Travel is Rewarding! Whether it is done for business or pleasure, travel expands our world literally and figuratively. To make the most of every travel opportunity, it’s essential to know something about the language of your destination country. Language, along with an understanding of a country’s culture, holds the key to successfully communicating abroad whatever the situation. Managing a global business adds a special urgency to acquire language familiarity – spoken or written – quickly and conveniently. The experts at Global LT can provide language training, translation, and interpretation whenever and wherever you need it... that’s our specialty.

We hope you enjoy receiving Global LT’s Language & Landmarks in your mailbox. We hope they demonstrate our expertise so that, when the need arises for language training, cultural training, translation or interpretation services at your company, you’ll think of Global LT as your solution provider. Please feel free to forward these tips to others within your organization who can benefit from them.

Just like Cultural Insights, Language & Landmarks will be posted on our website. Visit www.Global-LT.com and read past insights as well as all the services we offer to help your business achieve more globally.

Global LT’s Language & Landmarks for this month focuses on India’s holy river.

Namaste and welcome to India’s holy river the Ganges, or Ganga Ma (Mother Ganges) as she is known in Hindi. The sacredness of this river stretches back in time, over 4000 years, to the Rig-Veda the earliest Hindu scriptures. The Hindu people (80% of the Indian population) revere the Ganges as a goddess and believe that bathing here will help them gain salvation and wash them of their sins. Immersing the ashes of the departed will insure an arrival in heaven. There are hundreds of languages and dialects spoken throughout India, but English is taught in schools. The Hindi language and the English are considered the languages of governance and the media. A fascinating blending of these two languages is resulting in a new language called “Hinglish” which, experts say, will find its way into international jargon due to the great influence of the Indian people who work in the IT industry. Since English is spoken so commonly in India, and the knowledge of grammar and vocabulary is superb, U.S. Americans should have no difficulty communicating in business and social situations with Indian nationals. Yet the two cultures still encounter a number of obstacles when speaking that same language. Some of the challenges stem from communication style, or the use of British English, but more noticeably accent, pronunciation, rhythm and pace. We each do our best to become accustomed to those differences and strive for clarity. But, did you know that a few sessions of Accent Reduction and tuning one’s ear to the variables can help individuals dramatically improve their effectiveness? Corporate communicators need to be aware of all of the tools that contribute to global success. Global LT’s Cultural Training Programs - Travel is Rewarding Global LT - Language Training, Cultural Training, Translation Solutions