Language is Everything

Language is Everything Q1 2008 results

We've published our results for the first quarter of 2008 (see chart). Sales were £389,222, an increase of just over 4% from the first three months of 2007.

 

Carol Curtis, our managing director, said:

"The first three months of the year have always been our slowest in terms of sales. Also, we normally see a big drop in activity over the Easter period, which, of course, fell into the first quarter this year. Overall, therefore, we're pleased with our performance so far in 2008."

Ten things you didn't know about Somalia

The World Health Organisation has today declared that Somalia has eradicated polio. The last reported case was on 25th March 2007. WHO described the news as an "historic achievement", and paid tribute to 10,000 Somali volunteers and health workers in "one of the most dangerous places on earth". In the latest of our regular features, here are ten things you didn't know about Somalia.

1. Somalia gained its independence in 1960, following a merger between British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland.
2. The country has been caught up in a violent civil war since 1991.
3. Somali was made the country's official language in 1973.
4. At this time, it was also decreed that the language should be written in the Roman alphabet, rather than Osmanian (which contained elements of Arabic and Ethiopic scripts).
5. There are Somali-speaking communities in Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.
6. Somalia is more than 2½ times the size of the UK.
7. The highest point is Mount Shimbiris; at 2,416 metres, this is just under twice the height of Ben Nevis.
8. The country's population is estimated to be around 9 million (slightly bigger than the population of London).
9. According to Home Office statistics, Somalia is one of the top ten nationalities for asylum applications in the UK.
10. Somalia's flag (pictured at the top of this post) is light blue with a white star in the center. The light blue colour is based on the flag of the United Nations.

Language is Everything on the Pacific Rim (2)

Qingdao News has featured an interview with Colin Pepler, our national sales manager. Colin was in Qingdao recently as part of a Hull & Humber Chamber of Commerce trade mission (see our posting for 5th March below).

Also, in case you were wondering about the answers to our Howden quiz (see our posting for 6th March below), here they are:

Download Howden_quiz_answers.pdf

From Howden to the Gulf

Last night, Carolyn Burgess (our chief exec) addressed the AGM of the Howden Civic Society. The Society tries to play an active part in the community by stimulating an interest in the history of Howden (which is where our company is based) and its future development.

One of the highlights was our 'Places and languages quiz', which you can download by clicking on the link below.

Download Howden_quiz.pdf

Later today, meanwhile, Carolyn will be chairing a Chamber of Commerce 'World Trade at One' meeting focusing on investment opportunities in the Gulf. The main speaker will be Abdeslam El-Idrissi, the director of trade services at the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce.

Language is Everything on the Pacific Rim

Colin Pepler, our national sales manager, has just returned from a Hull & Humber Chamber of Commerce trade mission to Qingdao, China's fifth-largest city. Our photo shows Colin in discussions at the Grand Regency Hotel.

You can download a copy of our Qingdao flyer by clicking on the link below.

Download Qingdao_flyer_Feb08.pdf

Looking back on the mission, Colin said:

"We'd like to thank everyone in Qingdao who gave us such a warm and friendly welcome. There's a wonderful entrepreneurial spirit in the city: the skyline is full of cranes, there's an incredible sense of ambition in the air, and every person we met was full of ideas and questions. It's very much 'full steam ahead' in China."

The power of words

Later today, four US states hold presidential primaries that could see Barack Obama take a decisive step towards winning the Democratic nomination.

One of the controversies in the campaign so far has been an allegation that Mr Obama plagiarised part of a speech by Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts.

Leaving aside the argument about plagiarism, it's fascinating to look at the section of the speech that sparked the controversy. Responding to the charge that his campaign was about words rather than substance, Mr Obama declared:

"Don't tell me words don't matter. 'I have a dream' — just words? 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal' — just words? 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself' — just words? Just speeches?"

Here at Language is Everything — where we're often asked about our name — it's a sentiment we can agree with entirely.

We launch our 2008 annual report

Today is International Mother Language Day, a UNESCO-inspired event to promote linguistic and cultural diversity. This year, it also marks the start of the United Nations' International Year of Languages.

At Language is Everything, we're celebrating the day by launching our annual report for 2008.

The report includes:

• A vision of the future: what will the world look like in 2040?
• Peace through trade: what exactly is a World Trade Centre?
• Telephone interpreting: what are the two crucial issues facing the profession?
• Financial results: how did we do last year?

You can download a PDF version of the report by clicking on the link below.

Download Annual_report_2008.pdf

Printed copies of the report are available upon request.

New post for Carolyn

At its AGM last Friday, the Hull & Humber Chamber of Commerce appointed Carolyn Burgess (our chief exec) as its vice president. At the same meeting, Carol Thomsett succeeded Malcolm Scott to become Chamber president for 2008.

Carolyn said:

"It's a huge honour to become an officer of an organisation stretching back 171 years. Malcolm has done a fantastic job as president over the past 12 months, and I know that Carol is going to continue driving the Chamber forward during her term of office. The Hull & Humber region is bursting with talent and vision, and the Chamber plays a critical role in bringing people together and making things happen."

One World One Dream Two Winners

Later today Ian Cawsey, the MP for Brigg & Goole, will present a prize to the overall winner of our Chinese writing competition.

We challenged local primary schoolchildren to write the slogan for the Beijing Olympics — One World One Dream — using Chinese characters, and to decorate the page in an imaginative way.

The overall winner, chosen by Coco Zhao, one of our senior Mandarin and Cantonese linguists, was ten-year-old Alex Smith from Marshlands Primary School in Old Goole. (Click on the picture to see a larger version of Alex's winning entry.)

Mr Cawsey will be taking part in a prize-giving ceremony at the school this morning. He will be joined by Coco, Carolyn Burgess (our chief exec) and Colin Pepler (our national sales manager).

The winner in the reception to year 2 age group was 4-year-old Eve Atkinson from Carlton-in-Snaith Community Primary School.

Meanwhile, together with the Hull & Humber Chamber of Commerce, we're making the final preparations for a trade mission to Qingdao, which leaves in just under a fortnight. One of China's most important ports, Qingdao will be hosting the Olympic sailing events later this year.

10 things you didn't know about the African Union

The tenth summit of the African Union begins in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, tomorrow. The theme of the three-day meeting is the "industrial development of Africa". Here are ten things you didn't know about the African Union (AU)...

1. A declaration calling for the establishment of an African Union (the Sirte Declaration) was made by the Organisation of African Unity (the AU's predecessor) on 9.9.1999.
2. The AU has 53 member states; the only African country not a member is Morocco (which is opposed to the membership of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, also known as Western Sahara).
3. The working languages of the AU are Arabic, English, French, Portuguese and Swahili.
4. One of the visions of the AU is "a partnership between governments and all segments of civil society, in particular women, youth and the private sector, in order to strengthen solidarity and cohesion amongst the peoples of Africa."
5. The AU has a number of similarities with the European Union: one of its objectives is the creation of an African Economic Community with a single currency.
6. The AU's main decision-making body is its Assembly, which comprises the heads of state of member countries, and meets at least once a year.
7. The current chairman of the AU is the Ghanaian president, John Kufuor.
8. The AU's headquarters are in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
9. The first military intervention by the AU came in 2003, when peacekeeping soldiers from South Africa, Ethiopia and Mozambique were deployed to Burundi.
10. The emblem of the African Union (pictured) features five elements: palm leaves (peace); a gold circle (wealth and a bright future); a green circle (hopes and aspirations); a plain map of Africa, without boundaries (unity) and small interlocking red rings (solidarity and "the blood shed for Liberation of Africa").