RMC Language Consultancy - Blog

International Translation Day

9/29/2021

After spending some time abroad on a working-holiday visa, I wanted nothing more than to return home. I started looking for opportunities to work in government because, as a young professional, I felt a strong sense of patriotism – you really begin to appreciate your culture when you are away from it.

I knew I wanted to focus on and continue developing my translation skills. Fortunately, at that time, Trinidad and Tobago was seeking to host the Secretariat for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), a proposed agreement which never got off the ground. This thrust lead to an initiative by the T&T Government to make Spanish the first foreign language of T&T and resulted in the formation of a unit (born in the Ministry of Trade and Industry), called the Secretariat for the Implementation of Spanish, where I held the post of foreign language specialist.

In this role, I had the opportunity to translate, interpret, host cultural awareness seminars, teacher-training initiatives, collaborate with ambassadors of the Spanish-speaking diplomatic missions accredited to T&T and collaborate with many other ministries.

Fast forward many years later, while in that role, I saw local and international opportunities to specialise in translation, and I took the leap towards independence, starting off by translating full-time, then earning further qualifications. That leap led to the formation of RMC.

Here we are almost 10 years later with so many opportunities to convert documents from one language into another and work with some really talented professionals and fantastic clients.

On this International Translation Day, I celebrate this profession with my fellow translators. May we find all the words we need and the ability to continue connecting people across languages, borders and cultures and may we enjoy every step of the journey.

Here's to all the translators who celebrate our profession on this International Translation Day.

Values of a Country

9/27/2021

Why can understanding a country's values help nationals of different backgrounds successfully work together.

Recently we shared about the values of our company. Values are also reflected in a country, in a people’s way of living and being. The values of a people, a nation, reflect what is important to the people of a country.

What is important for the people of Trinidad and Tobago? We hold many values dear. This is one of the topics I discuss with my assignees (expats) to help them understand what is important to our people. It helps them understand us better and can help them work with Trinidad and Tobago nationals better.

Education
Celebrating festivals (our unique cultural celebrations)
Family
Food (and drink)
Relationships

We inherited a strong educational system from the British. Many of the systems and structures in our schools were patterned on and are a result of the British educational system and we have a very high literacy rate. This is true for most, if not all, of the English-speaking Caribbean.

In addition, education is provided free to children from early childhood all the way up to university with various government funding programmes being made available for those pursuing tertiary education. Finally, additional amenities have also been provided to our children over the years, including books, laptops, the ability to participate in various sporting activities and exposure to other extra-curricular activities as part of the school system. These opportunities have benefitted our children tremendously.

Our unique history has resulted in many cultures coming together and we celebrate each other’s foods, music, dance and festivals. From Carnival to Christmas to Divali to Eid to Emancipation to Easter. We celebrate many religious and national holidays – a total of 14 each year. We have a unique ability to live among people of varied backgrounds in relative harmony.

In our homes families can be nuclear (mother, father and children), extended, headed by
grandparents, single-parent and so on. Whichever the family type, Trinbagonian (and Caribbean) families are usually close-knit and somehow connected long beyond the age of adulthood. In other words, our children do not necessarily leave home at the age of 18. In fact, some adults move out only after getting married and some move into their in-laws homes after marriage. The main thing to note is that family is very important to us. This is connected to another important characteristic, which is that we are generally ‘collective’ or group-oriented in nature.

From pelau, to roti, to doubles, to saltfish buljol and accra, to black pudding, pastelle, Spanish rice, black cake, sorrel, and bake and shark, food and drink are a very important part of who we are. We celebrate everything with food, from baptisms and funerals, to graduation and marriage, food and drink are very important to us.

We are a people who operate by relationships (not tasks). The relationship very often takes
precedence over the task we are performing. Who you know is more important than what you know. If you know someone who can help you get something done faster, that is the route we will take. This can lead to a whole other discussion, but that is for another time. Suffice it to say that we maintain relationships from nursery school onward. We maintain contact with neighbourhood friends, university pals and work colleagues long after we have moved onto other pastures. Our colleagues are people we eat with in the lunch room and with whom we will often form long-term bonds. We place more importance on relationships than on tasks. There is a lot more to be said on this, but I will leave it here.

What would you add to this list of Trinbagonians' values? What else is important to us?

#values #culture #interculturalcoaching #crossculturalcoaching #Trinbagonians #RMC
#languageandculture

Intermediate Conversational Spanish Starts Monday 27 September.

9/21/2021

Do you want to become more marketable?

Are you looking to improve your proficiency in Spanish?

Do you interact with native Spanish speakers?

When asked what they enjoyed most about the course, here's what participants had to say:

"Interacting with others at the same level of language learning."— J.B.

"I liked our class. It was intimate and we encouraged each other." — C.C.

"Everything and everyone!" — P.P.

For more information, click here.

Register here.

Online Intermediate Conversational Spanish

9/13/2021

Did you promise yourself that you would improve your language skills in 2021?

Are you thinking of taking your career to another level?

Are you relocating to a Spanish-speaking country or one where the community speaks Spanish?

It is not too late to achieve your language goals in 2021.

EARLY BIRD OPEN UNTIL 15 SEPTEMBER 2021!

Sign up for our intermediate conversational Spanish course:

Days: Mondays & Wednesdays
Time: 5.30 pm to 7 pm
Period: 10 weeks
Dates: 27th September – 1st December
Where: online learning platform

All you need is:

A device
A stable Wi-Fi connection

Early bird individual: TTD $995/person if you register by 15 September 2021

Early bird group: TTD $2700/group for 3 persons or more (payable as a lump sum) if you register by 15 September 2021

Regular individual rates: TTD $1200 after 15 September 2021

Deadline for registration is 26th September. Register today!

Amerindian Footprints: Hyarima

9/2/2021

Photo published by Wired868.

Like footprints in the sand, though faded or washed away, we acknowledge and remember the presence of the first peoples who roamed and cultivated this rich land of Trinidad and Tobago, the very soil of which is nourished by their ancestral DNA. These indigenous peoples or First Peoples who settled in the Caribbean formed themselves into tribes based on their locations, lived a simple, yet hard-working life and traded among tribes and even islands as they canoed up and down the Caribbean Sea. Their presence has been so prominent in Trinidad that even places were named by them. However, the life these first settlers knew was about to plunge into anarchy.

The Europeans arrived and took hold of these islands and their resources through the renaming of and theft from these lands, and enslaving and forcibly converting local tribes to Christianity. The Amerindians were under siege, suffering from overwork and abuse. Yet, though primitive, heroes arose among them in honour of their ancestors, gods and people. One such man whose gold-coloured statue welcomes you upon entering the Borough of Arima is that of Hyarima or Hy Arima. He was such a powerful native figure who called the ‘shots’ along the east-west corridor.

Chief Hyarima led the people of the Araucan Tribe who lived within the region of Arouca, North Trinidad. He was enslaved, along with his tribe, by the Europeans and escaped their captivity around 1625. It is believed he fled to the hills of Arima where he set up his base. Fuelled with rage for these newcomers, he began recruiting and influencing other Amerindians to not only escape, but to form an alliance that sought the oppressors’ downfall. He became a nuisance to the colonisers and harassed them constantly by launching attacks on their settlements. He worked alongside the Dutch and successfully executed an attack on the then capital of San José, currently known as St. Joseph, which made villagers flee the area in 1637. Every year, rituals are performed at his statue by the descendants of the First Peoples in remembrance of his and others’ legacy and to honour the elementals.

Their footprints, which once were and forever will be, still mark the sands of time.

We hope you have enjoyed our segments featuring the Amerindian heritage of Trinidad and Tobago.

Santa Rosa de Arima

8/29/2021

Photo posted by Maximilian Forte

Arima, in Trinidad and Tobago, is considered the navel of Amerindian heritage, so much so that a community called the ‘Santa Rosa First Peoples Community’ was formed there. Arima is also the home of the Carib Queen, so there is a connection between Amerindians and Arima, but what is the connection between our Amerindian history, Santa Rosa de Lima and Arima? Well, in 1785, the Spanish government decided to repurpose the grounds of the old Capuchin Mission, founded in 1759 and dedicated to St. Rose of Lima, for the continued, more humane conversion of the indigenous. St. Rose was the first ‘new world’ inhabitant to be canonised a saint. She was called ‘Rosa’ because, as a baby, she was as beautiful as a rose and coincidentally went on to sell flowers to support her family, since she was denied entry to the nunnery in Peru.

Since the mission was already devoted to Santa Rosa de Lima, the foundation of the connection between the Amerindians and Santa Rosa was already present. But then it happened! It is said that the converted Amerindians once beheld the apparition of this saint in Arima near a spring which still exists; some say she even spoke to them. It is for this reason there was a push to rebuild her church and even name the area after her. Instead of Santa Rosa de Lima, the place was known as Santa Rosa de Arima. One source purports that she was born in Arima and carried away to Peru as a child. Every year Catholics and members of the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community hold a grand celebration for Santa Rosa. It begins with holy Mass, a procession with her statue through the streets of Arima, then a return to the church, followed by partaking in food, singing, dancing and visiting the different stalls.

The power of the Amerindian peoples may have dwindled from colonialism to now, but it certainly has not perished. They are still ever so present and are now claiming and reclaiming their identities, ancestral sites and names.

We hope you enjoyed this article which we have published in commemoration of the Santa Rosa feast day held on Sunday 22nd August, 2021.

Our Values

8/24/2021

As part of intercultural coaching, one of the topics I discuss with my assignees (expats) is identifying two or three of their core values.

What are values?

Values are what we teach our children.

They are ideals that are important to an individual, a culture, a company, a country.

RMC’s values include warm, engaging service to our clients. We focus on quality, reliability and accuracy in the delivery of our services.

Why are these important to us? Excellent customer service makes me feel happy. On the other hand, poor customer service leaves me feeling uncared for or just in a plain old bad mood. Who wants to be associated with an organisation and spend their hard earned money where they are not appreciated?

WARM, ENGAGING SERVICE. At RMC, we make a real effort to be pleasant not only in our telephone conversations but in our digital communication with all of our partners, stakeholders and clients. We listen to our clients, advise them in keeping with their needs and leave them on a high note.

RELIABILITY. A value I was taught growing up is the importance of keeping your word. If I promise someone I will get back to them or I will do something for them, even if I have to go out of my way, I will make sure it is done. If I am unable to keep my word, I will ask for help or I will let the person know when I can deliver. I do not like to be left hanging, so why would I leave others in the lurch?!

QUALITY AND ACCURACY. We have a number of quality assurance steps in the delivery of our services. For example, after a document is translated, it is reviewed and proofread before being delivered to our clients. No one is perfect. We are all prone to errors, however, we take certain measures to reduce the incidence of error before delivery to our clients.

What values do you uphold?

Let us know in the comments.

Four grammatical tips to note when posting content

8/13/2021

There are a few common phrases that are regularly used incorrectly or which appear clumsy. I am going to explain why they are incorrect and what to use instead. I have chosen a couple examples to illustrate my points:

'With regards to'
'Services providers'
'Trainings'
‘Part-time’ employee, but an employee who works part time.

1. Many times in speech and writing we hear and see with regards to. This is incorrect. We can say ‘as regards’, or ‘with regard to’, ‘concerning’, ‘in connection with’ or any other expression, but NOT 'with regards to'. It is just one of those expressions that is often used incorrectly.

2. I recently read an article from a newsletter to which I subscribe. The author used the expression services providers. Stop the press — chalk screeching on a blackboard — the word ‘service’ here is being used as an adjective, not a noun, so the correct expression is ‘service providers’. Why is this? The word ‘providers’ is the noun being described. What type of provider? A provider of services, or a ‘service provider’. The thing is, in this very article both ‘service providers’ and ‘services providers’ appeared, so it was not even used consistently throughout. Even though reference is being made to multiple services, it is not always necessary to pluralise the noun when the word is being used as an adjective.
Unfortunately this is not always the rule, so plural nouns can sometimes act as adjectives, e.g. sports medicine. English is not the easiest language! Sometimes we just need to do a quick search to see how many hits we get, do some checks of usage in context and use the expression that appears more frequently.

More and more I have been noticing the appearance of adjectives and verbs that are pluralised — this just seems so clumsy and often it is just wrong. In English, it is incorrect to pluralise adjectives. If we are talking about Spanish or French, for example, then that’s another story.
To determine whether a descriptive word should be pluralised, stop and ask yourself, ‘Is this word acting as a verb, an adjective or a noun?’ Then check it twice before hitting publish.
Here is an example of a phrase that has pluralised the word ‘services’ again. One possible explanation for this is it may have been translated by a non-native speaker of English who may have transferred the Spanish pluralisation of adjectives:

‘The Latin American Association of Services Exporters (ALES) convention’. The better expression would be ‘service exporters’.
‘Services sector’ — rather, use ‘service sector’. It is perfectly fine to use the latter as it is understood that the sector encompasses many services. ‘Service’ here is describing the sector and is an adjective.
‘Services exporters’ — rather, use ‘service exporters’.
‘Exporter regions’ is correct, where ‘exporter’ acts as an adjective describing the region.

3. How many trainings did you attend this year? Many of us have heard this word used incorrectly. ‘Training’ is the gerund or present participle of the verb ‘to train’. The gerund is the form of the verb ending in -ing. If you attended one, it would most like be a training session, workshop, meeting, programme and so on. It is incorrect to pluralise the gerund by adding an ‘s’ to the verb. You can however pluralise the noun that follows it, e.g. ‘training sessions’.

4. Compound adjectives. We have two ‘part-time’ employees, but they are employees who work part time (notice there is no hyphen in the latter case). The two words before employee are hyphenated because they are compound modifiers or adjectives. There are different types of compound modifiers, but here we will just discuss those that require a hyphen. Another example is ‘in-house proofreader’. Compound adjectives are usually hyphenated. There are some examples that are not, however. For example, if there is an adverb – ending in -ly e.g. for happily married couple, we would not hyphenate ‘happily’ and ‘married’. Those are just the rules. Hey! I did not make them!

I hope you enjoyed this article. Let me know your thoughts in the comments about what other examples of frequently misused words you have observed.

The Legacy Of The First Peoples

7/22/2021

Buried under the earthen ground of this twin-island state, are the whispers, stories and memories of a time once forgotten and unfamiliar faces. Trinidad and Tobago, much like Latin America and the Caribbean chain of islands, once beheld the presence of the indigenous peoples: Tainos and Kalinagos. With the arrival of Christopher Columbus, Christianity and the European colonisers, such tribes were decimated and close to perishing as they slaved away on estates. Yet their resilience and blessing of the Great Spirits, made them persevere.

In 2013, restoration of the Red House, one of the most iconic national buildings in Trinidad and Tobago, disrupted the sands of time and unearthed the treasures of the First Peoples. Their implements and very bones were discovered. Could it have been fate that served as a reminder to T&T that we ought not to forget our historical roots? Was it sheer luck? But the irony of it all — to uncover the burial ground of the first inhabitants of this country under the edifice where parliament and all major political icons sit and decisions are made for this Republic.

This brought great joy to the current descendants of the First Peoples’ community and so a call was made for a reburial to be held at the Red House. Six years later, once restoration was completed, a grand yet solemn ceremony was held by the surviving First Peoples of Trinidad and Tobago, along with others visiting from Guyana, Suriname, Guatemala, Venezuela, Dominica and as far as Canada and the US. They came to participate in a historical event, pay homage to their ancestors and an ode to the Divinities who walk with them.

The reinterment took place with huge pottery jars made with Amerindian accents from sister countries and the ritualistic outlay of the remains of almost 60 persons. Offerings of water, flowers, incense, tobacco and traditional music were made while vibrations rocked believers to heartfelt tears and ecstatic states of ‘manifestation’. The present Carib queen, Nona López Calderón Galera Moreno Aquan, participated along with First

Photo published by the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday

Peoples’ Chief, Bharath-Hernandez, along with shamans, political ministers and other prominent guests. A call was made to institute a public holiday, 14th October, to commemorate those who first shaped the entire Caribbean. Many ethnic and religious groups are honoured; however, the Amerindian community was awarded a one-time holiday in 2017. Perhaps we need to reconsider the need for greater recognition and remembrance of their mark upon this land, similar to other communities.

Photo published by the Trinidad Express Newspaper

As part of the revival, monuments that serve as reminders of their legacy were erected throughout the land: ‘Hy Arima’ in Arima, ‘La Venezuela’ in Santa Cruz and now a new statue in Moruga, where there was once a very strong Amerindian presence. The new statue will be named once the elders receive enlightenment and it will be unveiled by Grand Chief Paul Navarro and members of the Warrao community. Finally, a statue

has been proposed to be erected over the Red House’s burial site in the near future called ‘The Blood of The First Peoples.’

For more information:

Let us know if you enjoyed this article in the comments below. Be sure to look out for Hy Arima and the Santa Rosa feast in August.

Cuba: An Eye-Opening Experience

7/8/2021

A couple days after writing this article, on Sunday 11 July 2021, demonstrations broke out on the streets of Havana with citizens expressing their discontent with economic hardship exacerbated by the pandemic — resulting in shortages in food and medicine and electricity cuts — and after decades of repression. The current context is important to see and understand the effects of sustained economic sanctions (the blockade) over time, but I would like to share the perspective I gained from my visit regardless.

My visit to Cuba on an exchange programme, where we attended classes at El Instituto Superior de Relaciones Internacionales ‘Raúl Roa García’, the Cuban Diplomatic Academy, was such an experience. I went to Cuba on an exchange programme in 2004 during my master’s programme in international relations and this opened my eyes to the differences in
what we expect of a ‘western’ culture and the reality of a ‘western’ economy with a different way of life in terms of the lack of commercialism to which we, in T&T and the western world, have become so accustomed in our day-to-day lives.

In Havana, there were no such things as malls and shopping centres per se, but open-air craft markets with lots of art, crocheted items, hand-rolled cigars, handmade cigar boxes, wooden handcrafted items, lots of historical books in stores and book stalls, sculptures and other beautifully crafted items which were available at a fraction of the cost that such items would be priced in other countries.

A well-managed healthcare system, education and housing for all, pride in their resourcefulness, values such as family, education and the importance of people — the value placed on their human resource — were all aspects of this society that stood out for me.

The simple things like enjoying music, the sea breeze and dancing; being able to take a walk at day and night, especially as a woman, without fear of being attacked, robbed or being faced with some form of gun violence, were some of the experiences that made me question the way of life in my own country.

Everything I had heard about Cuba, or to which I was exposed in the media prior to my visit, seemed so far away from my experience while there. Not to be idealistic, I did learn that people had become accustomed to living without, to getting by on necessities and many were not free to express their political opinions. I even experienced having to buy ice cream in a place dedicated to tourists as opposed to the place set aside for locals, which was purchased in a different currency by tourists (the Cuban Convertible Peso or CUC, now being eliminated).

Visiting a grocery store was definitely an eye-opener. The very basics were available. Having endured a blockade by the US for 46 years by then (the Cuban revolution took place from 1953-1959, the first embargo was imposed in 1958, I visited in 2004), this was the norm for them. Being made to rely on purely or mainly local resources in my country was not something I was able to imagine, but here were these extremely vibrant, creative and resilient people restoring and making do with the assets which they had, by repurposing 20th century cars, and living in buildings built in the previous century, that many owners did not have the resources to upkeep or refurbish.

Attending a ballet show at El Gran Teatro de la Habana was another fantastic experience. This is home to the Cuban National Ballet — the Russian cultural influence is well known here — and I would even say this is among the very best ballet shows I have experienced.

So impressed was I by Cuba and fascinated with this country’s ability to thrive despite many setbacks, that I, about to start my master’s thesis, changed topics completely to focus on ‘Cuba: Development in the Post-Cold War Period’. Perhaps this can be discussed in another article.

For now, I look forward to returning to this beautiful island that is full of culture, music, dance, that is of a different century, a simpler way of life, natural island beauty and people who have adapted to circumstances which, may not be ideal, but necessary perhaps for survival.

What is your experience of Cuba? Share your photos and experience in the comments.

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