Newsletter Policy About Services and Products
Cross-Cultural Communications does not accept paid advertisements. Our focus is not on commercial products but practical resources. If you have news that may be of interest to our audience, please send it to INTERSECT.

French Company Buys Language Line--for $1.5 Billion US

There is a lot of shock to process in the language world.

First, a French call center company has just bought the U.S. world giant in telephone interpreting, Language Line Solutions.

Second, the price tag was $1.5 billion. Wow. That sale is the largest transaction in the history of the language service industry. (Language Line Solutions pulled in $388 million in revenue last year.)

Third, who is Teleperformance? The French company that bought Language Line has no experience in interpreting and is not known in the U.S.

If you want to learn more about this watershed event, a great blog post by InterpretAmerica, an in-depth article by Slator and a thoughtful take by Moravia's Douglas Green will fill you in.

Video of the Month

It's hilarious. It's apt. It's true.

This animated video sets the score straight on why we need professional interpreters to do business. Just trying to muddle along in basic "global" English won't do it.

It's funny to watch. And superbly executed. The brief video (about a minute and a half) was created by AIIC, the International Association of Conference Interpreters--arguably the most powerful interpreter association on the planet.

Enjoy!

RESOURCE OF THE WEEK

Here is a video on how to work effectively with medical interpreters. It's a Think Cultural Health case study.

Think Cultural Health offers a wealth of other free resources, including free CME and CEU online courses (high quality) for doctors, nurses, first responders, oral health providers and health promoters.

Think Cultural Health is sponsored by the Office of Minority Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

September 9, 2016

IN THIS ISSUE

Video of the Month

Call anytime for a free estimate!

On the Calendar

Check Out Your "Native English Speaker" Skills

CCC Corner

QUICK LINKS

CCC News and Events

Intersect Back Issues

CONTACT US

Address:
Cross-Cultural Communications
10015 Old Columbia Road
Suite B-215
Columbia, MD 21046

Phone: 410.312.5599

Email: info@cultureandlanguage.net

BOOK(S) OF THE WEEK

The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase

Mark Forsyth

Berkeley, 2014

Most of us in the language field could do with a few tips on how to write. This book does the job.

If you have heard about rhetoric techniques but have no real idea how they work, this book will open your eyes. If you want to learn how to write catchy and memorable prose, it will inform you. And if you simply love language, it will entertain you.

By the way, when I turned 21 my father asked what I wanted for my grand birthday. I told him, "The complete Oxford English Dictionary"--and I got it. But Forsyth was ahead of the game. He got it as a christening present. Clearly he was born--or at least christened--to become a writer.

ON THE CALENDAR

Belfast Conference on Pragmatics Issues a Panel Call for Papers

The 15th International Pragmatics Conference, held July 16-21, 2017 in Belfast (Northern Ireland) is devoted to many topics. One panel will focus on The interpreter's role in healthcare conversations: A multimodal analysis of a multimodal reality.

The deadline for the call for papers for that panel is October 15, 2016.

British Interpreter Service Seeks Interpreter Stories

Mothertongue, a UK nonprofit that provides multicultural counseling, also has a wonderful mental health interpreter service. They are calling out to interpreters.

Mothertongue plans to publish a second anthology of interpreter stories in fall 2017. They seek real stories from interpreters, not works of art, so don't be shy. And be sure to get the details.

Check Out Your "Native English Speaker" Skills

The blog post by a BBC correspondent starts with a controversial quote from The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase (Mark Forsyth--see today's "Book of the Week")--and descends into an eruption of comments.

Blog post title: "Things native English speakers know, but we don't know we know".

The quote: Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that order in the slightest you'll sound like a maniac.

My own comment (I used to teach this grammar point decades ago): "Absolutely" is too rigid a description, but the order given above is roughly accurate.

Funniest blog post comment (albeit a bit crude...): My favorite example was in Scotland explaining to German speakers the difference between "That's f*****g brilliant!" and "That's brilliant f*****g!"

CCC CORNER

Where Is CCC This Week?

Michelle has been on a two-week road trip in California. Madeline is in Slovakia. And Marjory has been lazy for two weeks in the beautiful Finger Lakes district of New York!

But today Maisoon, Michelle and Marjory are traveling to Pennsylvania for the first-ever East Coast Summit of the Delaware Valley Translators Association (DVTA). CCC will have a table there, and Marjory will be presenting in the morning and afternoon.

It's a busy launch for the fall season!

Fall Is Here--and So Is the CCC Training Calendar

Kids are in school, vacations are done, and before you know it the fall season will launch in earnest. So take a look at our fall training calendar.

Whether you're interested in training for community and medical interpreting, our incredible Training of Trainers program or interpreting for domestic violence and sexual assault, check out the calendar!

CULTURE & LANGUAGE PRESS

LOOK INSIDE all of our publications at: www.cultureandlanguage.net and go to Books and Products.

For more information about Cross-Cultural Communications, please visit us at: www.cultureandlanguage.net

For more information about The Community Interpreter�, please visit us at: www.thecommunityinterpreter.com

Sincerely,

Marjory A. Bancroft

Marjory A. Bancroft
Director & Founder
Cross-Cultural Communications, LLC

www.cultureandlanCroguage.net