Atlas Newsletter – January 2007
Happy New Year from Atlas!
Atlas is proud to announce that, with the arrival of two new Graduate Placement students at the beginning of the year, the list of languages spoken in its office has now widened to include Portuguese, Spanish, French, English, Polish and Chinese.
With recent New Year celebrations still fresh in everyone’s mind, Atlas has decided to enlist the help of its new Chinese team member in preparing for the festivities of the Chinese New Year. This celebration, also known as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, will be celebrated by millions of people around the world on 18th February 2007.
恭喜发财 - 恭喜發財- Gung hei fat choi - Congratulations and be prosperous!
This greeting is often mistakenly translated as "Happy new year". But, in fact, the first part of the phrase has been in use for several centuries and relates to the ancient Chinese legend of Nian, a man-eating beast from the mountains that preys once a year on New Year’s Eve.
Traditionally, people exchanged congratulatory messages for surviving the menace of this ravaging beast, which is thought to represent the harsh winter conditions. 'Nian': has the same pronunciation as 'year' in Chinese and the implied meaning is people survive the 'Nian' so they will survive the coming year! The latter part of the phrase was only added much later on and it reflects the increasing influence of capitalism and consumerism within Chinese societies around the world.
New services for the blind and partially sighted
Atlas is currently producing its brochure in both Braille and MP3 format, in a drive to improve accessibility to services for its blind and partially sighted clients. This incentive ties in with the Disability and Discrimination Act encouraging all businesses to increase the accessibility of their services.
Shakespeare Scores!
Atlas has been commissioned by the organisers of the Shakespeare Scores Festival to translate its festival programme into Welsh. The project, involving children from a school catering for pupils with Special Educational Needs, will travel to 107 theatres across the UK. It has the backing of both the Ministry of Education and Skills and the Arts Councils of Wales, England and Ireland.
New Year, New Clients
So far, 2007 has been another busy year for Atlas, which has already taken on work for a leading breast cancer charity, proofreading a financial report. Atlas has also been commissioned for a large multilingual translation project by the Prison Services, for which it will produce translations in seven languages, including Sorani, Punjabi, Arabic and Urdu. Meanwhile, project managers have been busy meeting new clients, of whom one of the most recent is a leading Alzheimer’s trust.
Curtain falls on the 2006 Asian Games
And finally, the 2006 Asian Games drew to a close in Doha on 15th December 2006 with an impressive ceremony featuring performances of old Arabic tales including Aladdin, and segments of A Thousand and One Nights. Athletes from all 45 of the participating nations entered the stadium and marched together in a display of unity, before Park Tae-Hwan was awarded the title of ‘Best Athlete’ and the Games were announced officially closed.
Atlas’ team of interpreters, who were present throughout the Games, enjoyed a thoroughly successful assignment and received excellent feedback from the client, who congratulated them on their degree of professionalism and the quality of the service they delivered. By way of a ‘thank you’ a banquet was arranged in the interpreters’ honour and each of them was awarded with a certificate commending their work
Press/Public Relations
Press Office
Atlas Translations Ltd
Clare Suttie
Director
Phone: +44 (0)20 7240 6666
Contact Press Office
Site: www.atlas-translations.co.uk
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Thank you!
