blockhead's Blog

English is known as the global and universal language but if you go by stats then it is shocking to know that only 28% of the entire European population can read English. And this percentage falls comprehensively when you come to South America, the Middle East and Asia. Talking of the Middle East, getting through to people to sell or market your product is rather difficult since you have to reach out to them in their own language. It is in these areas where Arabic translation comes into play. Your communication strategy has to be so strong that you are able to capture the target audience with an ease. That?s why translation services especially from English to Arabic are catching up these days.

Despite the fact that English to Arabic translation is picking up there is an acute shortage of skilled translators. Translation is the best and trusted way to match the rapidly expanding market. And it is also the most cost effective method so it is wise to take full advantage of translation services so that you can take your business to places and it booms globally. According the latest research conducted by U. S. State Department it was stated that every year U. S. companies lose almost $50 billion mainly due to the less sales incurred due to poor translations.

It has been seen that majority of the companies run into trouble and face various problems with translation services that are incorrect or ethnically inappropriate especially when it comes to Arabic translation. Simultaneously there are highly skilled and professional translators who can convey your message effectively and also portray the high quality image of your products or services. Arabic translation, however, has come a long way and is soon set to boom. English to Arabic translations has influenced marketing messages and has also helped in keeping many a company away from legal difficulties. But the main question that pops up in the mind is from where one can get good translation service? This question stirs the mind and makes you get many sleepless nights.

Nowadays, there are various modes of translation but which one is more reliable. If you think computer-generated translation is best then you are absolutely wrong, since it would not hold water when it comes to translating from English to Arabic. Besides, Computer-generated translation is highly amateurish and less competent to the native speakers.

Now the only option you are left with is finding and hiring a reliable and a trustworthy translator who is versatile in translating from English to Arabic. This option is also very tough as the market is flooded with array of translators claiming to be the best. And your main aim is to single out the best one from the endless lot. But you shouldn?t forget that this is the era of electronics communication and finding the best translation service is not the hard nut to crack. It means you just have to hire translator located anywhere in the world and mail him or her translation matter. All the details can be either discussed via mail or even through a chat. And after all the initial conversation the translator is all set to work. But it has a drawback too that is for having an easy payment.

Hence it would be wise to hunt for a translator located either in your locality or in your country who can provide you with Arabic Translation. With the boom in translation services, now various translation service providers offer a free consultation and a free price proposal for the project. Apart from that it is wise to delve into the translator?s background and find out whether the translator has a sound knowledge about your business as well as the market trend. Try to go by word of mouth, which means, looking for the referred Arabic translators as this gives more authentic translated copy.

Try to choose a translator who can perform English to Arabic translation from the native country itself as this will only help you in return. Native translators are generally updated with the changes and development in the language. This helps them to maintain a certain quality of your project so that you reap maximum profits. Once everything is finalized, then, provide the translator enough time to work upon the project so that you are provided with a translation that is absolutely outstanding.

The author is budding web content writer and also experienced in writing quality content for various websites. You can view his blog for more information.

Imitation is the easiest route to fluency. If you imitate something long enough, it will become real for you, and this is especially true for mastering a foreign language.

You can see this easily in children, the world?s greatest language learning machines. They imitate the language they hear around them all the time. They hear something, try it, and see what kind of reaction they get. They get feedback from family, friends and teachers, and adjust and learn.

The use of imitation is a true language-learning gem, and it will serve you well to the extent that you use it! Listen and copy. Listen and copy. Listen and copy. Imitate until it is real for you. Imitate your way to fluency.

You might be wondering how to do this, but really it is as simple as it looks and sounds. As you listen to native speakers of your target language, say on TV or on the radio, repeat back what they say as soon as you hear it. This works especially well with news broadcasts for two reasons. First, the announcers use clear, standard pronunciation. Secondly, the speed at which announcers speak is a natural for the native listeners, yet moves along at a speed that is likely to present you with a bit of a challenge, especially in the beginning.

At first you may find it a little hard to wrap your mouth around all of those words, and that is fine. Be gentle with yourself and know that the more you do it the better you will get at it. The first few times you try it you might just catch a few words here and there. Then you?ll breakthrough to being able to imitate phrases, and then you?ll increase your ability so that you will be able to repeat whole sentences and keep the string of language going. Pretty soon you will be communicating you own ideas with the same clarity and ease.

Before you know it you?ll be sounding like a TV star or newscaster of that target language! You?ll have brilliant pronunciation, and a greater ability to catch and understand the words you hear from various speakers of that language, and you?ll develop an incredible level of fluency that you acquired in a very short time -- all through imitation!

Here?s to Your Success! Teresa Bolen

Copyright ? 2006 by Teresa Bolen. All rights reserved.

Teresa Bolen is a teacher at Todaiji Academy, one of the top 5 schools in Japan, and the author of Master Plan to Master Exams: How to Discover Your Hidden Abilities to Create the Success You Desire. You can get her ?Academic Excellence Report? at http://www.MasterPlanToMasterExams.com.

?Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.? -- Henry David Thoreau --

Games are Useful in Language Learning

We can successfully use games in the language learning classroom to teach and practice numerous skills including:

? Vocabulary

? Spelling

? Grammar and structure

? Idioms and expressions

? Pronunciation

? Listening and speaking

Factors Affecting Choice of Games

What kinds of games we can use will depend on their intended purpose. Whether it?s to introduce a topic, practice a particular skill or aspect, or reinforce previous learning topics games help by providing much-valued practice while effectively lowering the affective filter of the students (Krashen and Terrell, 1993). Other factors which can impact our choice of games are:

? The number of students

? The size of the classroom

? Classroom environmental aspects

? Length of time

? Materials, realia or aids available

Kinds of Games

We can vary the kinds of games considerably to help our students to make learning interesting, innovative and more fun. Useful and commonly-practiced games available for almost all teaching and learning venues consist of:

? Board games

? TPR and physical movement games

? Inter-active games

? Strategy games

? Online and computer games

Create Good Language Learners

By using a wide variety of language learning games in the EFL or ESL classroom the teacher is able to promote a number of qualities which positively contribute to a lowered affective filter and improved language acquisition. You should include games among your strategies to promote these qualities that make for a good language learner (Rubin, 1975)

? Willing and accurate guessing

? Language related Risk-taking

? Uninhibited communication

? Spontaneous language practice

? Self-monitoring of speech

? Attention to language meaning

Where and How

Where you can get an ongoing variety of pre-produced games, how to use them creatively in the EFL or ESL classroom and techniques for creating your own games customized to meet the needs of your students will be discussed in future postings.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is a bi-lingual copywriter, expert author and photographer specializing in business, travel, food and education-related writing in South America. His work has appeared in Transitions Abroad, South American Explorer, Escape From America, Mexico News and Brazil magazines. He lives in Colombia and teaches at a university in Cali. Want lots more free tips, help and information on learning English or another foreign language? Go now to: http://bettereflteacher.blogspot.com/

Several factors make learning Chinese a considerably more formidable task than learning another Germanic or Romance languages. Studying a foreign language is an excellent way for English and other language teachers to improve their own teaching. It also forces you into the role of a student so you can experience first hand the problems, difficulties and challenges your EFL learners face in your classes. Don't believe me? Then look at what happened to me ?

Greeting the language learning students with a cheerful ?Ni Hao? (Hello), our teacher, Shutzng Zhang begins the second class session of the Santiago de Cali University?s first ? ever course in Mandarin. The spartan class room contains a map of China ? in Chinese of course, tacked to one side wall, desks, a small table, and white board. There are two worksheets with the vocabulary of greetings written in Chinese characters on her desk. We greet the teacher in return. She wishes to be called ?Susana? to spare us the tongue-twisting pronunciation of her Chinese first name. She speaks Spanish fairly well but her English is considerably more advanced. Explanations are done in Spanish to accommodate the class majority.

Practice with vowels follows:

a, o, e, i, u, u

There are 11 Spanish-speaking adult students in the first week of the group. Each in turn tries their hand at getting their pronunciation of vowels and greetings phrases to an acceptable level. Then some consonants follow:

n, t, h, m, x, j, z

As I?d expected, there are more than a few problems in teaching the tonal sounds of Mandarin to speakers of a non-tonal language. Yiu Wing Fung, a Chinese man, has more trouble than others in the group. ?Why is he here?, I wonder?

A series of common greetings is written on the white board with the Spanish transcribed underneath. I instantly want to make up (or have the teacher make) flash cards to give me something to study and practice. I make a mental note to ask later. I do ask for and get copies of two key pages of the phrases written on the board. I?ll make flash cards from these later on. That?ll do for a start at least.

Next, the pronouns are written on the board in singular and plural. They?re remarkably similar:

Wu, ni, ta - then ta, ta, nin

There are differences in the pronunciation tones to distinguish them, but I produce my own little chart in singular and plural.

Then the other shoe drops. We get to the tones in earnest. It?s like doing the musical scales. High, low, short, long, up and down. There are going to be three tonal values I think; high, medium and low. I?m wrong. There are five: first tone, second tone, third tone, fourth tone and no tone. Each student runs through their ?version? of the pronunciation. Sometimes our young teacher giggles. Other times she simply shakes her head and has the student try again. From the look on her face, we know our speech is bad. We?ll need a tape recording of the pronunciations. Without it there?s no way to check, practice and mimic the tonal sounds. It?s a time-consuming but necessary process.

How do you ask, ?Do you love me?? one of the ladies asks. In response, the answer; ?I love you? along with ?I love you too.? Are written and practiced by the class next. The five ladies in the class are thrilled and amused, blushing as they practice the phrases. ?This isn?t foe me?, I think, but decide to stick it out another couple of weeks. Maybe with some practice and help I?ll make some progress and develop more enthusiasm.

Some photocopied sheets with the words and phrases on them would help. So would a practice tape recording of the sounds, pronunciation and tones. The spoken language and its related listening comprehension development need more than the cursory ?twice a week? class attendance sessions to practice. We need much more exposure than that to internalize elements of the language.

A description with drawings of how Chinese characters are derived proves more interesting for us. For example, the character ?sun? plus the character ?moon? means ?light? or ?illumination?. Now we?re getting somewhere.

? Continued in Part 2 ?

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an expert author and photographer offering Web Content Writing Services for top-quality articles on: Education, Language learning, Salt and Fresh water fishing, exotic foods, South American travel and culture, Ethnic issues ? Blacks, Latinos, Indian native tribes, Health, Internet business resources and more ? His work has appeared in Transitions Abroad, South American Explorer, Escape From America, Mexico News, Brazil magazine and hundreds of sites online. For fr*e*e sample articles and available web content e-mail: lynchlarrym@gmail.com