Italian readers are crazy for books translated from Welsh into Italian.

Indian readers are reading dozens of self-help books and little-known Dutch titles in the modern Hindi language.

English-speaking readers may want to check out Yeeyan to find translations of articles and blogs originally written in Chinese, with notable ones such as US Internet companies' top 10 mistakes in China

The Global Watchtower looks at a couple of translation companies that are doing business in a greener fashion.

For almost two years, McElroy Translation has been a member of the Austin, Texas Energy GreenChoice® program. Shortly after becomeing members of this program, McElroy swapped out its existing fluorescent and incandescent lighting with newer technology that uses far less electricity.

David Warlick has raised some good questions at his blog about learning languages and culture, and the value of learning multiple languages. I think that the newer communication and translation technologies are rapidly reshaping the traditional approaches to these questions, but not eradicating the need to know multiple languages--nor are they going to ever completely reach the status of "language killers," as some people fear.

Speaking entirely from the perspective of globalization, millennial learners, and a new information landscape, the question that begs asking in my mind is, “What good is a second language?” What I mean to say is, don’t we really need fifth or sixth languages? If it is our goal to be able to interact in a global community in the community’s tongue, then one more language (among the hundreds or thousands of human languages) really isn’t that much.

In Harrisburg Thinking about Languages

Now as for languages, we got to talking about how much we can learn about culture from learning about their language. The question was posed, does the culture make the language or does language make the culture? I don’t know, but it made me wonder about evolving languages, tipping points, and a rapidly changing world.

We, as individuals, can publish to a global readership, and be responded to. This word, blog, has become a part of our vocabulary, part of our dictionaries. That’s a tipping point. What does it mean to a culture that can practice such democratic activities?

 In this article, the head of a language school indicates a fundamental shift in perception that speaking English is good enough for doing global business.

Valentine Cawley, Head of Department, Linguaphone Language School, said: "Two years ago, we were carrying just four languages. Now we are teaching over 15 in tutorial classes. I think there has been awareness among Singaporeans that if they are going to communicate with the rest of the world, they do need specific language skills.

"In many of the countries they are going to, the take-up (rate) of English is not as good, and in business, it is best to speak the language of the person you are relating to. It is not only polite, but gives you a better change of signing that contract."