Info

You are currently browsing the Williams Language Solutions weblog archives for July, 2007.

July 2007
M T W T F S S
« May   Sep »
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  

Archive for July 2007

Special offer £7.99 on Destination Italy!

Hello!
There is a special offer on the online language and culture course Destination Italy at £7.99 until 31st July 2007. A perpetual licence key offers great advantages: it lasts forever, it does not get damaged, content of the course can be printed, and audiorecording can be downloaded on your mp3 player. Just email info@communicate-it.co.uk to have your special order form or visit our Promotion page in our website at http://www.translate-it.org/english/promo.html.
Why do I recommend Destination Italy at www.communicate-it-co.uk to everyone who wishes to know more about Italian culture and everyone who is learning Italian?
Destination Italy is not simply a language course, it provides users with the Language of the Mind as well, the Italian culture!
Why have I designed and developed this course?
I started to get involved in cultural consultancy in 2000, and in 2004 I became preferred supplier of business behaviour modules under the Passport to Export scheme of  UK Trade and Investment. The modules are delivered to potential and current exporters. Statistics show how a poor knowledge of a culture can have adverse effects on commercial relationships. This is true both for outbound and inbound international relationships. Business relationships are like a first date, if we like each other, it’s fine, but if we are not sure, if we don’t know the language of the mind, the culture of the others, every little mistake can drive people apart. Not knowing the culture can prove a huge barrier to developing international business relationships, but busy business people rarely have the time to fit a class into a tight schedule. In a technologically fast moving world, I realised that the ideal solution would be an online course which can offer cultural knowledge, basic language (what you need as an ice-breaker, as English is the international business language, and Italians /foreigners in general who come to England want to learn or improve the language).
Learning in your own office or in your home at your own pace is the thinking behind Destination Italy, a web-based course which provides all the important tools needed to give Italian visitors the warmest welcome. Designed as an online communicator, the course has been approved and described by users as a vital tool for tourism providers as well. I am therefore now promoting it also as an online overseas tourism communicator. The Italian state tourist board and the Italian Consulate in London have also endorsed the course. Before visiting a foreign country, we should find information about that country, the culture, what to expect, the weather…In other words, we should do our cultural homework, we should take out a “cultural passport” because we are enthusiastic about our holiday, our visit. By obtaining information about their culture, their people, we will be on the same wavelength. This is the thinking behind Destination Italy at www.communicate-it.co.uk.
In other words, as a famous Italian writer says, let’s get inside the head (meaning the mind) of Italians. Destination Italy will take you inside the head, the mind of Italians.
THE VISUAL of the course: it shows illustrated pictures from my city, with a newsagent, a baker, and a coffee shop. A typical start of the morning setting in an Italian city. The businessmen are meeting in front of a virtual business centre.
THE OPEN CONTENT: This is the content which can be accessed without registering. The text gives lots of information on the need for cultural consultancy to overcome cultural issues. The course contents present how the course will appear to users.
The site contains many audiorecordings provided for us by one of the most famous communication and voice-over companies in the North of Italy, lavoce.net.
REGISTRATION: Keys are for individual use only.
Module 1 is about culture
For example, food: it tells you when Italians eat, at what time. In the  language of food you will find all the information which can be very important, for example, for British B&B providers who have Italian guests. A question such as “We know you have dinner very late in Southern Italy. We usually have tea at …” Will it be ok for you?” could be the start of a very comfortable stay. Italians will appreciate that you know about Italian culture, and they will feel at home. Other life-saver sentences could be around coffee. Italian coffee is irreplaceable. Tourism providers may use this as an ice-breaker “Our coffee is nothing like Italian coffee, would you like to try English tea, as English make it”? Or something”like that.
Stereotypes can affect business relationships. It all about “How Italians see Britons” ” Are Italians as we see them”.
Module 2 is about language. By learning this basic Italian conversation, you will be on the same wavelenght of your Italian counterpart.
You may need to write to your Italian contacts by email, or letter. The course gives information on how to address people in letters. We provide translations for this purpose for our clients.
Gestures: My favourite topic. Italians use gestures as a great part of their communication. It is a cultural sign language. By learning what the most common gestures mean, you will be closer to them.
Module 3 is the assessment. I suppose you are now ready to take the assessment and obtain your cultural passport?
One question which was recently asked was the following:
an online course on Italian culture and awareness may be of interest to my potential customers but can’t they find information on the web for free?
I don’t totally agree. Although some of the information can be found on the web, a team of Italian linguists, cultural consultants with 10 years’ experience, and experts on Italian business communication (not linguists) have worked for 18 months to collate, comment on, and present in the most effective way the information contained in Destination Italy.
I could answer: why spending hours looking for information on the web when a course has been designed to offer all of this at the touch of the mouse? Time is money, and our course, at the special price of £7.99 until 31st July 2007, costs as little as a cappuccino a day for a week…….and gives you much more “caffeine-like effect”.
The web is a means of communication, not a source of information. The information is not always vetted. To put it another way, it’s just the same as a phone call: you need to trust whoever is at the other end of the phone. Our course has been checked, edited, and more.
See you in our know-how hotel! With Destination Italy, Italy is your destination!
More information and order form available in our website at
http://www.translate-it.org/english/promo.html
CIAO!
Stefania

Tyneside Cinema - Nuovomondo opening next week!

Williams Language Solutions – Tyneside Cinema Promotion
Williams Language Solutions and Tyneside Cinema are pleased to offer you 2 tickets for the price of 1 to view the Movie of the Moment Nuovomondo on any screening!
Don’t miss the opportunity to view Nuovomondo, the Movie of the Moment at Tyneside Cinema!

Show this text at Tyneside Cinema ticket office and get 2 for the price of 1 on full price purchases for Nuovomondo on any screening. Quote Williams Language Solutions promotion. (Usual Tyneside Cinema terms apply).
…and special offers do not stop here! Send you ticket number to info@communicate-it.co.uk and receive a licence key for the online Italian Language and Culture course Destination Italy at www.communicate-it.co.uk at the special price of £4.99 (offer ends on 31st July 2007).
 

Golden Door PG
Nuovomondo

Friday 13th – Thursday 19th July Screening Times

Dir. Emanuele Crialese. Italy & Germany 2006. 1hr 58mins. English and Italian with English subtitles.
Sicilia, inizio Novecento. Salvatore vende tutto, casa, terra, animali per portare i figli e la vecchia madre in America. A New York Salvatore è uno delle migliaia di emigranti italiani che hanno scelto di mettere in gioco tutto per un futuro migliore. 
 

Emanuele Crialese’s visually stunning emotional epic charts one family’s journey in 1913 from a poor Sicilian farming community to America, the land of opportunity.
Leaving behind the superstitions and customs of old, recent widower Salvatore and his bewildered family journey into the unknown as they are packed aboard an ocean liner destined for New York and the promise of a new life.
Amid the harrowing crossing Salvatore encounters Lucy (Charlotte Gainsbourg: The Science Of Sleep), a mysterious Englishwoman with whom he forms an unlikely relationship whilst they travel to the halls of Ellis Island, and the harsh reality of bureaucracy and hope…
“A beautiful dream of a film” The New York Times
 
Jonny Tull
Marketing and Communications Manager
Tyneside Cinema is now running full-time, at the Old Town Hall, Gateshead.
We will be at this new venue whilst the restoration and redevelopment of our Pilgrim Street, Newcastle site is underway.
Tyneside Cinema 
Old Town Hall
West Street
, Gateshead
NE8 1HE
UK

t: 0191 232 8289, ext 104
e: jonny@tynecine.org
Directions and map can be found at http://www.tynecine.org/gateshead/index.php
www.tynecine.org
Become a Friend of the Tyneside Cinema and receive discounts on tickets and much much more!
DESTINATION ITALY

A self-contained Online Course on Italian Language and Culture (Stage 1)

Destination Italy, a self-contained e-learning introduction to the language and culture of Italy, is available online. Learning basic Italian and the culture of Italy will now be much easier. The course is of great interest to everyone who simply “loves” Italy and Italian. It includes audio-recording to practise your pronunciation. Perpetual access with personal password!

The course is amongst the suggested links for learning Italian by the Consulate General of Italy in London.
**** Special offer until 31st July 2007! ****
 

 

|