New cards provide foreign-language greetings

The Nevada Commission on Tourism last week launched "Nevada Welcomes the World," a program to distribute cards bearing simple visitor greetings in six languages other than English.

Some 40,000 of the cards, which fold into the size of a business card, will be distributed to hotels, restaurants and other establishments in the hospitality industry.

Words including "welcome," "please,""thank you," and "goodbye" are printed in Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Spanish, each with phonetic English pronunciation that makes them easy to say.

"Hearing a familiar-sounding 'welcome' or 'thank you' shows a visitor who may not speak English that we're really glad they're here," said Lt.

Gov.

Lorraine Hunt, the chair of the commission on tourism.

The program won praise from tourism officials around the nation.

Keith Reinhard, chairman, DDB Worldwide; president, Business for Diplomatic Action: "Oh, that every state tourism department would steal this idea from Nevada," said Keith Reinhard, chairman of DDB Worldwide and president of Business for Diplomatic Action.

"It would make such a difference in the United States and the world.

If only 1 percent of the people who received this card used it, the impact would be tremendous."

The program also has won backing from the Nevada Lodging and Hotel Association as well as the Nevada Restaurant Association.

Other words on the card are "yes,""no," "you are welcome," and the courtesy titles of Mr., Mrs.

and Miss.

Commission on Tourism representatives said the six languages selected for inclusion on the card represent large and expanding markets for Nevada tourism.

Each word or phrase is listed in English and in the foreign language, followed by a phonetic pronunciation.

For example,"welcome" in French is "bienvenue," pronounced "bee-en-ven-oo." "Thank you" is listed in Mandarin Chinese characters, then spelled phonetically in English,"shee-ah shee-ah." "You are welcome" in Japanese is "doe e-tosh-e mash-tay." "Please" in German is "bitte" pronounced "bit-uh." "Good-bye" in Korean is "Aannyung hee gaa-sae-yo" (To receive copies of the card, call the Commission on Tourism at 1-800-237-0774.)