Etisalat has announced that the recently-launched SMS-based translation service has received an enthusiastic response from mobile users in the UAE. Data shows that 2500 messages were translated by mobile phone users on the first day the service was in operation.

Mohammed Al Fahim, Executive Vice President- Marketing, Etisalat, said: “We are very pleased to see that the ‘Tarjim’ (translation) service has been received so well. Our market research told us that this service would be of immense benefit to students, the business community and visitors. It is encouraging to find it being utilized by so many people so quickly.”

The service allows prepaid or postpaid subscribers to send SMS text to the number 1001. The service can translate from English to Arabic and vice-versa. Each message in English of 160 characters is charged at 60 Fils, and each Arabic message of 70 characters is charged at 60 Fils.

A common list of abbreviations that the system recognizes is available on www.etisalat.ae. Full details are also available by calling 101.

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South Korea was ranked 19th in 2004 for potential national competitiveness among 50 major countries, up four notches from 23rd in 2000, a Japanese economic institute reported Monday.

The Japan Center for Economic Research (JCER), an independent nonprofit research institute in Tokyo, yesterday elevated South Korea to 19th place after its information technology (IT) industry became the fourth most competitive in the world after the United States, Sweden and Denmark.

The United States was forecast to remain the most competitive nation for the next 10 years… while Singapore came in second, up one notch from the third place in 2000.

Hong Kong dropped to third from its second place four years ago, while Switzerland took fourth place and Norway fifth.

Japan remained unchanged at 15th from 2000, while China’s ranking rose one notch to 36th from 37th…

Taiwan was ranked 21st, up from 22nd four years ago

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The Chinese-language Web site of fast food giant McDonald’s Corp. was broken into twice on Christmas by a hacker protesting against its listing of Taiwan as a separate country, the Beijing Youth Daily said Monday.

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Hat tip: Going Global

In a land of magic and mystics, beyond the waves of the Arabian Sea, lives a hero whose soul will forever remain American. But in body and form he now belongs to India, where his story unravels in the tale of a wall-crawling do-gooder.

Spider-Man, they call him. But the next time he unmasks, an Indian boy named Pavitr Prabhakar will be revealed.

Peter Parker may be America’s Spider-Man, swinging among the skyscrapers and contemplating his urban angst. But in India, he’s Pavitr, with his own comic book for young Indians eager to embrace their own superhero.

Readers will find Spider-Man living in Bombay, a seaside city flush with gangsters, movie stars and some of the world’s largest slums. It’s a city with a generous supply of good and evil, fragrant with riches and smelling of poverty, where small-town Indians go to make it big and ill-meaning men lurk in every corner.

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For Sanjay Saxena, it was his first assignment abroad when the multi-national firm that he worked for sent him to Europe. Given a tight deadline to complete his first project, he briskly called for a day-long team meeting on Saturday, to kick off the project.

Half an hour after he had sent out the communication, he got a call from his Western boss. Five minutes later, a chastened Saxena was back in his workplace recalling his email, after being soundly rebuked for being insensitive to other people.

It took a while for Saxena to internalise that working on Saturday (an off day), which was a sign of commitment to the job in India , was perceived as intruding into others’ personal space in the European office of the same company.

As India integrates into a more seamless world, the ability to work in a cross-cultural environment is a valuable asset for any ambitious executive.

Managing to understand, appreciate and perhaps even exploit the nuances of these cultural differences, could spell all the difference between success and failure in some business situations.

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“Adam” is supposed to be the Iraqi face at a key U.S. military checkpoint south of Baghdad, but he is so fearful for his life that he wears a black ski mask to hide his identity.

Dressed in camouflage fatigues, he is part of an army of [interpreters] that serves as a vital link for U.S. occupiers short on Arab speakers needed for manning roadblocks, mounting patrols and interrogating suspects.

But because of their highly visible jobs, they also face an especially high risk from Iraqi insurgents who have branded them traitors and collaborators and marked them for death.

The pressure is so intense that some [interpreters] have quit.

“We use American nicknames and wear masks because if the Ali Babas find out who we are, they will kill us,” said Adam, referring to guerrillas and bandits who have executed hundreds of interpreters hired since last year’s U.S.-led invasion.

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Within two days… the California governor’s very mild advice to the Republican Party to “cross over that center line a little bit” had snowballed into a full-blown advocacy of gay marriage and abortion rights, due to an English-German-English translation that lost a bit of accuracy, and the willingness of ideological warriors to advance their causes at any expense even, apparently, the truth.

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Christmas isn’t just a festival, it’s a cross-cultural global celebration. Variants there may be, but certain customs are common…

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Latinos are the nation’s fastest-growing ethnic group and are an attractive market segment for grocers because they often have larger families than other demographic groups. More mouths to feed means more groceries to buy.

Arizona’s Hispanic households spend an average $5,648 annually on groceries, while non-Hispanic households average $5,288, according to Phoenix-based Behavior Research Center.

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French-speaking Canadians can now get Google’s News Service in their own language, the search giant announced Wednesday.

The French edition of Google News Canada enables searches and browsing news items from more than 500 French news sources.

The feature is based on the same search service used by Google’s English division, but gives greater prominence to news and photos specific to Canada, with more links to stories about Canadian businesses, politics, celebrities and sport.

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Managers at Cary Towne Center say a growing number of shoppers speak Spanish so it’s critical Santa can connect with all the children.

“It makes a big difference to see a child wandering…standing there, wishing to be close to Santa and before you know it he’s sitting on Santa’s lap and Santa is speaking Spanish to him,” Santa added. “That’s his language [and] he does not question it.”

Whether it’s in English, Spanish or French, Santa listens carefully to each request. While Barbie and Spiderman top the list of most young children, Santa says most of the older children ask for something bigger.

“This year, more than any other year, I’ve got more requests for peace on earth,” he said.

It’s a gift all of us could ask for this Christmas, no matter what language you speak.

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Note: In the words of former South African president Nelson Mandela, “If you talk to someone in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”

The Peel District School Board has produced “Welcome to School Kits” in 26 foreign languages. The kits are available at all elementary schools and contain basic information for newcomer families enrolling their children in school.

The languages were selected in an attempt to reflect Peel region’s cultural diversity. Kits are available in Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Croatian, Farsi/Persian, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Macedonian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Serbian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Urdu and Vietnamese

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From “acute triangle” to “zero exponent,” the math glossary contains more
than 700 mathematical vocabulary terms commonly used in grade 6 through
Algebra 2. Users can select from among 12 languages — Arabic, Bengal,
Chinese, English, Haitian, Hmong, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Urdu and
Vietnamese. If a language other than English is chosen, users will see the
English term along with the word and its definition in the selected language.
Many terms include diagrams that illustrate the term with labels in the
appropriate language.

The glossary provides a number of benefits to students, teachers and
parents:

* Students — The tool is free, easy-to-use, and available 24/7 for those
looking to better understand mathematical terms and their definitions.

* Teachers — To communicate with students speaking many languages within
the same classroom, teachers can find help in one place. There is no
need to maintain a variety of print resources.

* Parents — Parents are better able to help their children with math
homework even if they do not read English. The tool is available to
anyone with Internet access.

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[Spanish-speaking] travelers now enjoy a better, faster and friendlier airport experience with Delta Air Lines’ new Spanish-language automated gate announcements and select information on Delta’s Gate Information Display Screens (GIDS).

Starting Dec. 14, Delta gates in 34 U.S. airports will have the ability to play automated gate announcements in English and Spanish. Automated gate announcements will always be played in both English and Spanish in select cities and for all Delta-operated SkyTeam and Avianca codeshare domestic flights. Beginning in January 2005, display screens in Delta gate areas will also provide select information in Spanish, such as showing proper stowage instructions for carry-on baggage.

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Most companies with a considerable Web presence have bitten the bullet and migrated to a commercial content-management system (CMS). The benefits of a CMS include the ability to assign content ownership and responsibility, easily modify and add content, assign effective dates and create workflows to make sure proper approval is gained before publication.

But what about a full-featured CMS from the open-source world? Most early attempts were not well received, but today that has changed. The open-source arena now has its own world-class CMS, called Plone, which is built on Zope; its content-management framework provides a full-featured CMS for open-source-friendly customers. In fact, Plone is more than a CMS — it is a complete development platform that supports advanced templates and objects, and has a full rendering engine.

To take a look at the Plone solution, point your browser to www.plone.org, where you will find plenty of documentation — a rarity for open-source systems. A tremendous amount of functionality is available without having to resort to customization. The default Plone setup includes support for various content types, workflow, internationalization (as of this writing, the Plone user interface has been ported to 30 languages), portlets and more. The user interface is also compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium’s AA rating for accessibility. In case you’re worried about support, more than 100 developers around the world and plenty of companies are dedicated to the continued development and support of Plone.

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