What your business card’s typeface says about you | Articles.   That business card in your pocket says more about you than you may like to think.

The Seven Practices of Successful Medical Interpreters. Medical interpreting professionals understand that it takes more than just knowing a language to be a quality medical interpreter. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6783684

Jargonbusters bring financial world to heel | Stuff.co.nz.   The amusingly acronymed SMOG index (Simple Measure of Gobbledygook) is widely recognised as the best indicator of readability. The formula analyses the number of syllables per word and comes up with the estimated years of education required to read any given piece of text.

Top 25 grammar and language mistakes | Articles.   While it’s true that corporate communicators need to aim at colloquial language—we don’t want to be so colloquial that we assault our readers’ eyes with errors. Here are 25 of the most common ones you should watch out for:

ATIF is closing 2011 and starting 2012 in one strike. Enjoy!            Speaking Out! Winter 2011-2012

The Press Association: Collins dictionary online for free.   “It’s been a privilege to bring together the world’s best language specialists and lexicographers with a leading digital agency to create www.collinsdictionary.com,” Alex Brown, head of digital at HarperCollins.

Language Blog Translation Times: The True Spirit of Christmas: Helping a Colleague Recover.   === A human interest story. At ATIF we have mobilized people to help in Haiti and in Japan. Can we do better close to home?

The top language stories of 2011, The Web of Language. …And we welcomed the fifth edition of the American Heritage Dictionary, which, its publishers warn us, may be “the last print dictionary,” though critics objected when the AHD relabeled the offensive term anchor baby as ‘offensive.’   ============ A very, very interesting piece. – Gio

Nataly Kelly: Adventures in Hyperpolyglottery: Inside the Mind of Extreme Language Learners.   “The changing linguistic world needs polyglots! We need to know what makes them tick so we can find out how to reproduce or mimic what they are able to do. We also need to get a grasp on our own fascinations (and […]