Different countries celebrate Mother's Day on various days of the year because the day has a number of different origins.

One school of thought claims this day emerged from a custom of mother worship in ancient Greece. Mother worship - which kept a festival to Cybele, a great mother of gods, and (mythology), the wife of Cronus; was held around the Vernal Equinox around Asia Minor and eventually in Rome itself from the Ides of March (March 15 to March 18).

The Romans also had another holiday, Matronalia, which was dedicated to Juno, though mothers were usually given gifts on this day.

In the United States, Mother's Day was copied from England by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War with a call to unite women against war.

She wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation.

Today, some organizations are working to revive Howe's original vision of a holiday that celebrates peacemaking by mothers and others. In the UK, the day now simply celebrates motherhood and thanking mothers.

According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother's Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States.

Read more about Mother's Day around the world...

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Imagine knowing first hand which languages are growing within your market areas. Now you can with LanguageTrak®.

Language Line Services' LanguageTrak® is the first ever subscription-based service to help you quickly identify ethnic sales opportunities geographically based on actual language request data from over 25 years of interpreter call history.

Imagine accessing timely and reliable information that explains in plain English just how quickly and where certain communities of limited English speakers are emerging.

What could you do with such LanguageTrak® information?

• You could create in-language sales and advertising programs for each market
• You might distribute brochures to those ethic communities in their own languages
• You could effectively run targeted advertising messages in community newspapers and radio stations
• And, you could develop specialized promotional materials for your sales reps and retail locations

New ethnic communities are sprouting up in every state, county and major city. Just look at what is happening in Arizona, California and Colorado:

• California generally has more requests for interpreters than any other state
• In March 2008, California was the only state to receive a request for Azerbaijani, a Turkic language spoken mainly in Azerbaijan
• During the same month, Colorado had more requests for Tigrinya, spoken in Ethiopia and Eritrea, than any other state
• California and Colorado were two of only five states to receive requests for Chamorro interpreters in March 2008. Chamorro is the language spoken by the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands, which include the American territory of Guam and the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Micronesia
• Requests for Burmese and Swahili have increased significantly in Arizona. In March 2007, Burmese was only the 31st most requested, and Swahili was the 19th, but in March 2008, both languages ranked among Arizona's top ten most requested

If you want to learn where new limited English speaking buyers are before your competitors do, take a moment to contact us now.

To learn more about LanguageTrak®, write to languagetrak@languageline.com or call Greg Marshall at 1-866-862-5530.

You can also find LanguageTrak® on the web at http://www.languageline.com/page/languagetrak

Photo Credit - tahls mm's photostream

As a Language Line Services client, you have access to two groups of training tools.

The first group is designed to train your staff on how to access and efficiently work with interpreters.

One tool, the "Hold Please" Training Kit*, helps teach your staff important phrases in 25 languages to keep limited English speakers on the line while an interpreter is connected.

The kit includes:

• Training Guide with phonetic pronunciations, and a
• CD of important phrases in various languages.

We also offer On-site Customer Training: The Ambassador Program*

Make use of our on-site training by our professional Ambassador interpreters for a small fee.

We'll train your staff to efficiently access our interpreters and communicate effectively with your limited English speakers.

Set up Your Ambassador Visit Today. Please note that Ambassador Training is available in select areas. Ask about your area.

The second group of tools is designed to let your limited English speaking customers know they are valued and will be served by an interpreter.

These tools are developed to help your limited English speaking customers communicate with your staff as efficiently as possible, and help your staff members to identify the language your customer speaks so you can serve them promptly with the correct interpreter.

The Language ID Card* (Pictured above)...

...is a great tool for face-to-face situations. It helps assure limited English speakers that they are valued and will soon be helped.

• Includes instructions in the top 94 most common languages and tells limited English speakers that an interpreter is available and asks them to point to their language.
• The convenient size fits in personal organizers and many law enforcement officers like to keep a copy in their ticket books. (3.5"w x 8.5"h folded)

Two other tools to help your customers communicate with you are:

The Wall Poster*

• Ideal for public places.
• Instructions in the top 20 common languages state that an interpreter is available and, again, asks them to point to their language. (18"w x 24"h)

We also have the Desk-top Display*, with built in easel, that is a smaller version of the poster above. (8 ˝"w x 11"h)

These are just some of the training and access tools we offer our Language Line Services' clients and their limited English speaking customers.

For more information or to order your own tools, visit us here http://www.languageline.com/page/support_tools/

* Charges do apply for these tools. For a copy of our new schedule of fees, please e-mail customercare@languageline.com.

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featuring news, tips, interviews, surveys, stats, special offers and other useful information to help you better serve your limited English-speaking customers.

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