Workforce Language Services

Language and cultural barriers have a significant influence on relationships in numerous settings. The following article in the publication The Media Line draws a connection between the Israeli-Arab conflict and the language barrier.

The website of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, makes a point of greeting its visitors in three languages: Hebrew and Arabic, both of which are official languages in Israel, and English for the benefit of foreigners.

But for a large number of Israeli lawmakers, a third of this site is gibberish.

No, English is not the problem. It’s precisely the Arabic that’s Greek to them.

According to the Knesset website, at least a third of Israel’s cabinet ministers have no knowledge of Arabic at all.

While it may seem trivial, some argue that the lack of Arabic skills among Israeli politicians is one of the greatest impediments to peace.

If you think that is an exaggeration, ask Moshe Shahal, a former member of Knesset for the Labor Party and a former negotiator.

“In my opinion, 50 percent of the Israeli-Arab conflict is a problem of culture and language,” the Iraqi-born Shahal says.

Employers are responsible for clear communication with their employees, particularly regarding wage agreements and safety in the workplace. Unfortunately, U.S. companies have taken advantage of the vulnerabilities of the immigrant workforce. This article details how the U.S. Department of Labor is identifying employers who ignore safety standards and cheat their employees out of fair pay.

The U.S. Department of Labor is bearing down on employers who ignore safety standards and cheat “vulnerable workers” out of their wages, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said Friday in Scottsdale.Chao, addressing more than 200 members of the National Association of Hispanic Publications at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort, said her department has recovered millions in unpaid wages and has reduced worker deaths.The secretary painted a rosy picture of the economy but warned of the “skills gap” that leaves higher-paid jobs unfilled nationwide.

Secretary of Labor since 2001, Chao has reached out to the Hispanic community with training and enforcement programs.

She has stationed 300 bilingual inspectors across the nation to help Hispanics collect promised wages and demand safe working conditions, an enduring theme in much of the Hispanic press.

Since 2001, Chao said, her department’s aggressive enforcement has reduced workplace fatalities by 7 percent.

Educational institutions have been expanding, adapting to the interests and needs of a globalized world. Professional translation skills will now be cultivated in Illinois, at the new U of I Center for Translation Studies.

Center for Translation Studies to be established at Illinois

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The University of Illinois is gearing up to build hundreds of new bridges to other countries and cultures – but it won’t be using any of the traditional materials of construction.These bridges will be built with the languages and literatures of the world.

The U. of I. announced on June 13 in New York that it is establishing a Center for Translation Studies.

 Another article highlights the serious consequences of inaccurate translations.

Taipei Times - archives

A Canadian anti-narcotics official facing drug charges in Dubai fears he may be jailed for up to four years because of poor translating, according to Canadian media.

In a letter addressed “to whom it may concern” and printed in the Ottawa Citizen, Bert Tatham, 35, alleges that his testimony was not translated properly at his trial.

And he now fears he will be wrongly convicted for drug possession and drug-trafficking.

“I was not confident that those who took down my answers were fluent English speakers,” he writes. “In fact, despite my protests, I suspect that virtually the opposite of what I told them was recorded as my statement.”

The letter also describes a possible misunderstanding he believes occurred during an interrogation at the Dubai airport.

“For example, my telling them about being exposed to drugs in my work … became, `I used drugs in Afghanistan,’” he writes.

“My lack of any knowledge of having hashish … became, `I forgot I put it in my pocket,’” he writes.

Knowledge of both Spanish and English is becoming a requisite in some professions. The following article highlights Oklahoma City Police Department’s new bilingual training program.

The Oklahoma City Police Department is expanding its bilingual education program, and it began Friday with the first day of the 124th Police Academy.

The 48 recruits will go through 28 weeks of training, including 70 hours of Spanish-language training, driver training, physical fitness and firearm training.

The academy previously taught recruits 26 hours of Spanish.

“(Bilingual training) is extremely important with the make-up of Oklahoma City these days,” said Master Sgt. Joanie Rupert, bilingual instructor for the police department.

Knowledge of employees’ language skills can prove extremely valuable for a business or organization. As this article describes, US Customs and Border Protection has streamlined their new employee training process through the implementation of a Spanish language competency assessment.

Starting this October, Spanish-speaking Border Patrol recruits will spend less time in training, witnesses told members of a House subcommittee at a hearing Tuesday.

To get agents in the field faster, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will administer a Spanish language proficiency test to all trainees entering the Border Patrol Academy in Artesia, N.M. Those who pass will be able to skip the language component of basic training, allowing them to enter the field approximately 30 days earlier than non-Spanish speakers, said Richard Stana, director of homeland security and justice issues at the Government Accountability Office, in testimony before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Management, Investigations and Oversight.

The move will help the Border Patrol meet President Bush’s goal of adding 6,000 agents by December 2008, a goal Border Patrol Academy Chief Charlie Whitmire said was entirely feasible.

Stana noted that Border Patrol officials have told him nearly half of their recruits are fluent in Spanish. “If your facilities are strained, it really doesn’t make sense to keep people there longer than they need to be to take Spanish language training that they don’t need,” he said in an interview after the hearing.

The new policy will not detract from Spanish speakers’ law enforcement training at the academy. “All current curriculum hours remain exactly the same,” Whitmire said. “Not one hour is deleted from our current law enforcement curriculum - only Spanish is removed from that curriculum and taught separately.”

The Champaign-Urbana area school districts are experiencing an increase in the number of Spanish-speaking students. The following article details how school districts are seeking to respond to their new student and parent population. Again, this article demonstrates the importance of efforts to bridge the language and cultural gaps.

Even though their primary school days are far behind them, Gregorio Garcia and his wife, Irais Reyes, remember how scared they were to enter Booker T. Washington Elementary School for the first time a few years ago.As Spanish-speaking immigrants, they wondered whom they could talk to in the Champaign school, who would understand them, how they could get through the forms to enroll their son, Cristopher, in his classroom.With one piece of paper, some of those fears were quelled. The paper, a sign welcoming visitors to Washington, was written in Spanish, a literal marker that this might be a school where they could use their voice – and their language – and be heard.

If only all communication were as easy as that sign.

When Ben Singer first considered using television ads to promote a pharmacy chain he co-founded, he was told TV is too expensive and that he would need to hire actors.

He disagreed. Instead, he put money aside for three months and starred in the commercial himself.

The resulting clip starts with Singer, 40, riding a motorcycle to the entrance of one of the stores as he announces in Spanish, “Farmacia Remedios, your Mexican pharmacy for the entire Bay Area!”

The rest of the ad shows Singer inside the pharmacy in a lab coat explaining the stores products and services, including a walk-in medical clinic. He ends with a loud cheer and a thumbs up.

The commercial worked. Customers recognize him when he works the stores. Women blush when he asks them if they need help.

“I saw you on TV,” they say with wide eyes or “I recognized your voice from the radio.” Singer hosts a weekly program about health issues.

Singer’s charismatic outreach has helped him achieve exactly what he wants Farmacia Remedios to do: create a personal connection with Latino consumers.

The hospitality industry and businesses in São Paulo, Brazil seek to attract more leisure tourists.  An integral part of the effort to increase the city’s appeal to foreign visitors is understanding and overcoming deterrent language and cultural barriers.

Everything is superlative in São Paulo, from the size of the city to the volume of tourists who arrive here every year - 7.5 million, according to São Paulo Tourism, an organization of the municipal government. And the figures go on: there are 12,500 restaurants, 550 hotels, 280 cinemas, 71 museums, 120 theatres, 72 shopping centers, 34 parks, among other attractions.

But being a grayish city, made of concrete, with few natural gifts, São Paulo does not have a tradition in leisure tourism, only business. In recent years, though, the city started changing its features, and proving that it can also be a cultural, hyped up metropolis.

Combined with that process, there is an ongoing effort of the São Paulo city hall aimed at constantly improving the reception of business tourists, and at showing them the city that lies outside the office, far beyond Paulista avenue, the main business district. To that extent, a lot has been taking place - from taxi drivers taking English lessons to better cater to tourists, to partnerships between hotels, theaters, and cinemas to offer discounts on fees.

Business growth is almost synonymous with expansion into the global market. This article describes You-Tube’s expansion in nine different countries, and the language and cultural competency required for this business development.

YouTube is expanding its global platform with the launch of nine versions of its video-sharing site that are tailored to specif countries — Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. The company also plans to add country-specific video rankings.