Workforce Language Services

It’s not news that monolingualism is the norm in the United States; fewer than 20% of Americans speak more than one language. In a recent article, CIASeeks Anyone, Anyone Who Can Speak 2 Languages, Jeremy Hsu notes that the lack of second- and third-language speakers in the US - especially of those languages of interest to the CIA and Foreign Service - has prompted government agencies to recruit college students based on language learning potential, rather than on actual skills. A new government program is in development to help agencies like the CIA, who are looking to increase its pool of speakers of languages such as Arabic, Dari, Pashtu, Persian, Urdu and Russian. The challenge? Figuring out how to predict which students hold the most promise. Studies of multilingual speakers are providing insight:

“Another surprise came from studies of Spanish-speaking immigrants, because neither age nor language proficiency seemed to predict how quickly the immigrants picked up English. Instead, the fastest learners showed both the greatest motivation to learn and a willingness to use English at every opportunity despite being bad at it (at first).”

Hsu also notes that it’s not just government agencies who are recruiting multilingual speakers, but US-based corporations who understand that, in the era of globalization, linguistic and cultural competence go a long way.>A bit of motivation and the willingness to put your foot in your mouth from time to time can be a powerful combination in developing the language skills your country - and perhaps your next job - depend on. And if it helps you order a drink or ask for directions on your next international vacation, that’s not a bad thing, either!

Pop songstress Rihanna recently caused a sensation after sporting a new tattoo on her neck: “rebelle fleur.” Grammatically-correct fans immediately pointed out that in French, adjectives usually follow the nouns they modify. “Rebellious flower” should read “fleur rebelle.”

In her own defense, Rihanna tweeted that “rebelle” was used as a noun and not an adjective. And in any case, it’s a poetic expression.

Other stars haven’t been lucky with tattoo translation either. Hayden Panettiere tattooed the Italian translation of “to live without regrets”: “Vivere senza rimipianti.” “Regrets” in Italian is correctly spelled “rimpianti.” (Oh, the irony!)

People all over the world are learning English to increase business opportunities and get better jobs, and China now holds the top place with over 300 million English speakers.

The problem, of course, is that proper English is not often used due to a shortage in trained teachers. Mike Kraft, CEO of Lingo Media Corporation, has a solution: a free, avatar-based program called speak2me.cn that helps correct users’ pronunciation and provides real-life learning scenarios that students can repeat as many times as they like.

This avatar speaks English properly and, through voice recognition software, “listens” to students repeat her words and sentences then makes them verbalize over again until they get it right. There is scoring, contests and prizes.

Students can tap into hundreds of tailor-made modules — about shopping, studying, working, traveling or socializing — that help them practice their pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar.

The program is free to users but uses advertising and product placement to pay for operations. The site now has 1 million users.

Entrepreneurs like Kraft are smart to tap into the Chinese market. Apart from English speakers, China also boasts the largest number of internet users, with 328 million people online.

Read the full report here in the National Post.

As a translation manager, I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about mistranslations—everything from the shocking result of companies incorrectly punctuating ‘n’ in ‘año’ (that makes ‘year’ into ‘anus’ in Spanish), from the urban legend about Chevrolet’s “Nova” brand car, the car the wouldn’t go.

At the link below you’ll find a laughable list of translation and localization blunders. If you value your company’s message and want the same idea to come across in another language and culture, a little investigation goes a long way!

Here are just a few examples:

• Coca-Cola tried marketing its domestically successful two liter bottle in Spain. It finally withdrew the bottle from the Spanish market when it discovered that the refrigerator compartments were too small to hold the liter size. (eBook “How to Localize Products for Success in Foreign Markets” by Silk Road Communications.)
• A major soapmaker test marketed a soap name in 50 countries, and what it found was enough to make them change the name. The proposed name meant “dainty” in most European languages, “song” in Gaelic, “aloof” in Flemish, “horse” in one African language, “dim-witted” in Persian, “crazy” in Korean, and was obscene in Slavic languages” (Silk Road Communications eBook)
• When Pepsi began marketing it’s products in China, they were using a slogan that read “Pepsi Brings You Back to Life”. Translated into Chinese however, the slogan meant, “Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave” (Business Link West Yorkshire website, www.blwy.co.uk)

Click here to read the full list.

The NYTimes Magazine preview just came out online, which takes a closer look at an intriguing idea: that our language (English, French, Japanese) shapes exactly how we think.

Let’s say that a person tells you “I saw my friend yesterday.” The English language doesn’t require the speaker to denote “male friend” or “female friend,” whereas Spanish, for example, obliges you to choose. Therefore gender explicitly becomes a part of the thinking process when processing language in Spanish, but not in English.

When your language routinely obliges you to specify certain types of information, it forces you to be attentive to certain details in the world and to certain aspects of experience that speakers of other languages may not be required to think about all the time. And since such habits of speech are cultivated from the earliest age, it is only natural that they can settle into habits of mind that go beyond language itself, affecting your experiences, perceptions, associations, feelings, memories and orientation in the world.

A bigger question is: how does it work in practice?

Click here to read the full article.

The Inuits of Greenland, who are the world’s northernmost people, might only have 10 or 15 years left before climate changes and politics will force them to move and assimilate with other cultures. Only 1,000 people still speak their language, Inuktan.

Anthropologist Stephen Pax Leonard is going to live with the Inuit people for a year to record their conversations and traditional stories. Inuktan is an undocumented language.

Although most Inughuit are trilingual, also speaking Danish and Greenlandic, their primary language is still Inuktun.

“There is no doubt that this is a major linguistic challenge. … They speak a very pure form of Inuit, partly because of their geographic isolation. Their entire culture is based on a storytelling culture.”

Leonard, an anthropological linguist at Cambridge University, England, is under no doubt about the physical and cultural hurdles that face him. The average temperature is minus 25 degrees Celsius, although it can fall to minus 40 degrees Celsius in the winter.

Leornard hopes to preserve a permanent record of the soon-to-be-lost culture and language.

CNN reports on Leonard’s journey here.