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Foreign footballers from outside the EU will be barred from joining Premier League clubs from October unless they can speak simple English under new immigration rules.

The English test forms part of a points-based system that will cut the number of immigrants entering Britain by about 20,000 a year. But ministers have decided to exempt performers at specific festivals, including Edinburgh, Glyndebourne, Glastonbury, Wimbledon and the London Marathon.

The new rules will apply to all skilled workers — including footballers and managers — from non-EU states. The Government planned originally to insist that they understood English up to GCSE level but this was changed amid fears that it would rule out too many players, such as Manchester United’s Ji-Sung Park, from South Korea, and Carlos Tévez, from Argentina, and Arsenal’s Denilson, from Brazil, who have struggled to master the language, and man will have no choice but to use language interpreters.

Favourite training ground expressions being taught includes ‘pick your man up!’, ‘don’t let him turn you!’, and ‘take him on, beat your man!’ Eleven hours is the average time it takes to educate them from zero English to being able to function on the field.

Instead of the usual textbook approach, however, one of the top teaching tools is the Subbuteo miniature soccer game. It is used to re-enact an actual game so the relevant phrases come to life making the language as pertinent as possible to what they’re going to be doing on the field.

‘There’s no point in teaching him to say ”my uncle’s pen is in your auntie’s bureau’, or how to buy a first class train ticket,’ said Dr Kettle-Williams.

‘We need it to be real, so he can function on the field. There’s no time there for hesitation, or stopping to think ”what do they mean?”

‘We teach them these phrases and then, in the next game, they are alert and switched on, understanding instructions from the sidelines and playing better.’

The Home Office document said that workers would need to demonstrate “an ability to understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases, to introduce themselves and others and ask and answer question about basic personal details”.

Liam Byrne, the Immigration Minister, said: “I am afraid they will have to speak English. We do not want people coming to work alone. We had originally suggested requiring everybody to have English to GCSE level, but a lot of people thought that was going over the top.”

At Today Translations, our linguists know there’s more to professional translation services than mere words. We are a specialist translation company, capable of providing anything from English to Arabic translation, to Russian to English, translation to English to French, and much much more.

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Competition between various publishing houses was rife to obtain the language translation rights to publish the English to Arabic translation of Chirac’s memoirs. For Kalima to obtain the rights to publish this book in Arabic is yet another indication of the prestigious position which the project has managed to obtain in the publishing world.

The translation services of such an important book to be a contribution towards a better understanding between the Arab World and the West, and another bridge between the cultures. The book attracted worldwide attention. Serialized highlights of many of its chapters appeared on Le Parisian, Le Figaro, and the weekly Le Point.

Chirac’s memoirs come at the right time. His popularity in France is still high, even though it has been more than two years since he left the French Presidency. His memoirs have sold out with sales exceeding 200,000 copies.

The first volume of his memoirs covers the first sixty-three years of his life, from being born in 1932 up to the moment he became President in 1995. He scans over the important landmarks of his early political life, especially the time when he twice became the Prime Minister under Presidents Giscard d’Estaing and Mitterrand.

At Today Translations, our linguists know there’s more to professional translation services than mere words. We are a specialist translation company, capable of providing anything from English to Arabic translation, to Russian to English, translation to English to French, and much much more.

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Source: Mark Tapling, CEO of Language Weaver.

Being able to sell to a diverse customer base is one thing, but it’s just the first step in an ongoing process of fostering successful customer interactions if winning loyalty is your goal. It might be daunting to engage call center representatives with language translator skills, but many customers are thrilled to find support information in their native tongue online. Self-service is the ticket.

Consumers are gearing up to acquire more high-tech gadgets from big box stores and online retailers at highly competitive prices. This is a great time to consider how companies can ensure customers are satisfied and successful with their purchases and how they can plan ahead for 2010.

Picture this: Manuel waited in line for hours to get the best sales deals. He gave up dinner with his family and battled cold temperatures through the night so that he could be the first person in line at his local big box technology retailer when the doors opened at 5a.m. It was worth the long wait, because he walked out with a new 50-inch television at a rock bottom price — complete with features in Spanish, a requirement of his family and friends.

Now — the moment of truth. It is time to set up his prized possession — his reward for his long wait in line. Manuel carefully unpacks the TV and strategically places it in the family room of his house for all to enjoy. Now all he has to do is figure out the setup and programming.

However, Manuel makes a horrifying discovery: The programming menu is stuck on the English main menu screen and won’t advance to the next menu screen or switch over to Spanish. The manufacturer did provide the quick start guide in Spanish to help with the setup, but it offers no help in troubleshooting this error. The support manual is available as a PDF on the company’s Web site, because the company had the vision to be provide a translated version, created by a professuiional langauge translator, however – Manuel doesn’t know this …..

All of a sudden, the time spent in line, the cold weather, and the frustration of missing dinner come flooding back and are aimed squarely in one place: the manufacturer of the TV.

21st Century customer service will require comapnies to provide customers with the same depth and quality of information for self-service, regardless of the language they speak.

Providing a self-service option on your site is great, but if you are selling globally or to diverse groups in a particular region, remember that customers prefer to interact with companies in their native language. Manuel prefers Spanish and would have been thrilled to know there was a self-service option available to him in his native language.

Oftentimes, companies will translate product information required for prepurchase into many languages but stop short of professional language translation because of the cost. This sends a signal to customers that they are important enough to sell to but not important enough to support. Manuel was starting to wonder if the company’s Spanish-speaking customers were less valuable than its English-speaking customers.

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