A Waikiki restaurant has stirred controversy by applying a mandatory 15% tip to diners who don’t speak English.A friend of mine has a son who is a waiter in a Parisian restaurant – and he is always delighted to see Americans sit down to eat in …

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…

If you want to get an exotic tattoo in a foreign tongue, you had best be sure of the translation.We all know tattoos are the rage in the USA, but were you aware that tattoo mistranslation is a recognized problem? Even the rich and the famous have been…

Translation and interpretation are among the services that help assure equal treatment in the health care system.Language translation and interpretation services, when correctly provided, help to guarantee equal access to health care for all. They thus…

A new site called Viki claims it has 100,000 volunteer translators subtitling for free. Subtitling is a highly difficult and painstaking translation task. Comprehension of film dialogue can be difficult even for native speakers; rendering the dialogue …

Technology now allows learners to study languages interactively at home, in the car or on the plane. But how effective are these methods?Today’s language learner is faced with a dizzying array of methods. Traditional classes are of course offered…

A leading business educator and strategist argues that a true global business culture is unlikely to emerge from the global economy.Most people would agree that the past decades have brought about not only a great deal of economic globalization, but al…

We hear a lot about “dying languages.” But which ones are really on the verge of extinction?Languages, like species or cultures, can be endangered. When we think of languages that could disappear, we often think of obscure tribal languages, where t…

Breaking down language barriers is one thing; working through cultural differences is another.Sharing a language doesn’t necessarily mean sharing a culture. For example, a French citizen may speak the same language as a French-speaking Canadian, …