100-Word Vocabulary

Soccer, or as it’s known outside of America, football, is an international game. It is watched and played around the world by fans, players and managers from all over. When the coach speaks a different language than the players, a team can run into communication issues.

Fabio Capello is the Italian manager of England’s soccer team. While one need not be particularly articulate to get by in directing a team, some language skills are certainly necessary. Yet Capello says he needs a maximum of only one hundred words to manage his players. He told BBC reporters that although he struggles when trying to speak about the economy or other issues, but he has all the vocabulary he needs to discuss tactics with his team. Capello does seem to know more than just a hundred words in English, however.

Peter Howarth, deputy director of the Language Center at Leeds University, believes that only about 1,500 words are required to communicate with the simplest, most basic English. Students of English find that while the vocabulary is not difficult to grasp, the grammar rules are quite a challenge. Susie Dent, lexicographer and dictionary expert, says that an average person has about 60,000 words in their lexicon and uses about 20,000 of them actively.

People like Fabio Capello may turn to online tools to help improve their vocabulary and grammar. WhiteSmoke 2011 with the WhiteSmoke Translator is an all-in-one English language solution. In addition to correcting grammar and spelling mistakes, WhiteSmoke 2011 offers tips for writing and style improvement. The WhiteSmoke Translator supports full-text and word-to-word translations from nine languages. Between the translator and the grammar-checker, WhiteSmoke 2011 with the WhiteSmoke Translator is the ultimate tool for people looking to learn or improve their English skills. 

Growing Emphasis on English around the World

In schools all over the world the study of English is moving up the priority list. From America to Malaysia experts agree that proper grammar can make or break a graduate’s career. According to research by the British Council, people who speak English as a second language will soon outnumber native speakers.

So what can people who are struggling with English do to help them gain the advantage of fluency and boost their careers? In addition to classes and tutors, there are also many self-teaching options.

WhiteSmoke.com, for example, offers free English lessons on their website. The lessons include everything from writing tips to example texts. WhiteSmoke's software is also an incredible tool for both native and ESL speakers. It works in pretty much any text-based application, which means it can check anything from Excel spreadsheets to instant messages. WhiteSmoke 2011 finds spelling mistakes, including contextual ones such as “too” instead of “to”. It also finds errors in grammar and punctuation. These sorts of mistakes can change the meaning of a sentence, so it’s very important to make sure to use accurate grammar and punctuation.

The tool which is probably most useful to those trying to improve their English is the WhiteSmoke Translator. While WhiteSmoke 2011 offers style suggestions and helps progress the quality of the word choice, the user can just enter the word in the Translator in their native tongue. The WhiteSmoke Translator supports full-text and word-to-word translations in nine languages. 

Affiliate Group

Just an update on my "affiliate career"!
I made three sales so far and I have to say I'm really excited! All I had to do was post specialized links on my English Literature blog and voila!
I just joined the WhiteSmoke Affiliate Group on Facebook - I recommend this group to any and all affiliate marketers, regardless if you're in the WhiteSmoke Affiliate Program or not. They post free tips on affiliate marketing and you can ask them questions about how to optimize your site, what kind of content to write...etc.!
So far, very happy with my Affiliate Marketing experience. I just might try it with some more companies soon!

See ya!

Since When Is Txt-Spk Acceptable in Real Life?

It is fairly common for people to respond to complaints of poor grammar on the internet with indifference. Many think that because communication via internet and text message is informal, proper language is not necessary. While in some situations that might be true, people have become less weary of crossing the barrier between formal and informal communication. There are all too many reports of embarrassing predicaments caused by inappropriate use of “text-speak”. Text slang has been known to pop up everywhere from school papers to job applications.

The problem extends beyond lack of capitalization. Columbian.com reported that students use shortcuts in their work such as “ur” instead of “you’re”. They write “luv” in place of “love”, and they often neglect to capitalize i’ s and the beginning of new sentences. Students even utilize “LOL” and “OMG” in their assignments. Teachers have come to accept that they will see these informal usages in their students’ work and learned the best way to deal with it is have the students turn in rough drafts. They circle the informal spelling and grammar and the students correct it before handing in the final assignment.

A far less forgiving arena in which text-speak has been spotted is business communication. Laura Wiegert wrote about such an occurrence in the Herald Times Reporter. A college graduate ended her cover letter by informing her potential employer that she was “looking 4ward to working 4 U”. Writing “there” instead of “their” is enough to get a resume trashed, so needless to say this candidate was not hired. 

Using the same shortcuts one uses for informal communication for school or business reflects poorly on the person and institution they represent. If you are prone to using text-speak without realizing it, it may be worth investing in a grammar checking software like WhiteSmoke 2011. In addition to checking grammar and spelling, WhiteSmoke also offers suggestions for style improvement. WhiteSmoke Translator, a feature of the program, is a really useful tool to help people who are less fluent in English express accurately and properly what they want to say. 

Being a WhiteSmoke Affiliate

My mom always told me that the best way to choose a career is to “find something you enjoy doing and figure out how to get paid for it”. Well, I like staying home all day and surfing the web. Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally a people person; I just prefer pajamas to suits. After much research, I found the perfect solution- online marketing. I get to interact with people through the internet, but from the comfort of my home.

I contacted Zach, WhiteSmoke’s business development manager, about their affiliate program. I told him I was just beginning, and he was so helpful! I checked out their Facebook page, and it looked pretty cool. WhiteSmoke provides its affiliates with marketing material, but he also took the time to give me some tips.

I love being able to make my own hours and be my own boss. The more sales I make, the more money I earn. Let me tell you, seeing direct results like that can be very rewarding and motivational.

Additionally, I think WhiteSmoke is a great product. I use it before publishing anything to make sure that my texts are flawless. I mean, how silly would it look to try and sell grammar-checking software with incorrectly written marketing material? It’s always easy to sell something you believe in.

I’m new to this whole affiliate world, but so far I’m really enjoying working with WhiteSmoke and selling their products.

This article was of course checked with WhiteSmoke 2011.  Get WhiteSmoke now!

age errors in business interactions can mean the difference between a successful business deal and ruined ones. 

Business Translations

As businesses become globalized, and writing takes over as the main method of communication, translations have taken on a new importance. Communication can be a delicate issue, and one must be careful, especially in business, to be clear and flawless.

According to WhiteSmoke News, some cultures prefer that a new business partner speaks in their own language instead of trying unsuccessfully to express themselves in a foreign language. Depending on the culture, it might be considered a sign of respect to struggle to honor the new language, while for others the smallest mistake could be the largest insult.

It is important to study the culture of a new potential business partner to make sure that one is properly honoring their traditions. A great way to prepare is through using online translation tools. WhiteSmoke Translator, for example, offers both full-text and word-to-word translations. A user can translate a full email, or just quickly look up words before a phone conversation. WhiteSmoke Translator also offers a human translation service, which partners with native speakers at onehourtranslation.com to ensure the most accurate translations possible.

Several months ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that the sales of the new Samsung Galaxy Tab, a product similar to Apple’s iPad, were “quite small”. In fact, what the vice president of Samsung had said, although in Japanese, was that sales were “quite smooth”. Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, repeated the WSJ’s error when introducing the iPad2. The Wall Street Journal’s mistranslation was more than just a small mistake. It ended up being ammunition for competing companies.

Although translators can help one get acquainted with a new language, one must be careful to learn about the nuances and secondary meanings of words to communicate effectively and avoid insult. Language errors in business interactions can mean the difference between a successful business deal and ruined ones. 

Cool Writing Technology

In the past, if one wanted to write anything, it required paper, pen and creativity. Today, one merely needs a computer. With more writing software available than ever before and a blogosphere full of opportunity, anyone can be a writer. There are constantly new technological inventions and advancements that make reading and writing easier.

There are online dictionaries and translation tools available at the push of a button. A really great program for people looking to improve their English is WhiteSmoke 2011 with the WhiteSmoke Translator. The WhiteSmoke Translator is a great tool for translating, as it supports at least 9 languages and does both word-to-word and full text translations using statistical machine translation (SMT) technology. WhiteSmoke 2011 scans texts from nearly any application for grammar and spelling mistakes, as well as offers suggestions to improve style and word choice. WhiteSmoke even offers free online tips and English lessons.

Pearson has recently developed new apps aimed at helping kids improve their vocabulary and grammar. They showcased this new technology at the National Science Teachers Association's (NSTA) annual conference last week. The applications for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, which cover subjects of both science and English, will be available in schools for grades 3-8 starting in the 2011-2012 school year.

One no longer needs to be a literary genius to compose a play or novel. Websites such as rawscrpts.com provide free online screenwriting software. There are so many novel-writing programs that include templates and outlines to help would-be authors complete their works.  Imagine what Shakespeare could have come up with if he had such technology available to him!

From WhiteSmoke Translator to apps for kids to novel and screenplay writing programs, it has been getting easier and easier to write in English. Check out some of this cool technology today!