Interpreting skills training

1. Lifestyle-менеджеры

Личные ассистенты, или lifestyle-менеджеры, как еще их называют - явление, широко распростра­ненное в Европе. Они входят в частную жизнь лю­дей наряду с семейным доктором, личным банкиром и при­слугой.

В чем смысл LifeStyle Management (LSM)? Во-первых, во-вторых и даже в-третьих, этот сервис существенно экономит время. Вместо того чтобы самостоятельно искать адрес нуж­ного магазина или дозваниваться в ресторан в пятницу вече­ром, достаточно дать задание ассистенту. Тот - если он на­стоящий профессионал - найдет бутик лишь по описанию портрета владелицы, "выбьет" столик в "час пик" и за 10 ми­нут выдаст маршрут проезда к филиалу банка. Персональный lifestyle-менеджер будет доступен 24 часа в сутки из любой точки планеты и всегда готов к новым, порой самым неожи­данным поручениям.

На российском рынке LSM существует несколько вариан­тов: прибегнуть к услугам менеджера-одиночки, обратиться в компанию, которая специализируется на lifestyle-менеджмен­те, или воспользоваться услугой LSM в рамках сервисного па­кета private banking. За одним менеджером закреп­лен не один-два клиента, а целый десяток. Клиенты не видят менеджеров - те находятся в контакт-центре и обща­ются с заказчиками по телефону, через электронную почту или через Интернет. Зато можно сменять одного ассистента другим, а при особо объемном и срочном задании "бросить" на его выполнение сразу нескольких человек.

2. Cute and prickly hedgehogs latest pet fad

LONDON (Reuters) - Can man's best friend be replaced by a prickly pal the size of your palm?

Busy British pet lovers have been buying hedgehogs, whose nocturnal habits make them appealing to the modern worker because they wake in the evening when their owners arrive home after a day in the office. Although Britain has its own wild breed of hedgehogs, the latest pet craze focuses on African pygmy hedgehogs -- a cross between Algerian and white-bellied hedgehogs.

"They are unbelievably pretty little creatures, the way they bumble along, the way they poke their noses into everything," British hedgehog breeder Bonnie Martin told Reuters.

Initial costs for the animal and accompanying equipment can run to 300 pounds ($591). But hedgehogs, who can survive on cat food, are cheaper to feed because they eat a third of the household cat's daily diet, Martin said.

But animal conservationists said the trend poses a serious threat to the declining population of Britain's native wild hedgehogs, which last year made the government's species protection list.

British Hedgehog Preservation Society trustee Kay Bullen said the expense of buying rare types of hedgehog could tempt people to lure a cuddly British cousin in from the garden.

"Why buy that when you can get one for nothing from the wild?" she told Reuters.

Bullen also said that the introduction of a foreign species could cause a secondary wildlife problem if pet owners who tire of their hedgehogs attempt to release them into the wild."People will probably think they can exist in our country, but I don't know if they can."

3 Iowa case raises question: Is stripping an art?

DES MOINES, Iowa - Iowa doesn't have any all-nude strip clubs — but it does have performing arts centers where it is allowed to show movies with brief nudity or to display paintings with nudes or arrange dancing of women naked. However, the loophole in the state's public indecent exposure law that allows nude dancing at "art centers" is under attack in the small community of Hamburg, a town of 1,200. It all began, when a 17-year-old niece of Sheriff Steven MacDonald climbed up on stage at Shotgun Geniez in Hamburg and stripped off her clothing. Owner Clarence Judy was charged with violating Iowa's public indecent exposure law.

"Dance has been considered one of the arts, as is sculpture, painting and anything else like that.," said his lawyer, Michael Murphy. He added that Judy bans anyone under 18 from entering the five-year-old business. The problem, he said, was "a group of girls snuck in a 17-year-old."

Nonsense, said Fremont County Attorney Margaret Johnson, an underage girl danced naked at the club, and that's illegal. The case pending before a Fremont County judge effects only one business in Hamburg, but if he agrees with the prosecutor, it could eventually threaten the legal standing of nude dancing clubs across the state.

4. Tempest in a D-cup as bust sizes grow

BEIJING (Reuters) - Bra producers have been forced to offer bigger cup-sizes in China because improved nutrition is busting all previous chest measurement records.

"It's so different from the past when most young women would wear A- or B-cup bras," Triumph brand saleswoman Zhang Jing told the Shanghai Daily from the Landmark Plaza of China's commercial hub."You...never expect those thin women to have such nice figures if they are not plastic."

The report said that the Hong Kong-based lingerie firm no longer produces A-cups for larger chest circumferences and has increased production of C-, D- and E-cup bras to meet pressing demand.

The Beijing Institute of Clothing Technology released a report last week saying the average chest circumference of Chinese women has risen by nearly 1 cm (0.4 inch) since the early 1990s, the daily said.

This phenomenon, it said, was due to women eating more nutritiously and taking part in more sport. Similar growth in the average height of children prompted a rethink last year in Beijing on the height allowance for free bus rides.