Fair Trading

Image: 'My illustration called fair trade'

Next week's topic is Consumer Law & Fair Trading. Fair Trading NSW has a fantastic website with written information, audio and videos in several languages. Unfortunately they do not have anything in Spanish, but you can still use the real life case studies which are in English for practice.

Here are a few:

• Automotive case studies in English
• Automotive case studies in Mandarin
• Building case studies in English
• Building case studies in Vietnamese
• Travel case study in English (Broadband)
• Changes to tenancy laws - what you need to know in Korean - introduction 

For Spanish videos, a simple google search with Defensa del Consumidor will bring up many.

The video below offers lots of relevant vocabulary and role play possibilities.

Prepare to Translate or Interpret

Today we were talking about one of our units of competency, Prepare to translate and interpret and some of its elements referred to research, glossaries, innovative ways of dealing with possible language difficulties, etc.

Here you have a great example of research triggered by casual conversation amongst colleagues while having tapas: Marchando una de calamares by Clara Guelbenzu in Bootheando. Notice how she says that she was trying to dilucidar el asunto: clarify and illustrate the point in question.

Alpacas in Ecuador by Philippe Lavoie

Why don't you try doing the same for your last assignments*?  La Posada Oveja Negra had us discussing the differences between llamas (Lama glama), alpacas (Vicugna pacos), vicuñas (Vicugna vicugna) and guanacos (from the Quechua huanaco), which are all South American camelids.  Do a bit of  research to clarify and illustrate the main differences amongst these camelids.

We also worked very hard to find the exact meaning of this passage: Mantienen los residuos no reciclables por uso en la propiedad por debajo de  una onza diaria por persona. If you read La Posada's website, you'll find this sentence which confirms your understanding of it:
"We produce less than one ounce of non-recyclable trash daily per person!"

*I'll be curious to see what you find out about the music policy in Nazi Europe and DWIs.