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Global is indeed the trend, and the world presents a plethora of business opportunities outside of the U.S.  The author of this article pinpoints the rapid economic growth occurring across the globe,  suggesting that Chicago’s businesses take this into account.

If you’re curious about the wide world of business — and its our strong belief that you should be — then consider the following:Over the next 40 years, average five-year growth rates in U.S. gross domestic product are expected to be below 2%. Its a safe bet that future revenue growth here will be increasingly difficult to achieve.

Now look abroad. Chinas current five-year GDP growth rate is 11.2%. Indias is 7.5%. Russias is 10.3%. And before writing off these markets as flashes in the pan, the high rates of growth are forecast to continue into the next four decades.

Yoko Uozumi, owner of the Wicker Park boutique Gamma Player, has carved out a niche by finding items abroad that no one else in Chicago can offer.

This isnt just happening in the “BRICs,” a buzz term for Brazil, Russia, India and China. Japan — the former boogeyman of U.S. business — has emerged from a decade of decline. South Africa is expected to produce an average 5% growth rate over the next 10 years. Estonia is growing at an annual clip of more than 10%. The economies of Vietnam, South Korea, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Chile, Argentina, the Czech Republic and many others are growing in the 4%-to-9% range.

Meanwhile, businesses, governments and consumers around the world are spending billions upon billions of dollars on infrastructure, health care, food, real estate, cars, clothes and other products and services that, when cobbled together, make up thriving, modern economies.

And that spells opportunity. Simply put: The future growth engine for Chicago businesses of all sizes is likely to be outside the U.S. market. The world is indeed your oyster.

Sometimes a proper translation can have profound effects like in this legal case in Canada. In short, there were arguments in the English version of a contract and it wasn’t until the French version was reviewed that the dispute could be settled.

While it may have some brushing up to do when it comes to English grammar, Rogers Communications Inc.’s knowledge of French helped it emerge the victor in the nearly two-year-old comma conflict.

The federal telecommunications regulator yesterday sided with Rogers in its dispute over an agreement with Bell Aliant Regional Communications Income Fund to lease power poles. Bell Aliant terminated the contract before the five-year term was up, raising rates.

While one piece of punctuation in the English version led to two very different interpretations about when the deal could be severed, Rogers successfully argued that the French version of the contract was clear and supported its position.

This article discusses the need for increased funding of English training for immigrants in the US.

Spending on English instruction must be quadrupled to more than $4 billion a year for the next six years to make legal and illegal adult immigrants proficient in skills crucial to their assimilation and the economic future of a country whose population is increasingly foreign-born, a new national report says.

In the first nationwide study of its kind, the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute estimates that an additional $200 million a year is needed to improve legal immigrants’ English skills enough for them to pass a citizenship test and “fully participate in the country’s civic life.” An additional $2.9 billion a year is required for illegal immigrants to meet those standards, the report says.

This is great and there are so many interesting parts to this. First of all, I love the excitement for reading and how this transfers between cultures around the world. Second, these Harry Potter fans are dedicated! They didn’t sleep and only ate noodles in order to get their translation done! Third, the fact that they are sophisticated enough to have agreed upon translation standards is very impressive and shows the complexity of a quality translation. Really interesting read. Click here for the full story.

BEIJING, Aug. 16 — Translation is not an art taught at Hogwarts - but impatient Harry Potter fans in the country posted the Chinese version of the last instalment of the series online as fast as the Hogwarts Express.

The official Chinese version hits bookstores late in October but fans can already download dozens of translations of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - all done by young wizards who worked their magic within hours of the release of the English version last month.

The first full-length translated version is said to have appeared on the Internet on July 21, the day of the book’s global release. Links for downloads could be found as early as 11:44 pm that day, or within 15 hours after the English copies were released in the country.

Teenagers on their summer holidays reportedly bought the English copies as soon as bookstores opened, and started translating. They worked in teams and round the clock, eating nothing but instant noodles, according to messages they left on the Internet.

The most famous teams include the Hogwarts Institute of Translation and the International Wizard Alliance. The latter is an online club of more than 2,000 core members, led by a 15-year-old boy known as “wizardHali”, whose call for naming July 21 the “World Harry Potter Day” has won the support of more than 100,000 netizens.

Their translations might have different styles but all versions followed standards set by official translations of the previous six books in terms of names and magic jargon like “muggle”.

This article describes the steps Colorado companies have taken to target the “booming Hispanic consumer market.”   The author also emphasizes the complexity involved in reaching the Hispanic market, requiring a broader cultural competency and understanding of the diversity within the Hispanic demographic.

Colorado’s casinos generated double-digit revenue growth in the 1990s. But thanks to increased competition, annual revenue growth has dwindled to less than 5 percent. Hoping to buck this troubling trend, Riviera Black Hawk Casino decided to tap into a rapidly expanding and increasingly affluent consumer base: Colorado Hispanics.

With the help of Heinrich Hispanidad, a Denver-based agency specializing in Hispanic advertising and marketing, Riviera Casino launched in spring 2006 a direct-response advertising campaign aimed at increasing the number of Hispanic consumers enrolled in its Players Club and growing the profitability of its current Hispanic customer base.
“The gaming market is highly competitive,” says Kelly Horton, director of marketing for Riviera Black Hawk Casino. “We saw this as an opportunity to get an edge over our competitors.”

Within one month of launching the bilingual campaign, which was built around the slogan “Bueno Pa’ Gozar” (roughly translated to “You’re Going to Have a Good Time”), Riviera Casino increased new enrolls to its Players Club fourfold, Horton says. Within two months, the number of Hispanic surnames in the company’s player database grew from 15 percent to 21 percent, and the money this consumer demographic spent with the casino grew 15 percent.

Molson Coors Brewing Co. is another Colorado company seeing dollar signs in the burgeoning Hispanic market. Earlier this year Coors rolled out a new Spanish-language marketing campaign for Coors Light that features the tagline “Refresca Tu Mundo” (Refreshes Your World) and is aimed at bilingual Hispanic males age 21 to 34.

“Hispanics comprise a significant percentage of the Coors Light target audience,” says Paul Mendieta, director of Latin America and U.S. Multicultural Markets at Coors. “In the future, Hispanics will become even more important for Coors’ success.”

Welcome to the new face of marketing.

With Hispanics now making up almost 20 percent of Colorado’s population and nearly 15 percent of the total U.S. population, Colorado companies of all shapes and sizes are reaching out to Latino consumers.

“Demographics are changing,” says Mario Carrera, vice president and general manager for Entravision Colorado, which operates four Spanish-language radio stations and four Spanish-language television stations in the state. “If businesses and other organizations want to grow, they must address the Hispanic market.”

But effectively targeting this growing and complex market takes more than just translating a commercial into Spanish or adding a Latina grandmother to a billboard. It requires understanding the various subsets of the Hispanic demographic and creating culturally relevant messages that will resonate with rather than alienate Hispanic consumers.

Century 21, the world’s largest real estate franchise, clearly recognizes the purchasing power of the Latino population in the U.S. This article covers the marriage of Century 21 and Casa Real, a small real estate company in New Jersey.

PATERSON — The name Casa Real — royal house — suits a real estate company run from an idyllic property with neat shrubs and white columns.

Now, the world’s largest real estate franchise has picked this Madison Avenue house, and those who run the company within, as an emblem of its new nationwide push to serve Hispanics — the hope for the flailing housing market, as some see it.

Century 21 Casa Real Latino officially debuted last month. The name reflects the marriage of two unlikely partners: a division of a $9 billion company made up of more than 8,000 franchises, and a single office located on a hardscrabble street in Paterson.

Century 21’s decision to lend its name centered on the husband and wife team who have specialized in real estate services for Hispanics for more than a decade, said Saul Serna, a Century 21 executive spearheading Casa Real Latino.

“I wanted to start with people like this,” Serna said Wednesday. “They have an excellent reputation in the market.”

This may seem like a bad time to start a real estate endeavor. Values are plunging and dozens of mortgage companies have folded because of the implosion in the market providing risky sub-prime loans — what many Hispanics used to buy their properties.

Still, Census estimates released Thursday show that the county’s Hispanic population is growing faster than other racial groups.And a recent study and the on-the-ground experience of Casa Real employees indicate that Hispanics and new immigrants are more likely to take the homeownership plunge.

“They work two or three jobs and hide the money under their mattress,” said Nancy Pavic, 43, who started Casa Real with her husband, Jose Cordova.

Sometimes when trying to ‘rock the establishment’, a translation can completely change a message. But then again, maybe it works out better if trying to get government approval as told in this NPR story.

The art of making anti-establishment music in a non-democratic state can come in the translation. The three members of Rebuilding the Rights of Statues, or Re-TROS for short, compose in English.

The band is required to translate all of its lyrics into Chinese and submit them to the government for approval.

Meng Jin Hui is a manager at Modern Sky, China’s largest independent record label, “Maybe sometimes when we translate, it might be wrong,” he says.

For example, the band translated the title of its song “Hang the Police” as “the police are laughing.”

Often they’ll translate literally. As is the case with any language, the literal translations sometimes don’t make sense.

The author of this article provides a reflection on the modern “Quinceañera,” a traditional Latino rite of passage. This article provides a unique outlook, as the roots of traditions and celebrations are not always well-understood or thoroughly examined.

Supersized quinceañeras have hijacked a Latino tradition

What used to be a traditional Latino “rite of passage” has turned into what one of the teenagers interviewed by Julia Álvarez for her fascinating new book, “Once Upon a Quinceañera-Coming of Age in the USA,” calls, in a marvelous example of insightful misspelling, “a right of passage.”No longer a simple affair for family and a handful of friends, quinceañera parties have become as big and expensive as a keeping-up-with-the-Perezes wedding — minus the groom.

Hired halls; fantasy gowns for the birthday girl, her escort and a 14-couple court; catered meals; orchestras; choreographers; videographers; photographers, and stretch limousines are now de rigueur.

Cultural and language immersion experiences are increasingly popular, as they provide valuable opportunities for college students.  The following article describes Penn State’s new study-abroad program in Mexico, which focuses on Spanish language acquisition and the topic of international agriculture.

University Park, Pa. — While study-abroad trips routinely help students develop traveling expertise, worldly knowledge and independence, 11 Penn State students on a recent trip to Mexico also broadened their understanding of international agriculture.

The group of students from the College of Agricultural Sciences, accompanied by professors, traveled to Cuernavaca and Buenavista de Cuellar, Mexico, for three weeks as part of a newly developed Spanish immersion course. The class is the last in a three-course sequence designed and created in collaboration with Penn State’s College of Liberal Arts to meet the needs of students who will work in various agricultural industries.

“To the best of my knowledge, no other university in the United States has developed such a comprehensive agricultural Spanish program like the one we have in our college,” said Alex Borys, professor of Spanish in the College of Agricultural Sciences. “There are universities where one-semester Spanish courses are offered to address the needs of specific agricultural industries, but none that offer a three-course sequence with a three-week embedded immersion experience.”

In Mexico, the students attended intensive language classes for four hours each day for three weeks. For two of those weeks, the classes were held in Cuernavaca at the Cemanahuac Educational Community. During the third and final week, classes were held in the small rural town of Buenavista de Cuellar.

While the students enjoyed a typical study-abroad experience that included living with host families, attending class and visiting major historical and cultural sites, a unique aspect of the trip was their participation in several cross-cultural experiences related to the agricultural industry.

The following excerpt is from a recently posted New America Media article. The author discusses the growing need for government-funded ESL programs. Abdullah argues that quality ESL training should be funded not only for humanitarian reasons, but also for the success of the U.S. economy.

WASHINGTON — Had President Bush been able to enact an immigration bill that legalized undocumented immigrants this year, the result would have produced “a one-time shock to the ESL (English-as-a-second-language) training system” in the United States, according to Michael Fix.Fix co-authored “Adult English Language Instruction in the United States: Determining Need and Investing Wisely,” a report issued by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI). The report estimates that an additional $200 million annually, for six years, would have to be spent in the United States to attain English proficiency for the country’s 5.8 million adult lawful permanent residents (LPRs). The combined state and federal government spending on English-as-a-second-language (ESL) programs is already more than $1 billion annually.

Yet, assuming the passage of immigration reform at some date, it will most certainly include the condition that undocumented workers learn English to qualify for citizenship. Using assumptions about the current undocumented immigrant population, the report estimates “that approximately 6.4 million unauthorized immigrants in the country will require English language instruction in order to gain the necessary skills to pass the naturalization exam and obtain LPR status or to fully participate in the country’s civic life.”

It is the 6.4 million cohort, when added to the 5.8 million LPRs, which gives pause for serious concern about the capacity and effectiveness of an ESL system that already has glaring structural flaws. “In the event of a legalization program for today’s unauthorized population, we project an increase of $2.9 billion a year in new costs for six years .… we assume that none of the $1 billion in current funding would serve the legalizing population,” the report said.

In addition, the report noted that 1.8 million immigrants enter the United States annually, many with limited English skills, and few educational options are available once they arrive. They add to the already 23 million Americans who reported themselves as having limited English proficiency in 2005.

The timing of the report’s release speaks to the possibility of elevating the public discourse about ESL funding needs before comprehensive immigration reform is back before Congress, and as changes are made to other federal programs that could impact immigration issues. Demetrios Papademetriou, MPI’s co-founder and president, moderated a July 30 panel discussion about the report’s findings and recommendations.

Papademetriou framed the necessity for the United States to more fully fund ESL initiatives as an economic imperative in order to remain globally competitive. “There is no real growth in the native [U.S.] labor force in the next five to 10 years,” he said, adding that, in combination with other factors — including the impending retirement of the baby-boom generation — the projected negative outcomes without an English-literate populace should force revision of laissez-faire attitudes toward ESL programs.

Papademetriou explained that the notion of viewing ESL funding as a benevolent or charitable act misses “the consuming economic self-interest” that should be driving funding scenarios at the federal, state, and local level.

As a simplistic example, a more literate workforce fills higher paying jobs and thus produces economic benefits that ripple through the economy. Panelists cited data that show English-literate immigrants are lower users of social services as just one of the compelling self-interest fiscal rationales for states to become pro-active about better ESL funding and instruction. Non-English speakers, by contrast, stay on welfare longer, for example.

For the complete article, CLICK HERE.