Valentine’s Day aside, February 14 is a special day for us; it’s our 25th Anniversary! This 
makes us one of the oldest foreign language and English as a Second Language (ESL) learning solutions providers–and we’re proud of it! (No signs of aging here!) Another bit of trivia: TELL ME MORE was the first to introduce speech recognition.
For the complete news story or if you LOVE language learning, check out the press release or our main website.
We’ve just received this exciting video from Hillary Joi Brown and our friends at Helping Orphans Worldwide . . . 
Helping Orphans Worldwide (HOW) is a registered charity in Ireland since 2008, in the United States of America since 2007, and received its Vietnamese NGO status in 2011. HOW’s goal is to provide hope, health and security to people living in deprived areas of the world. This video features a “party” for the Lotus Shelter, run by Women’s Charity Association, which houses 25 girls who have been rescued from a variety of situations and enables shelter and education for them.
Check it out:
The American Society of Training & Development (ASTD) has released their annual State of the Industry report and with it shared some very exciting and encouraging news. The report found that in 2010 employers spent more on employee development than ever before! Businesses in the United States spent $171.5 billion on employee learning in 2010, up from $125.8 billion in 2009.
We find this encouraging because so many organizations have had to cut budgets, however it seems the value of training is truly being recognized. How else does an organization drive innovation and support global business needs but through training?
For a full copy of the report click here.
An incredibly compelling article on Reuters today has added to our focus on how the hospitality industry can continue to deliver world-class service, but also to differentiate themselves. The recent cruise ship tragedy has brought a BIG debate to the training and development industry. Many of our clients and partners in the hospitality industry are re-evaluating how they approach language learning and the positive impact it can have on their respective organizations…not to mention potentially life-saving for their valued customers!
The article, written by Ben Berkowitz and Jonathan Saul, provides some compelling and troublesome information. Any team is only as strong as its weakest link and by providing resources to every link, the team will inherently function better. While Ben Berkowitz and Jonathan Saul contend that until regulatory bodies start enforcing specific T&D we will have more of the same, I politely agree to disagree.
I challenge our hospitality clients and the hospitality industry as a whole to think outside of the box and share how they are helping to improve and positively contribute to a positive customer experience and trusting relationship. I know many are providing language learning for instance, to all employees for self-improvement and as a way to decrease turnover costs and increase retention. But that aside…ultimately aren’t they actually better supporting the needs of their clients? Isn’t this worthy of focus?
Share with us how you are leveraging training for both a positive internal as well as external experience. To review the article, ”Ship disaster unlikely to prompt quick safety changes,” please click here.
Melissa Ondo
Director, Business Development
Globoforce’s Workforce Mood Tracker™ The September 2011 Report (Download) has 
identified five trends around employee retention and recognition that include:
We are in total agreement that these trends are key in our industry. Training and Development is evolving beyond just delivering off the shelf classes and into a strategic, business-essential role. T&D professionals are now demonstrating how their organizations are essential to the overall goals of their larger organizations and contributing to employee retention, satisfaction, recognition, skills improvement and more! So why are these the first budgets to get cut??!!
What trends are you seeing? Share your insights with us!
This week’s The Economist features a summary of a new book on hyperpolyglots– those famous multiple-language-speaking-rockstars in history. Called Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners and due for publication January 10, author Michael Erard explores CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI of Bologna who was purported to have mastered anywhere from 30-72 languages, Ken Hale at 50, and Ziad Fazah at a world record of 58. If you’re feeling a little like Wayne and Garth right now, don’t despair.
It sounds like the questions and hypotheses about what “knowing” a language means–and the science behind having the gift of tongues–that are explored by Erard will put you at ease. Dubbed by The Economist as “the first serious book about the people who master vast numbers of languages—or claim to,” it promises to be entertaining for professional linguists, foreign language instructors, language history buffs, and language learners at all levels.
Do check out the original article for more details!
