On site spanish and english training including workplace english programs and seminars

Workplace Languages offers customized Survival Spanish seminars, classes (or other languages) to management in a variety of industries. We also teach a very functional workplace English to those employees with limited English proficiency. Our classes and seminars are always taught on-site at the company 24/7. 

All classes, English and Spanish seminars are taught on-site at your place of business and the curriculum is always customized to meet the needs of your company. All information is practical and no grammar is taught. Classes & seminars are upbeat; nobody is put on the spot and we understand that you only want enough Spanish, Chinese, French Е whatever language it is - to communicate immediately, easily & effectively. We understand that you donТt want to be a language major. You just want to get your point across.

Workplace Languages offer a large number of bilingual training tools to a variety of industries. They are all ultra easy-to-use and are all customizable with content and we can even add your companyТs logo.  WhatТs nice about our bilingual training tools is that there is nothing to retain, no classes to attend and no huge time or financial commitment. We have pocket-sized "survival language booklets" that come with a pronunciation guide. And our 24 X 36" color laminated poster has both Survival English for the Spanish speakers and also Survival Spanish for the non Spanish-speaking managers & supervisors.

Successful communication has always been the key to good management. Now, with an ever increasing need to connect with workers from other cultures, the need is even greater for both managers and employees to educate themselves in each othersТ ways of acting, speaking, learning foreign languages using as method English or Spanish seminars. The rewards are potentially great if the methods that both parties use to educate themselves are appropriate. Success doesnТt necessarily take a great deal of time, it takes the right training.

How to Create a Better News Release

Many organizations and businesses want media coverage of their activities, and at the same time many newsrooms are looking for local (or even national and international) topics to cover. If you're belong to an organization that wants coverage, you can increase the odds of getting it by following a few simple news release (or press release) conventions.

First, you must have something new or different to say. As the name News implies, the media want information that's new or at least updated. At the same time, reporters and editors want information that's relevant to their readers; choose your media targets carefully, and tailor the content of the release to their audience).

Second, your headline should be as interesting as a newspaper headline. It should promise something new, dramatic, or timely. Make the editor or reporter want to know more. Remember, though, the claim should be credible and relevant.

Third, in the first paragraph of the body, get in what journalists call the Five Ws: Who, What, Where, When, and Why. In fact, try to get them into the first sentence, and if you can't, at least start with a clear concise statement that summarizes the story.

Traditionally, reporters have tried to get the essence of every story into the first paragraph because they didn't know where, or whether, their stories would be cut. So, they start with the most important information and end with the least important. That way, no matter where the story was cut, the best material stayed.

Fourth, write and rewrite your news release many times before 'releasing' it. Use active verbs and transitions (from sentence to sentence, and paragraph to paragraph). Boil down the content as much as you can; two pages is acceptable, but one is better.

Fifth, follow this standard format:
At the top of the page, write this, in all caps:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Usually this will be left-justified)

Or, if you want the release to be held until specific date/time, write something like this:
FOR RELEASE AT 10 A.M., AUGUST 23
(But don't necessarily expect the embargo to be honored)

Skip a line and then put in contact information, as in:
Contact: Robert Abbott
Telephone: 403 555-1234
Email: robertabbott@anycompany.com

Skip another line and add your headline (centered, and use title case or all-caps):
Perpetual Motion Machine Unveiled

Now, the body of your news release, which should not exceed two pages.

At the end of the body, add three number marks with single spaces between them, as in:
# # #

Repeat your contact information at the end , as in:
Robert Abbott welcomes your inquiries at 403 555-1234 or by email at: robertabbott@anycompany.com

Sixth, prepare yourself for reporters' questions
It goes without saying, of course, that you would prepare yourself for questions from reporters if you send out a release. I would recommend you write out a list of questions that seem likely and prepare bullet-point answers for each of them. That way you'll be ready for most of the questions. However, don't read the answers back to reporters; just use them as a guide. At the same time, assume you'll get questions you simply can't predict. Answer them as well as you can; and if you can't answer, your best bet is to tell the interviewer you'll need to get more information, and will call back after you do.

Google News - Just another article announcer?

In Google's recent battle towards becoming an international news center, I've come to notice that the results delivered from Google News seems like nothing more than the articles we publish everyday. So I ask, doesn't it seem like Google News resembles an article directory of some sorts?

  * Google News World: news.google.com
  * Google News Canada: news.google.ca
  * Google News UK: news.google.co.uk

I only mention this because when submitting my internet marketing articles, I often wonder if they show up within Google News? 9 times out of 10, they do! In fact, they usually show up within 48 hours of being indexed from other top related websites.

How does Google News select it's content?

Right now, it seems that "news centers" & "press release companies" related to your field online are profiting from these search results. When you think about it, wouldn't a press release be a form of news anyways? Possibly...

If you take a good look at the websites who deliver the content within Google news, you will notice that only a select few are providing all of the results. Again, it's possible that Google's news algorithm is still in its infant stages and probably has a lot of uphill battles to conquer.

It may be in Google's best interest to assemble a team of experts in different fields to accept articles/news submissions in order to keep the news source within the Google kingdom.

There is Only A Fraction of Results Showing:

While searching through the GN section, you will also notice a relatively small portion of actual search results coming up. Only a fraction of a percentage of results get listed within the GN search results compared to the same results within the regular search results found on Google's main page.

Only the sections on the left deliver actual real-time news. These are: Top Stories | World | Business | Sci/Tech | Sports | Entertainment | Health. These links provide real-time results delivered from credible news sources online.

Google News Alerts - Ezine anyone?

When you think about it, you are giving Google your email address to get related articles to the search term delivered to your inbox, how does this differ from any other regular newsletter? Are we going to start seeing Google Adwords within the news alerts? Will they consider giving large corporations the opportunity to advertise within their email alerts as a one time mailing! I hope not.

More and more we are seeing less of the Google we once knew and have come to love (A search bar with some great results). Since Google's IPO, the development team at GG are starting to launch applications online that are starting to resemble what we now know as the great Yahoo Portal.

Will there be any difference? Probably not.

One Great Point About Google News:

They have given you the ability to customize your page to show whatever news topics you want. Simply look at the right side for a button that says "Customize this page New!". Once you click on this link a drop down box shows you all the main topics you have listed within your page. Simply click on the topic you wish to customize or remove. The best part of it all is that you can click on "Add a custom section" and simply search for the topic you wish to have listed on your page.

All in all you can create an entire custom news page (author articles) that relate to your industry.

Change Your Tone

The world of PR is benefiting from dramatic changes in the way media coverage is being delivered electronically to your computer desktop or PDA of choice. Perhaps the nuisance of ink on your fingers is being replaced by a bad case of "BlackBerry thumb" -- but nevertheless getting your media coverage electronically has never been easier or more mobile.

These changes now drive the development of new tools from content providers, and new software programs to help better manage and analyze media coverage. The automation occurring at the database level and through the real-time delivery of organizational news, to internal and external stakeholders, is now almost taken for granted. And the holy grail of PR -- to automate media analysis and measurement -- is already under way; but where should software stop to make way for human analysis?.

Media analysis programs can save countless hours quantifying and sorting media coverage in an unlimited number of ways, including by circulation, region, ad equivalency, company programs and services, and competitive brands. However, do you really want a computer program qualifying how each story affects your organization? It's a gamble with little upside.

Just Say No
The automation of tone and sentiment has already been incorporated into some software programs, but how accurate can it be? Every story, across every medium, will have a dramatically different meaning or impact for various organizations and their stakeholders. Behind the news emerge both winner and losers.

For instance, if a negative story breaks about a strike at one bottling plant it will be a boon for its competitors. The ability to determine which companies are negatively affected by the news is very limited. Furthermore, understanding the actual tone or possible ongoing bias of the reporter on an issue is impossible to automate. News is as much about delivering the facts, as it is provoking a reaction or emotion from the reader. Media analysis solutions can certainly help decipher the facts, but the rest should be left to a team of communications professionals.

Too Subjective?
The argument against toning media coverage has often been it is too subjective -- if the news can be interpreted differently by each individual, won't this skew the results in the end? True enough -- but this can easily be solved with the introduction of a tone standardized 'scorecard' that is consistently applied to each story.

These scorecards can really vary, depending on the type of analysis you want to deliver in the end. Many organizations will chose to tone stories by ranking them as positive, neutral or negative.

The use of these 3 words alone is where subjectivity problems can creep in. Along with team brainstorming and training sessions on how tone can be applied, one quick fix is to use the C.B.S. Scorecard instead:


Use Critical (in place of Negative.)
Use Balanced (in place of Neutral)
Use Supportive (in place Positive)

After reading an article, it is much easier to answer the question "Was that story critical, balanced, or supportive of our organization?" Instead of: "Was that story negative, neutral or positive?"

When it comes to tone it won't always be black or white, but I'd rather leave the grey zones to a trained communications professional rather than to the guesswork of a software application.

When it comes to tone it won't always be black or white, but I'd rather leave the grey zones to a trained communications professional rather than to the guesswork of a software application.

Beyond the ranking of articles by tone using the C.B.S. Scorecard, other metrics and meanings can be used in tandem to create and even stronger analysis. The following scorecard uses a scorecard range, from - 5 to + 5, to provide a more in depth analysis.

Rating Criteria
+5   Supportive Mention + four of the following: Key Message; Interview; Photo; Call To Action
+4   Supportive Mention + three of the following: Key Message; Interview; Photo; Call To Action
+3   Supportive Mention + two of the following: Key Message; Interview; Photo; Call To Action
+2   Supportive Mention + one of the following: Key Message; Interview; Photo; Call To Action
+1   Supportive
0   Balanced
-1   Critical
-2   Critical Mention + one of the following: Negative Executive Mention, Positive Competitor Mention; Consumer Direct Complaint; Ongoing Issue
-3   Critical Mention + two of the following: Negative Executive Mention, Positive Competitor Mention; Consumer Direct Complaint; Ongoing Issue
-4   Critical Mention + three of the following: Negative Executive Mention, Positive Competitor Mention; Consumer Direct Complaint; Ongoing Issue
-5   Critical Mention + four of the following: Negative Executive Mention, Positive Competitor Mention; Consumer Direct Complaint; Ongoing Issue



Once each story is toned, the rest of analysis can be automated by your software solution. The tone can be used independently to determine the success of the campaign by percentage of C.B.S. stories, but the tone can also be used alongside the rest of the analysis to identify possible media bias or problem areas by region or publication. The media is always analyzing your organization…why not return the favour?

New media monitoring and analysis technologies are certainly changing the face of media relations activities and provide immense return on investment, but determining the impact of a news story on your organization should be kept in human hands for the time being.