Did you know that foreign businesses employ over 31,000 people here in Nashville? Or that Japanese companies alone provide jobs to more than 12,000 Nashvillians? I knew international businesses located in Tennessee have a positive impact on our state's economy, but I was very surprised to learn that 35% of the new jobs created here in 2012 were the result of foreign direct investment.

You can learn more about the importance of international business here.

How many of your employees cannot understand your policies and procedures? How do you train non-English speaking employees? If you do not offer human resources documents in Spanish, you may be putting the employees and your company at risk.

Our Spanish translators have extensive experience translating:

• Policies and procedures
• HR forms
• Training materials
• Employee handbooks
• Performance reviews
• Employment applications
• Safety regulations
• Internal newsletters
• Employee surveys and responses

If you have questions about other documents, please contact us so that we can help you protect your business and your workers.

Many of our clients provide healthcare services to immigrant communities. As you can imagine, it can be difficult for them to balance the needs of their clients with limited budgets. We do what we can to help, including identifying information that has already been translated and is available to the public.

Today I found the Foreign Language Resources page at healthfinder.gov. You can access information from the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Health and Human Services. They provide information in Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese, to name just a few of the languages. If you don't find what you're looking for, give us a call so that we can help you.

Did you know that the word cookie is derived from the Dutch word "koekje", or little cake? They came about by accident: cooks used a little batter to test their ovens' temperature before baking an entire cake. Early on in America, "cooky" and "cookie" were both accepted spellings.

The British call them biscuits, from the Latin word for something that is twice cooked. Italian biscotti are also named for this method.

Visit http://globalcookies.blogspot.com/ for "A Cookie for Every Country". You'll learn the history of cookies from all over the world, and be able to try some of the recipes yourself. 

Zorionak, Feliz Navidad, and Bon Nadal are three Christmas greetings from Spain. If you want to wish someone a Merry Christmas in Portuguese, Estonian, Yoruba, and a host of other languages you can learn how  here. Good luck with the pronunciation!