Language is Everything

One World One Dream

With the Chinese New Year fast approaching - and the Beijing Olympics on the horizon - we're running a Chinese writing competition for local children.

The objective is to write the slogan for the 2008 Olympics — One World One Dream — using Chinese characters, and to decorate the page in a colourful and imaginative way.

The competition is open to all primary school children in the Hull & Humber region, and the winners will be chosen by Coco Zhao, one of our senior Mandarin and Cantonese linguists.

In a letter to local schools, Carolyn Burgess, our Chief Exec, said:

"Writing Chinese characters is not difficult — and it's fun! It's also a great way to get children interested in language, culture and the big wide world."

The full letter can be downloaded below. You can also download a template of the slogan written in Chinese, as well as some general notes about writing Chinese characters (which teachers are welcome to use in the classroom).

Download Letter_to_schools.pdf

Download One_World_One_Dream.pdf

Download Writing_Chinese_characters.pdf

Is bigger always better?

We have published our provisional financial results for the year-ended 31st December 2007. Our overall sales were £1,578,475, an increase of around 10% from 2006, and a continuation of our long-term organic growth (click on the chart for details).

A statement from our board of directors said:

"Our strategic plans have always favoured stability over growth. The cornerstones of our business are (a) high quality interpreting and translation services, and (b) outstanding customer service. We do not compete on price.

"The interpreting and translation industry has undergone significant upheaval in the past few years, particularly with the entry of two big US corporations into the UK market. Traditionally, language companies grow through merger and acquisition. But we are committed to remaining an independently-owned, UK-based company.

"When it comes to customer service, we firmly believe that there are no economies of scale: bigger is not better. At the size of business that we are, we know our customers, we know their background and history, and we know their individual requirements. This is what we're focussed on."

We will be publishing our audited accounts next month. (Our auditors are Smailes Goldie Chartered Accountants in Hull.)

Ten things you didn't know about...

Tomorrow, on the 1st January 2008, Slovenia takes over the presidency of the European Union. (The presidency rotates between member states every six months.) So here are ten things you didn't know about Slovenia...

1. Slovenia is the only one of the former Yugoslav republics to have joined the EU.
2. In 2007, Slovenia became the first former communist country to adopt the euro.
3. The country has a population of just over 2 million.
4. The logo chosen to mark Slovenia's presidency of the EU (pictured above) resembles an oak leaf; this reflects the solid, persistent, dependable character of Slovenes.
5. Slovene is a Slavic language.
6. The language uses the Roman alphabet, with the letters q, w, x and y missing.
7. Slovene is an SVO language. (Sentences are structured using a subject-verb-object sequence.)
8. Slovenia's most famous writer is Ivan Cankar, who lived from 1876 to 1918.
9. There are around 100,000 Slovene speakers in the Italian provinces of Trieste and Gorizia.
10. Slovenia's neighbours are Austria, Croatia, Hungary and Italy; the country's coastline is just under 30 miles long.

Twenty questions

Carolyn Burgess (our chief exec) has subjected herself to 'twenty questions' in the latest edition of Business Intelligence magazine.

What advice would she give to an aspiring entrepreneur? If she could employ anyone from the world of business, who would it be? And what does she always carry with her to work?

You can find out the answers to these - and the other 17 questions - by clicking on the link below.

Download Business_Intelligence.jpg

A look ahead to 2008

2008 will be the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. According to Jan Figel, European commissioner with responsibility for education, training, culture and multilingualism, the need for a "dialogue between cultures" has come from "successive enlargements of the European Union, greater mobility in the single market, and increased travel to - and trade with - the rest of the world." So it's an auspicious time to be starting our partnership with the Hull & Humber Chamber of Commerce, part of the new World Trade Centre in Hull.

With the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics taking place on 8th August, 2008 will also be, in many ways, the year of China. The slogan for the Games is "One World One Dream". According to the event's organising committee, the Chinese version of the slogan uses the word "tongyi" (meaning "the same") for the English word "One", which highlights the theme of "the whole of mankind lives in the same world and seeks the same dream and ideal".

The Chamber will be leading a trade mission to Qingdao, China's fifth biggest city, from 20th to 25th February. A natural deepwater port, Qingdao is located in the Yellow River basin, and is a key hub for international trade. As part of the trip, the mission is due to celebrate the arrival of the Hull & Humber Clipper, the Yorkshire Forward-sponsored yacht (pictured), which is taking part in the Clipper Round the World Race 2007-08.

2007: a look-back

The highlight of the year was the official launch of our partnership with the Hull & Humber Chamber of Commerce, part of the World Trade Centre in Hull.

You can read the press release for the launch here.

Download Press_release_Nov_07.pdf

Addressing a packed Chamber event in Goole on 2nd November, Carolyn Burgess, our chief executive, invoked the spirit of the Chamber's founding fathers:

"In 1483, a group of intrepid businessmen, know in those days as 'Merchant Adventurers', set sail from the City of Hull to sell cloth to traders in far-away lands. Their journey was a perilous one, but overcoming storms, scurvy and scabies was just a small part of their adventure. Arriving on dry land, their challenge was to sell the finest English cloth to people who looked different, sounded different and had a different culture to them. These were brave men. Many years later, in 1837, their success was recognised when the Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce was formed.

"In some ways, it was extraordinarily difficult for the merchant adventurers. In other ways, they had it easy: often, they were 'the only game in town' when it came to selling fine cloth, and – to some extent – they could let the product do the talking for them. These days, we have no such luxury. The coming of the global village has made overseas markets more accessible, but it has also increased competition to an astonishing degree.

"In this ultra-competitive, international market, we cannot simply rely on our products and services 'selling themselves'. We need to understand our customers better than ever before – their needs, aspirations and idiosyncrasies. As businesses, we need to be 'customer led', not 'product-led'.

"In September, the new Hull and Humber World Trade Centre was officially opened by the European Union's trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson. The building opens for business in January, and we will show the world that, generations on, our region continues to produce some of the finest 'Merchant Adventurers' in the world."

A few weeks later, Carolyn also addressed guests at the Chamber's annual dinner, which was held at the Kingston Communications Stadium in Hull (pictured).

As part of this event, we gave out 'travel survival cards': key words and phrases in 15 different languages. You can download the cards (in JPEG format) here:

Download Arabic.jpg
Download Bengali.jpg
Download Chinese_Cantonese.jpg
Download Chinese_Mandarin.jpg
Download French.jpg
Download German.jpg
Download Hindi.jpg
Download Hungarian.jpg
Download Italian.jpg
Download Japanese.jpg
Download Polish.jpg
Download Portuguese.jpg
Download Romanian.jpg
Download Russian.jpg
Download Spanish.jpg 

We also issued a 'World Trade Centre quiz', which was somewhat less popular (!).

Download WTC_quiz.pdf
Download WTC_quiz_answers.pdf

Welcome to our blog

This is our new blog, which will focus on language and culture, interpreting and translation.

As the official partner of the Hull & Humber Chamber of Commerce, part of the new World Trade Centre in Hull, this blog is part of a 'big conversation' in the Hull & Humber region about international trade. Launching the campaign in an e-mail to Chamber members a few weeks ago, we wrote:

"The objective of our partnership with the Chamber is to help business take a fresh, customer-led approach to international trade. We're brimming with ideas, but we'd also like your help.

"In your experience, what are the key 'success factors' for building strong and lasting relationships with overseas customers? And what are the 'pitfalls' to avoid?

"International trade has been a central part of this region's economy for centuries, and - collectively - we've built up a huge store of knowledge and expertise. So, at whatever level your involvement with international trade has been, we really would like to hear from you."

Please send your ideas, suggestions or comments to [email protected].