Workforce Language Services

The North Lake Tahoe Bonanza has begun providing one page of its Sunday newspaper each week translated into Spanish. It’s a great idea to engage their Spanish speaking audiences and to show they are trying to meet them half way – and a great way to market themselves to a new population. However, they have gotten a lot of push back from some of their readership. The paper responded to this with a well-written and heartfelt commentary. To them language is a bridge (I’ve heard that before…). To those who wrote into the Bonanza saying that they were anti-American, they responded with the following:

It is a bridge to a group of people who call Incline Village home.

The Latino community in Incline Village is not a faceless entity, as some portray it. The community is composed of individuals with hopes and dreams, students attending our schools, workers in our businesses, people whose paychecks are a part of our economy and whose culture adds some diversity to our lives.

The ones who are most adamantly against a Spanish-language page seem to also speak in generalizations, as if they do not personally know someone of a different race and can only respond with their biases. We hope the Spanish-language page will be a bridge that puts faces on another culture living here in our hometown.

The Spanish-language page in the Sunday Bonanza is not going to make a difference whether someone chooses to speak English or not. Although, it is entirely possible that the Spanish page will encourage someone to read the rest of the paper in English.

To the Bonanza, congratulations. Read more.

I just came across this information and though that if anyone was in Arizona and wanted to participate on this project, they could contact the organizer… They seem to be looking for interpretors / translators to join their team. Read more.

BISBEE — A volunteer team of medical professionals is being formed to conduct limited screenings and health interviews of striking copper miners in Cananea, Sonora, and organizers hope to add some local health professionals and translators to the team.

Garrett Brown, Maquiladora Health and Safety Support Network coordinator, is one of the organizers of the four-day excursion, Oct. 5-8, to Cananea. He is looking for Spanish-speaking volunteers to help with translation and health services for the team members that will interview those striking miners still remaining in Sierra Vista’s sister city.

“We are trying to put together a volunteer team, all expenses paid but no fees, to conduct limited medical screenings and industrial hygiene-related interviews of some of the miners who have been on strike for seven weeks against the giant Grupo Mexico conglomerate at the Cananea mine where the 1910 Mexican Revolution began,” he said.

…The October team includes Dr. Robert Cohen and senior pulmonary technician Moises Ortega from Cook County Hospital in Chicago; Dr. Marian Fierro, a Mexican occupational health physician currently conducting research at the University of Arizona in Tucson; Heather Barr, an occupational health nurse practitioner at University of California-San Francisco; Enrique Medina, a certified industrial hygienists from San Diego; Ingrid Zubieta, an industrial hygienist from UCLA’s Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program in Los Angeles; and Brown.

How to help

The project will go to Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, on Oct. 5-8. If you or anyone you know are potentially available for this emergency short-term project, contact Garrett Brown at gdbrown@igc.org or (510) 558-1014 or (510) 622-2913.

Through immigration, through the internet, there is such a need to understand languages. And without language, it becomes difficult at best to provide basic services or in the case below, basic justice. Because of bad interpreters, the Scottland courts wasted thousands of dollars in services, wasted many hours of court time, and prevented three accused men of due process. Talk about getting lost in translation… Read more.

SCOTLAND’S justice system is ill-prepared for an influx of immigrants because of a lack of reliable interpreters, triggering fears of potential miscarriages of justice.

The Scotsman has learned that as much as £15,000 of public money has been wasted on a High Court trial that collapsed because three Vietnamese men accused of operating a cannabis factory did not understand the evidence against them. They will face a new trial next month.

The judge, Lord Menzies, called a halt to proceedings after just three days of evidence amid “farcical” scenes as interpreters were unable to relay the testimony of witnesses to the accused in their native language.

Inexperienced interpreters are increasingly being relied on by police, prosecutors and the courts to deal with a surge in the number of foreign nationals who are accused of committing crimes.

…Problems are most likely to arise for a vast array of less commonly spoken languages, such as Vietnamese. While the court authorities request qualified interpreters, they are increasingly having to use university students who are not properly trained.

One insider described last week’s trial as “a joke”, adding: “Witnesses were giving evidence and it was obvious that the interpreters just weren’t interpreting. [The accused] didn’t know what was going on. It was a bit of a farce.”

Many parents ask the question, “how do I get my child to speak another language.” There is a movement to move towards bilingual education, particularly in preschool. Young children learn many language skills in preschool that help them both right away and in the future. For those who are primary Spanish speakers, preschool can offer an important bridge to learning English and for primary English speakers, exposure to Spanish at that age is really the optimal time to begin learning a second language - the earlier a child begins learning a language, the easier it is.

An early learning program in Georgetown is highlighted and discusses the importance and challenges of offering early childhood bilingual education. Read more.

“Quieres más? Do you need more?” instructor Camen Bisso asked him in both Spanish and English. “OK, what do you say? Como se dice ‘por favor?’ “

“Please!” Nyko responded, the English word easily rolling off his tongue. Nyko speaks mostly Spanish at home. But in the past two weeks, his English, and his confidence in speaking it, have grown exponentially.

At the new First Steps Primeros Pasos early learning center in Georgetown, lessons are repeated in English and Spanish. Signs and posters around the classroom are bilingual, and two of the three instructors are native Spanish speakers.

“We deal with integration here,” said Executive Director Lynne Maloy. “We’re teachingour Spanish speakers English and our English speakers get to learn Spanish. We want everyone to have an equal chance to succeed, because education is the name of the game.”

This is in the UK, but it applies to the US too with all of the English Only bills floating around the states these days. It’s really not fair for a politician to stand up and say we should not only, only use English, but we should also not accommodate anyone who doesn’t speak English. The role of a local/state/federal representative is to represent the people. If the people don’t speak English, they still have a right to be represented. So our options are to 1) ignore this population, 2) don’t do anything until this population learns English or 3) provide language specific translations to help their participation. It seems like it is the fairest and most efficient way to promote a democratic society to me. Read more.

A COUNCIL leader has criticized an MP for attacking the authority for offering to translate documents for people who were unable to understand English.

Harwich MP Douglas Carswell called the translation service “multi-cultural dogma” and added: “This is England. Public documents should be in English.”

He said: “The July 7, 2005, terror attacks forced the political establishment to re-think multi-culturalism. Many people now recognize that cultural relativism has failed Britain.

“It has let our country down by creating social fragmentation rather than cohesion. I believe that in order to build a sense of Britishness, we need to encourage social cohesion and the use of English.

“I am appalled to see my local council encouraging social division and fragmentation by promoting languages other than English.”

Business Spanish in the workplace - it’s not just about convenience, it’s about saving lives. Of course customer service needs to be a priority, but for emergency workers, it can be a matter of life and death. Read more.

Being able to communicate in Spanish may be more than just convenient. Sometimes, it could save lives.

Spanish in the workplace classes are being offered on Brevard Community College’s Cocoa and Titusville campuses through the Institute for Business and Community Education, and on site at interested businesses in the area.

“With the large and growing Spanish-speaking population in this area and the growing number of Spanish-speaking travelers to our area, both for business and pleasure, there are many good reasons for learning to communicate on a basic level in Spanish,” said instructor Adrienne Snair-Trothier.

Those in service industries and law enforcement, as well as emergency responders, would do well to learn basic phrases in Spanish, Snair-Trothier said.

“For those who work in public safety, knowing some Spanish may improve a dangerous situation and may even impact a matter of life and death,” she said.

Having limited English proficient populations can have a real effect on how public agencies provide services. Agencies need to adapt to the populations they serve. In this case in the UK, increased immigrant populations is making their police force start to spend more resources on translation and interpretation services. That’s good news. Maybe the next step will be to provide occupational language training - or even begin to hire more officers who are proficient in the community language. Read more.

“The force makes every effort to consider the needs of the people we serve and is working hard to adapt where necessary.” One of the measures has been offering Polish lessons to a number of officers in Slough, which has enabled them to communicate with the growing population.

Due to the rising migrant populations, the force has increased spending on translation from £76,000 in 1997 to more than £1m in the last financial year. Cambridgeshire had an £800,000 translation bill.

Ch Con Thornton added: “These costs are not an optional extra but an integral part of policing our communities. These costs are for face-to-face and telephone interpretations for both victims and offenders.”

Language can be a powerful weapon. In this case, the grandson of a mid-ranking German official who opposed the rise of the Nazi regim kept a detailed diary of the injustices they inflicted. And after more than 40 years, the grandson finally completed the translation of the document. Now armed with the diary, he hope to continue his grandfather’s work of opposing unjust regimes. Read more.

Almost 50 years ago, Robert Scott Kellner said, he made a promise to his aging grandparents living in a small German town.

He told the couple that he would translate the diary his grandfather wrote in which he detailed his opposition to the Nazi regime. Kellner said he vowed to use it to fight tyranny and terrorism.

It took him 43 years, but he kept his word.

In 1960, he painstakingly started to translate almost 900 pages of old German script into English. Since finishing, the College Station man has worked to bring the diary, which his grandfather titled “Mein Widerstand [My Opposition],” to the public’s attention.

“I’ve been working on it my entire adult life,” he said Friday.

My Opposition: The Diaries of Friedrich Kellner, a Canadian documentary on the diary and Kellner’s quest, premieres at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

…Kellner said he believes his grandfather’s diary can be used as a weapon against terrorism and is committed to doing just that.

Friedrich Kellner, a mid-ranking German official in post-World War I Germany, faced persecution for opposing the Nazis before Hitler rose to power and during World War II. As an active member of the opposing Social Democratic Party, he kept a secret diary in old German script detailing the injustices of the Nazi regime, Kellner explained.

The diary stayed hidden until 1960, when Kellner, whose father had immigrated to the United States in 1935, stopped in Germany en route to Saudi Arabia with the U.S. Navy, he said.

 AT&T just rolled out a program to support their limited-English-speaking consumers. They are offering free live over-the-phone interpretation services to help them access banking, insurance, telephone, and other vital business services. They are currently offering this service in Indiana and California. It’s a really interesting outreach that can help many people trying to get basic and necessary services. For more information click here.

Some of the statistics they quote include:

GROWING LANGUAGE-SUPPORT NEEDS

• 15 – Percent of the total U.S. buying power owned by the Hispanic and Asian population
• 176 – Total number of languages spoken in the U.S. In Southern California nearly 100 different languages are spoken.
• 9.1 – Percent of Indianapolis residents who speak a language other than English at home (U.S. Census)
• 4 – Percent of Indianapolis residents who speak Spanish at home (U.S. Census)
• 75 – Percent of limited-English speakers who prefer to speak in their native language (In-Language Preference Census)
• 43.9 – Percent of Los Angeles County residents that are of Hispanic decent. 12.3 percent of the county’s residents are of Asian decent. (Los Angeles County)
• 140 – number of countries represented by Los Angeles’ multilingual population. (LACVB)
• 1,000,000 – number of legal permanent residents that immigrated to the United States in 2005 (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services)

I really don’t know much if anything about the game/program/way-of-life of Second Life, so this fascinates me. It’s a virtual world created by people - partially based on reality, partially based on fantasy - I think. I’ve recently read stories about companies doing business and marketing through SL, I’ve read about labor unions calling for strikes of businesses through SL and people even setting up virtual meetings in SL. But what struck my interest this morning was reading that people are now using this program for virtual cultural exchanges and foreign travel - complete with real-time virtual translation into the local language. I should probably try this program out. I wonder if when you get into this program there are also virtual workplace miscommunication too. Read more.

“My family and I used to go to Europe during summers when I was growing up,” said Allen, who goes by Flipper Peregrine inside Second Life, and who in the real world (Real Life to Second Lifers) heads a tech company in Pennsylvania. “But here you can just hop from spot to spot and do what you would do in a summer and see the amount of diversity you would see during that time.”

…According to Catherine Smith, director of marketing at Linden Lab, makers of San Francisco-based Second Life, it makes sense that virtual tours would become popular in this world with an average population between 40,000 and 50,000 at any given point in a day.

For Smith, the fact that 70 percent of the audience in Second Life is from other countries makes it a good way to explore new places and learn about different cultures from all over the world. It also provides an opportunity for those who can’t travel to experience what a trip to a certain place would be like using an engrossing three-dimensional platform.

“There’s millions of different reasons why people don’t travel more,” Smith said. “This is not a complete experience but the start of one.”

Smith admits that she likes being able to go to Japan and look at Japanese clothes and get a taste of what that world is like and then teleport home. She doesn’t need a passport and she can even use the free translation program - called Babbler - that does real-time translation in Japanese, as well as Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, French, German and Spanish, among others.