BBLTranslation presents its English phonetics workshop BBLSAUND® at Ràdio4 RNE

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Barbara Beatrice Lavitola, managing director at BBLTRANSLATION, was a part of Ràdio4 RNE´s Amics i coneguts programme on Saturday 4th February. It had just so happened that Silvia Tarragona, the programme director, and Barbara had met one day on a bus in Barcelona and agreed to an interview to chat about English, phonetics and the radio business.

Silvia Tarragona, and the assistant director Sergi Bassolas Goas, wanted to share with their audience BBLTranslation’s innovative English phonetics workshop: BBLSAUND®.

BBLSAUND® is a project of the translation and interpreting agency BBLTranslation, and comprises a set of six classes working to answer one of the greatest questions of those who speak English as a foreign language: why, after so many years of studying the English language, are there still so many people who have difficulty speaking and understanding oral English?

The problem gets even worse when this lack of confidence becomes apparent among the managers and sales teams of many international companies. “We do a lot of work in business environments and cannot understand why there are business managers and directors who use English on a daily basis, after having studied it for many years, but lack confidence when it comes to speaking the language”, Barbara said.
“These are not conventional English classes, but a specialised workshop for those who want to take a step forward in improving their pronunciation and aural comprehension. Our agency has been a pioneer in investigating and providing a practical solution to the fact that most people study English, but can’t speak it properly. Nowadays, use of English is essential in the world of business and it’s no secret that there is a certain fear and blockage that exists when it comes to oral expression”.

That is why BBLTRANSLATION is a pioneer in launching its English pronunciation workshop addressed to Spanish and Catalan businesspeople. In a few sessions and with the guidance of university professors who specialise in English phonetics and philology, students will gain confidence and improve their pronunciation and listening comprehension of the English language.

“If I am presenting my company and my services without expressing myself properly, without feeling comfortable with the language I am speaking, how can others have confidence in what I am trying to sell them?” Barbara said during the programme. “Thus, there is a visible lack of prestige which undoubtedly affects the image of the professional in question.”

As an expert in the linguistic sector, as well as a translator and interpreter, Barbara is bringing the root of this widespread problem to light: “The English alphabet needs to be taught in the same way as the Chinese and Arabic ones – for example, explaining the sound of each letter and how they sound with different vowels, at the beginning of a sentence, in the middle, or at the end.”

“What we need to do is teach the root, the pronunciation. Who has ever explained that the vowel ‘a’ can be pronounced in nine different ways? Nobody. We need this confidence, and we would achieve it with a proper understanding of how the phonemes sound.” Barbara explains.

In fact, English is a very easy language when it comes to grammar, but very complicated at pronunciation level, mostly because it doesn’t really follow any set rules.

Barbara has opened up the facilities at BBLTranslation (situated on Calle Balmes/Diagonal) to professionals who want to get out of the office and take part in the workshop, and it is also possible for clients to take the classes at their own offices, with the Learn@Work option. During the interview, BBLTranslation’s manager shared one of the key principles of the workshop: “The first word we must never use is “embarrassment”, and with these classes we will replace it with “confidence” and “excellence””.

You can listen to the full Ràdio4 RNE interview with Barbara Beatrice Lavitola here, starting at minute 30 of the programme.

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Important warning: we recommend that you carefully read the contents of this legal text prior to providing any personal data through the website of Bibielle Global Translations, SL, owner of and responsible for the correct application of the Privacy Policy.
In accordance with the regulations applicable to the protection of personal data, and the new provisions contained in the General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter GDPR), directly applicable from 25 May 2018, Bibielle Global Translations, SL informs you of the following:
i. Contact details of the Data Controller: Bibielle Global Translations, SL (hereinafter BBL), with Tax Identification No. B65336885, registered office at Calle Cartagena 241, Barcelona, 08025 Spain, and contact e-mail legal@bbltranslation.eu.

ii. Purposes: Data collected through the contact e-mail address, or service quotation request form, will be incorporated into files owned by BBL with the purpose of handling, managing and responding to your request or contact. The data provided will not be used for purposes other than those for which it was collected.

iii. In addition, and on a voluntary basis, you may provide your consent (by ticking the corresponding box or registration) to us sending commercial communications, by any route and/or electronic means, and keeping you informed about the services which, being similar to the current ones, may interest you, and which BBL offers to its Clients and users under more advantageous conditions, and to carry out market or customer satisfaction surveys.

iv. Retention: The data will be retained for the time necessary to achieve the purposes for which it was collected, in order to respond to the subject of your request or contact, and while there continues to be a mutual interest. It will be deleted when it is no longer necessary for such purposes, the commercial or contractual relationship ends, unless its retention is required by law.

If you provide your consent to the sending of commercial communications, personal data will be processed actively while you have the status of User, or until you withdraw your consent.

v. Data communication: In no event will your data be transferred or communicated to a third party, unless required by law; nor will it be transferred internationally, except with the unequivocal consent of the data subject, and prior information about the possible recipients, purpose and, where appropriate, country of destination.

vi. Duty of secrecy: BBL complies strictly with the duty of secrecy and confidentiality of personal data, and for this reason has implemented technical, organisational and security measures to prevent its unauthorised alteration, loss, processing and/or access, taking account of the state of the art, the nature of the stored data and the risks to which they are exposed, all of this as established by Spanish and European legislation on the Protection of Personal Data.

vii. Rights of the data subject:

a. To exercise the rights of access, rectification, erasure and objection, limitation of treatment, data portability and not being the subject of automated individual decisions, by writing to Bibielle Global Translations, SL, Calle Cartagena 241, Barcelona, 08025 Spain or at legal@bbltranslation.eu indicating the subject of your request, and attaching a [copy of your] national identity card or passport.
b. To complain to the Supervisory Authority: if a user considers that their data is not being used properly, and this matter is not addressed by BBL, they may submit a complaint to the relevant data protection authority, which in Spain is the Agencia Española de Protección de Datos.

viii. If you receive commercial communications by electronic means, in accordance with the Spanish Law of Information Society and Electronic Commerce Services (LSSICE), you may withdraw your consent, unsubscribe or modify your data using the same channel, through the e-mail address legal@bbltranslation.eu, which will be specified in each communication.