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A selection of foreign language films will be screened at Number 8 over the Winter Season beginning with a new adaptation of the classic French film The Well Digger’s Daughter (PG) on Thursday 12 January at 7.30pm. Set in Provence in 1914 the film tells the tale of an encounter between Patricia, a young girl, and Jacques, a fighter pilot, and the resulting pregnancy that throws both their families into turmoil.

The aim of the Spelling Bee is for students in Year 7 to practise and improve their vocabulary, spelling and memory skills in a foreign language (French, Spanish and German) and to raise the profile of language learning through a class, school and regional competition:
Term 1 – Individual class competition
Term 2, half term – Whole school competition
Term 2, end – West Midlands Regional Competition, Monday 26th March, Aston University, Birmingham
Term 3 – National Competition, 6th July, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge (tbc)
How it works:
Students will be given 50 words to learn at the first stage of the competition and a further 50 words will be added at both subsequent stages of the competition. Vocabulary will be
relevant to the curriculum. For the National Final words will be 2012 Olympics-related.
The competition should be launched in school in the autumn term and time should be spent teaching and practising the alphabet in the foreign language (paying attention to describing letters with accents, etc. – details in Teacher’s Pack on website: www.flspellingbee.co.uk).
Unlike in a monolingual Spelling Bee, students will be given the word in English. They will first have to translate it into the foreign language and then spell it out correctly using the alphabet in the foreign language. When participating, students will be given one minute to correctly spell as many words as possible. Pronunciation of the word and individual letters must be accurate and clearly enunciated.  Words should be allocated in random order.

A project involving five schools in the West Midlands has won a European Language Label for its work combining language learning with skills needed in the fashion industry which demonstrates the contribution of languages to business success. Fashion International drew inspiration from the international fashion industry to develop activities combining skills such as business, manufacturing, design and events management with language learning. Over 250 students took part in the project, which brought home to them the value of languages in a wide range of careers.

If you are looking to trade overseas and want help to find new markets and avoid the common communication difficulties many businesses face when dealing with customers worldwide then there are two events on the business language calendar which might be of interest to you:

Bridging the Cultural Gap – 13 October 2011 – Bridging the Cultural Gap has been designed to help you to overcome these difficulties and thrive in overseas markets by providing expert advice from speakers including RLN Manager Chris Everall and UKTI Export Communications Consultant Doug Lawrence. This event takes place on 13 October 2011 from 10.00am – 12.15pm at Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber Conference Centre, Butts Park Arena, Coventry, CV1 3GE. For more information please visit our website.

At the Regional Lanuage Network we like to keep you up to date with the latest language events and news and there are plenty of events on the calendar to look forward to over the coming weeks.  As the new academic year starts it is always a busy time as language courses kick off for the new year and events take place to help businesses make the most of lagnuage and cultural skills.

Here’s just a taste of some of the events taking place in the near future:

RLN Programme Co-ordinator Frances Berry was delighted to recently be named as Language Blogger of the Year 2011.

The accolade awarded by Linguascope was given in recognition of Frances’s editing and copywriting work on the Business Language Champions blog. The blog brought together schools and businesses from across the UK who were participating in the Business Language Champions programme, which brings the world of work into the classroom to demonstrate to young people the importance of language skills at work. Through regular posts the blog kept BLC project managers, schools and businesses up to date with the events taking place country-wide as part of the programme as well as sharing relevant language-related news.

If your organisation is involved in exporting goods or services, or if you employ foreign staff, then you will probably have encountered cultural differences in business.

Cross cultural communication is a vital element to building successful business relationships with overseas clients. If you cannot identify the cultural differences in business and know how to respond to these you may cause offence and do lasting damage to the relationship.

Cultural differences in business may hamper effective communication when trading internationally and it is important not only to be aware that the culture and business etiquette will be different but to understand exactly which behaviours are considered acceptable in the country you are dealing with.

When your business trades overseas or you are preparing to expand your client base into foreign speaking markets you will almost definitely require the services of a website translator.

Website translation works together with website localisation – the process of adapting a website specifically for a particular country, region or area, with written and visual content to fit with the local cultural outlook.

It is particularly important that businesses looking to trade internationally translate and adapt their websites for an international audience, especially when you consider that English use on the internet declined from fifty-one per cent in 2000 to just twenty-nice per cent in 2009.

When selling your goods or services overseas you may encounter international trade barriers which impede your progress or impact upon your sales figures.

Amongst the most common international trade barriers are the language and cultural differences associated with that particular market. These can hamper effective communication, making negotiations an arduous and lengthy process. That is why you are advised to seek international trade information specific to the countries you are concentrating on when devising your export strategy.

International trade information, like advice and support on language and cultural issues, is available from organisations such as the Regional Language Network and these could be the key elements to overcoming any international trade barriers.

If you need language advice to help your business trade internationally, want to learn a new language or find work using existing language skills, the RLN West Midlands can help you to succeed.

The Regional Language Network, a not-for-profit organisation, promotes language skills and cultural awareness in the West Midlands. The RLN helps businesses to increase their export potential, supports language service providers and helps anyone who wants to learn a language or look for a job using their language skills. More information on the variety of services available can be found on the RLN website, which is a great place to start looking for language and cultural advice.