Festival Award Winners Announced

Here are the award winners for this year's International Festival, hosted by the Nationalities Council of Indiana.

Cultural Booths of NCI Group Members are judged in the following four categories:

1. THEME: Include in cultural booth historical, geographical, culinary, social or educational aspects of the particular culture. 2010 theme: Food for Thought - Tradition, Culture and Cuisine.
2. EDUCATIONAL VALUE: Provide relevant information about the culture.
3. CREATIVITY: Demonstrate an effective and enjoyable method to attract visitors.
4. QUALITY: Overall excellence. Examples would be people in native costumes and friendly approach to visitors.

First and second place winners for theme:
Society for Promotion of Persian Culture and Swedish American Order of VASA

First and second place winners for educational value:
Sons of Norway and German Heritage Society

First and second place winners for creativity:
Korean American Women’s Association and Hungarian Club of Indianapolis

First and second place winners for quality:
Camp Mabuhay (Filipino) and Swiss Club of Central Indiana

In addition, the Best Overall Cultural Booth, recipient of “The Betty” trophy for 2010:
Taiwanese American Association of Indianapolis

Food Booths of NCI Group Members are evaluated for quality and authenticity of ethnic food, appearance and sanitary conditions and overall assessment.
First Place: Indonesian Association of Indianapolis
Second Place: German American Klub

Finally (but not insignificantly), the NCI's Volunteer Service award (also known as “The Steve” trophy) is presented to the individual(s) who have demonstrated commitment to the goals of NCI and have actively worked toward their achievement. This year, for the first time, three volunteers were honored:
Josef Laposa and Frances Russell (pictured), and Charles Lindgren (deceased).

Mark your calendars for next year's festival, to be held 17-20 November.

(Photo courtesy of Ming Russell)

.

Umbrella Series Translated into Korean

Fort Wayne-based LaBov & Beyond Inc.'s Umbrella Series is going global, according to Inside INdiana Business.

Copies of the illustrated business parables, geared at helping companies energize and engage employees and maximize sales potential and brand awareness, are currently being printed and published in South Korea. Seoul-based Kyujang Publishing Co. approached LaBov & Beyond last year about translating the series into Korean and publishing it.

Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures

This fall, the University of Notre Dame in South Bend will open the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures (CSLC), according to Inside INdiana Business. The CSLC will serve as a hub of foreign language learning and internationalism. Located in four renovated classrooms at DeBartolo Hall, it will include a multi-purpose classroom, language center and a home theater. Also this fall, a 14th option will be added to Notre Dame’s language line-up − Korean.

Multi-Language Website

The east central Indiana economic development organization Energize-ECI, Inc. is launching a new website it says will show the world that the region is serious about welcoming businesses to the area, according to Inside INdiana Business.

The site can be translated into six languages with the click of a mouse. It will be used as a global marketing tool to enhance economic development and job creation opportunities.

Look for tiny national flags at the top right-hand corner of the site to access automatic translations into French, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, German and Spanish.

Indiana first state to adopt East Asian language standards

Action taken by the State Board of Education this week made Indiana the first state to adopt grade-level standards specific to Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages for all grades kindergarten through twelve.

The Indiana Department of Education’s World Language Standards Revision Task Force developed a separate, yet related, set of standards specifically geared towards East Asian languages, according to a press release.

The revision of the state’s standards for world languages is part of a larger effort designed to equip Indiana students with the skills needed for success in a global economy. Click here for Indiana’s academic standards for world languages.

Non-English-Speaking? No problem!

The City of Fort Wayne has added language translation links to its official website.

It uses Google Translation Tools to perform the language translations from English into Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Arabic. Flag links for the respective languages can be found on each page on the City’s website.

The new initiative is designed to improve customer service to non-English speaking residents and visitors to the City’s website.

One caveat: "The automated translation services strive to perform the most accurate translations possible, but in some cases, translations may vary. Downloaded forms are not able to be translated at this time," the City notes.