suggests that apps may be the key to raising multi-lingual offspring. What’s the real story?I was intrigued by an article that came across my news alerts: “Six-Year Old Girl on Track to Learn 4th Language,” published …

Our new website features communicative visuals and an easy-to-navigate structure. If you keep up any type of website, you know it is an ongoing task. Eventually, information accumulates, and you can find yourself managing a maze. That’s when yo…

Nearly 1 million children in the British school system are not native English speakers.In Europe, Britain is often held up as a model of a multicultural society. The model is being strained, however, by the number of schoolchildren who speak English as…

Language influences culture, and culture influences language. Language and culture are inextricably linked. When you think about it, the way a term is used can create a whole new mindset. For example, the term “geek” used to be an insult …

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…

Medical professionals have to talk about subjects that many of us would rather avoid – especially with our children or parents.Mastery of medical language and emotional involvement are frequent arguments against using family members as interpreters, …

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…

Language interpreters need to possess communicative as well as linguistic skillsProfessional interpreters are, of course, language experts. But they must be communication experts as well. If you look at a list of communication skills,  a great nu…