June 2014
Enhance Your Pronunciation with These 4 French Tongue Twisters!
Practicing a few French tongue twisters - or "les virelangues" - is a useful way to improve your pronunciation, distinguish homophones (words with different meanings that sound the same), and develop your vocabulary. Here are 4 French tongue twisters to help you practice French sounds, along with their English translation.
1. Practicing nasal sounds that are so prominent in the French language can be done by repeating this fun tongue-twisting poem, which helps to distinguish between the vowels "u" and "ou":
"Tonton, ton thé t'a-t-il ôté ta toux,"disait la tortue au tatou."Mais pas du tout," dit le tatou,"Je tousse tant que l'on m'entend de Tahiti à Tombouctou."
"Uncle, your tea has cured your cough," said the tortoise to the armadillo. "Not at all," said the armadillo. "I cough so much that you can hear me from Tahiti to Timbuktu."
2. This tongue twister focuses on the sounds "s" (shown as "s" or "ss" here) and "sh" (shown as "ch" in French):
"Un chasseur sachant chasser sait chasser sans son chien de chasse."
"A hunter who knows how to hunt knows how to hunt without his hunting dog."
3. One particular sound that is prominent in the French language and rather infrequent in the English language is the sound "zh" (as the "s" in the word "vision" sounds in English). In French, this sound is either represented by "j" or "g" before an "i" or "e". Repeat this tongue-twister to practice this sound:
"Un ange qui songeait à changer de visage se trouva soudain si changé que jamais plus ange ne songea à se change."
"An angel that dreamed of changing its face suddenly found himself so changed that never again did an angel dream of changing himself."
4. Repeating this French tongue twister will help you practice pronouncing the letter "g" when it is followed by the rolling French "r":
"Trois gros rats gris dans trois gros trous ronds rongent trois gros croûtons ronds."
"Three big fat rats in three big round holes gnaw three big round croutons."
By repeating these fun French tongue twisters, you'll be pronouncing the most challenging French sounds perfectly in no time!
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Here at Technovate, we handle a lot of technical translation projects, including an increasing number of legal and law-related documents from law firms and independent lawyers. As our expertise in this field has grown, we’ve learned that lawyers’ needs vary. We’ve handled everything from a small marriage certificate that needed to be translated so a business deal could go through to a French-language legal decision in Quebec that had to be translated into English for use in Ontario. Some of our legal translation projects have been quite complex, such as a pharmaceutical patent that required both medical and legal expertise to translate accurately.
And of course time is always of the essence with these translations!
Legal translation is technical by nature, meaning that it is specialized and requires a translator with detailed experience in the legal field to translate it accurately. However, lawyers and law firms expect that translators will possess this knowledge, so for them the most important facets when ordering a translation are the timeliness of delivery and quality of the document. On-time delivery is so important that a deal can go sour when projects aren’t delivered on-time. That’s why Technovate always delivers on time.
On-time delivery along and technical consistency work hand in hand with our certifications. CAN CGSB 131.10-2008 Certified
ISO 17100 Certified are not legal-specific but they ensure that our finished translations stay true to its original, essential for legal documents.
We stay in touch with our clients throughout the process and keep open the lines of communication. This helps our quality stay high and ensures decisions get made quickly when there are questions.
Our combination of quality anqd speed can be an asset when you need documents translated. We can help with large projects that require in-house review of documents as well as large volume sourcing for deposition use. We have established relationships with reputable lawyers and firms in North America that make us the service of choice when you need a legal document translated. If you need translation help with legal documents, and your need is of an emergency nature, you can feel confident your needs will be fully met here at Technovate!
When it absolutely needs to be done accurately and delivered yesterday, trust Technovate to deliver! We make it easy for you and make you look good for choosing Technovate Translations for your legal translation needs.
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5 Tips for Outsourcing Your Business Services
The majority of businesses typically choose to outsource a number of operations that aren't at the core of their organization. In an effort to save time and money, many smaller tasks are given to other companies to complete them instead, including such operations as call centers, payroll, and administrative duties. Here are 5 tips help to ensure the success of outsourcing your business services.
1. Don't focus just on costs - Your goal is to find a company that will carry out the necessary duties competently. Looking solely at the price is a mistake since you can still stay within your budget by shifting your focus to finding quality results at a reasonable price.
2. Find ideal candidates for certain projects - Rather than focusing on the project as a whole, break it down into categories and group together the specific tasks that require the same type of skill sets. Make sure to select candidates that have experience with specific tasks.
3. Contact prior clients for feedback on interview techniques - When looking at candidates for your outsourced tasks, you don't necessarily have to perform a full-fledged interview. Instead, contact past clients to obtain valuable feedback and honest opinions about the work that the candidate provided them.
4. Clearly convey what your project scheduling and scope is to your candidates - It will be difficult for the candidate to carry out the functions properly if the details of the project are confusing. Make sure to clearly and fully outline your goals and needs, and be sure to evaluate assignments to make sure the candidate is capable of providing the results you expect.
5. Maintain realistic expectations - Don't enforce unrealistic schedules and expectations because it will negatively impact the overall cost of the project if things go awry. Instead, maintain your focus and be as clear as you can about the requirements without setting unrealistic expectations.
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