people posing with award

TLC Recognized with TNCPE Award

TLC was recognized by the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence for achieving the Interest Recognition (Level 1) at the TNCPE annual conference March 23. The TLC Leadership Team completed the organizational profile using the Baldridge Excellence Framework. The Leadership Team is already working on the application process for the next level.

A gavel resting on a desk

22 Complete Court Interpreter Workshop

22 people from 10 counties across Tennessee as well as New Mexico and South Carolina recently completed TLC’s “TN State Court Interpreter Ethics and Skills Building Workshop.” Languages represented included French, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish.

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Two TLC Teachers Nominated for Adult Educator of the Year

Lorie Adams, one of TLC’s ESL teachers and TESL trainers, and Diane Thomas, one of TLC’s ESL teachers, were nominated for Adult Educator of the Year by Adult Literacy at the Nashville Public Library.

Lorie has taught Beginning to Advanced level ESL classes at TLC since 2014. She is also an instructor in TLC’s Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) certification program. Diane has taught ESL at TLC since 2011.

Granbery Elementary Hiring Bilingual Office Staff Position

School Office Position OPEN at Granbery Elementary. Granbery Elementary is located in the Nippers Corner area of Nashville.

We are looking for a bilingual candidate who speaks Spanish, and who can perform school office duties.

Please call Gail Mondelli if interested or questions, 615-333-5112 or cell 615-969-6399.

Woman and man posing in front of 880 Ranchera painted on the wall

Cara to Cara Radio Program Features TLC

Director of World Languages Brian Barnett was recently a guest of Cara to Cara radio program sponsored by the Hispanic Family Foundation (HFF).  For the Spring 2022 World Languages term, we are offering an in-person beginning Spanish class at HFF. Registration for Spring Term starts March 7 and classes begin the week of April 18.  TLC also offers English classes at HFF.

Watch the interview.

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Congratulations to our Newest TESL Graduates!

TLC recently held graduation for its newest group of graduates from the Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) certification program. TLC’s teacher certification course (now presented online) offers 150 hours of instruction, far beyond the standard 100 hours, and includes a 30-hour, in-person teaching practicum.

Executive Director Janice Rodriguez told graduates, “What you are doing for English language learners can be life changing. As you know, being able to communicate effectively in English opens doors. It sets the speaker on the path for success, gives them the confidence to develop personally and professionally, and for those learning in the U.S., makes life here in the United States become more like home.”

Green and yellow grid of squares

Wordle In Other Languages!

By now, almost everyone has at least heard of the addictive letter guessing game Wordle, whether you play it or not. It is so popular, that it is being copied in other languages. Here’s just a few of them for you to practice your vocabulary with. If you don’t see your language, you can search the internet – it is probably there!

 

Find the right Wordle for you!

🇫🇷 Play Wordle in French

🇮🇹 Play Wordle in Italian

🇪🇸 Play Wordle in Spanish

🇧🇷 Play Wordle in Portuguese

🇸🇪 Play Wordle in Swedish

🇩🇪 Play Wordle in German

🇳🇴 Play Wordle in Norwegian

🏴󠁵󠁳󠁨󠁩󠁿 Play Wordle in Hawaiian

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TLC Executive Director Participates in National Language Advocacy Day

TLC Executive Director Janice Rodriguez participated as a member of the Tennessee delegation for the “Virtual Language Advocacy Days 2022: Language at the Intersection” held Feb. 2-4. The annual event is sponsored by the JNCL-NCLIS (Join National Committee for Languages and the National Council for Languages and International Studies).

Janice and the Tennessee delegation met with legislative representatives from the offices of Tennessee’s U.S. Senators Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn, and U.S. Representatives Mark Green, Jim Cooper, and Tim Burchett, to discuss the most pressing issues facing language education policy. Of particular interest to TLC was JNCL-NCLIS’s support for the passage of the Senate version of the Advancing International and Foreign Language Education Act (HR 2940/S. 1453) and the authorization of the Biliteracy Educational Seal and Teaching (BEST) Act (S. 680/HR 1731).

A photograph of the Nashville Parthenon Building

TLC Translating and Recording Parthenon Audio Tour in Spanish and Arabic

The Parthenon in Centennial Park in Nashville is a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens and a major tourist and cultural attraction for the city. Visitors can listen to an audio tour of the Parthenon, and they wanted to make it available in other languages to make it more accessible. TLC is currently translating the audio tour script into Spanish and Arabic. Then, TLC Training Specialist Richard Ponce de Leon and Medical Interpreting Trainer Nadia Crank will provide the voiceovers for recording the script. The Parthenon is visited by more than 300,000 people a year from across Tennessee and the United States.

Blue and white TLC icon

3 New Project Managers Join ITS Team

We are so excited to welcome three new Project Managers to our Interpretation and Translation Department. ITS Project Managers serve as the point of contact external clients for interpretation and/or translation projects.

Headshot of woman with long curly hair Eileen Bernstein has served as a translator with TLC since 2020. She has a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the University of New Hampshire and a master’s degree in political science from George Washington University.

Headshot of a woman in blue shirt with dark hairMahasweta Panigrahy has most recently worked as an early learning project coordinator at First Presbyterian Preschool in Franklin. Mahasweta holds degrees from Berhampur (India) University and the University of the Cumberlands.

Headshot of a woman with dark short hair and glassesAdrian McDaniel is a former program manager for International Scholarship and Tuition Services Inc. Adrian holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations with minors in French and Spanish from Middle Tennessee State University; as well as a master’s in international business from Southern New Hampshire University.

Welcome, Eileen, Mahasweta and Adrian!