Language Directions Newsletter
June 2016
Maximizing and Supporting Diverse Talent
Diversity is a buzzword in today’s workforce. You can hire diversity, but you also have to support it, maximizing the talent of your diverse workforce. This can offer many challenges to the human resources professional. One challenge that is not often taken into consideration is the one that involves spoken communication for workers who are not native speakers of English.Read more…
May 2016
Up-Speak is not Speaking Up
“Up-speak” (Up-talk) had its beginning in the era of the Valley Girl in California. It has since spread its tentacles across the years to wrap around the speaking habits of both women and men of all ages. Why is this phenomenon significant? Because Up-speakers unknowingly compromise the quality of the competent, knowledgeable leadership image that they want to project.Read more…
April 2016
Workers’ Memorial Day
Workers’ Memorial Day is observed internationally on April 28th. This day serves as a remembrance for workers who have lost their lives or been injured on the job.Every day, 13 workers are killed on the job in the United States. According to preliminary Bureau of Labor Statistics data, fatal work injuries in construction increased from 828 in 2013 to 874 in 2014. Most of these accidents involved foreign-born workers. These workers came from over 80 different countries, of which the greatest share (40 percent), were born in Mexico.
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March 2016
Top O’ The Morning To You!
Every year around St. Patrick’s Day, I am always drawn to thinking about the richness that each English-speaking country brings to the language as a whole. Indeed, American English, Australian English, Canadian English, Indian English, British English, while operating from the same language base, have different pronunciations to familiar words and have words of their own that do not exist in other English-speaking countries.Read more…