A new study released by the Chicago-based research firm Technomic argues that, in order to drive traffic from the Latino audience, restaurants must embrace a mission to make their food as authentic as possible and to create a family-friendly environment. To help food industry professionals better understand Latino consumer behavior and attitudes, the company has created a Foodservice Consumer Trend Report. Some of their findings include:

• More than a third of Latino consumers (35%) report a high level of brand loyalty, reporting that they prefer to visit familiar restaurants when they go out to eat.

•   Seventy five percent of Latino consumers purchase prepared foods at grocery stores regularly, a third of those doing so at least once a week.

Statistics such as these, as well as reports like the Hispanic Foodservice Consumer Trend Report, can help your food establishment cater to new audiences and to meet the needs of the Latino community. To read the complete article, click here.

It only takes one quick Google search to understand that the Internet can be unforgiving when it comes to bad translations. However, no mistranslation has a legacy quite as long as the 19th Century Portuguese-English phrase book, O Novo Guia da Conversação em Portuguez e Inglez, em Duas Partes, or as it is known more conventionally, English As She is Spoke.

In 1855, Pedro Carolino intended to create an English phrasebook for Portuguese students. Not only did he not speak English, he didn’t even have a proper tools to write an English textbook. He had a Portuguese-to-French phrasebook and a French-to-English dictionary. Having taken this linguistic scenic route, many of the translations are unintentionally humorous. The section Idiotismos, somewhat aptly, is translated to “idiotisms” rather than the correct idioms. Here is one gem, an exchange from the section whose theme is games and sports, called“The gaming ”:

• I don’t like the play. / Não gósto dê jôgo. Só jógo para passár ô têmpo.
• Every one has played, except you. / Tôdos pozérão, exépto Vm.
• True. I had not seen it I am very unhappy alwes I lose. / É verdáde, não tínha reparado. Sôu bêm infelíz, sêmpre pérco!
• We do ought. / Devêmos.

While they provide many of us with a quick laugh, mistranslations like these can be an embarrassing oversight, and often, a non-professional translator (or computer program) is responsible for that mistake. English As She is Spoke fails in the most spectacular way. It’s worth a read. You can find it online, free, here on Google Books. The new edition edited by Paul Collins and published through McSweeney’s provides the original Portuguese, which you can find on Amazon here.

On top of writing articles, attending conferences, and teaching students, sorting through a large volume of audio is a daunting task. In addition, it’s extremely difficult to glean essential information from these recordings. Therefore, researchers seek to transcribe their audio into document files, which are easy to search and use in quotations. These transcripts function as valuable primary source documents, enriching the observations of the researcher, and in many cases, they help to record and preserve oral traditions.

Dr. Michael Genzuk, the Director of the Center for Multilingual, Multicultural Research at the University of Southern California, wrote a paper that offers a thorough introduction to ethnographic research. He highlights some good tips for recording interviews:

• Take audio recordings as often as you can, which helps to capture exact quotes.
• Check your recorder before and after interviews for malfunctions and battery life.
• Allow the interviewee to tell their story, and enjoy the interview.

Read Dr. Genzuk’s full paper here. You can also follow him on Twitter here.

Bank of America has taken over billboards across Chicago with its current advertising campaign. The campaign boasts the ease of accessing Bank of America, whether at a branch or online, and the ads are tightly integrated with their locations. An ad at a train station, for instance, shows a person holding a smartphone next to the caption, “I bank on the train.”

The campaign strategically targets both English and Spanish speakers. On Milwaukee Avenue in Logan Square, a billboard on the side of a building reads, “Norte, sur, este, oeste, o este, o este. Un ATM donde lo necesitas. ” The man in the ad points to his left – east—where there is an ATM just around the corner.

In Spanish oeste and o este are homonyms. The ad is a perfect example of a clever pun that strategically markets to the Latino market, but the pun doesn’t translate into English. In English the ad would read “North, south, east, west, or east, or east. An ATM where you need it.” The ad loses its cleverness and thus its impact.

The ad demonstrates an effective use of its location and highlights the ubiquity of Bank of America ATMs. It also shows sensitivity to the surrounding population, a vital quality for any effective advertising campaign. The majority of the population in the Logan Square and Avondale neighborhoods (home to Workforce Language Services) is Hispanic. The Spanish language arm of the campaign is clever, strategic, and essential in the campaign’s success.

• 14 people die every day at work.
• The workplace fatality rate among Latinos is 13.5% higher than for US workers overall.
• Of the 11,303 Latino workers who died from work-related injuries from 2003-2006, 34% worked in construction.

Why is the fatality rate so much higher among Latinos?  For starters, Latino immigrants work in high-risk jobs, such as construction, at a higher rate than the general population.  Then there’s the language barrier.  Approximately 65% of low-wage immigrant workers are Limited English Proficient (LEP), and not surprisingly, OSHA estimates that over a quarter of workplace injuries are attributable to the language barrier.

But it’s not just language; it’s culture, too.  Among Latino immigrants, safety is often viewed through a different lens.  Back home, there are far fewer government inspections of work sites, and in the event of a violation, a bribe often makes it go away.  Workers may be required to risk their safety, as workers are often perceived is dispensable.  Is this in every work site?  Of course not.  But it’s not uncommon.

In the US, these workers often fear that a complaint about unsafe work conditions or a request for personal protective equipment would cause them to lose their job.  And what about reporting workplace injuries? There is the same concern. Moreover, for undocumented workers, a fear of deportation frequently serves as further motivation to quietly self-treat injuries that should be reported and treated.  There’s also the perception that safety regulations exist to protect American-born workers, who aren’t as “tough,” as well as the perception that the government doesn’t truly care about immigrant workers and their well-being.

So what can you do to improve the safety of your workplace?  Some suggestions:

1. Ensure that safety materials are reader-friendly and translated into the language(s) of your workforce.  But that’s not enough: lower levels of literacy mean that you need to be sure to then train people – in their language – to ensure that these procedures and policies are understood.  This can be done by hiring an interpreter or by using a bilingual supervisor.
2. Consider offering job-specific English as a Second Language training.  This will help improve safety, productivity and engagement, and it will also help increase your pool of internal promotion candidates.
3. Consider offering job-specific Spanish training (as well as other languages of your workplace).  With a focus on safety expressions and other key vocabulary, your managers will significantly increase their communication skills while at the same time developing your employees’ trust.

Workplace safety is too important to cut corners.  Don’t let things get lost in translation!

-Jill Kushner Bishop, PhD

The EPA is currently debating the issue and calling for public comment in the decision-making process. The EPA says in a press release that they recognize the decision will affect all consumers, not just farm workers. Currently, the EPA requires translation of some words or phrases of agricultural pesticides, but does not require bilingual labeling on all products.

The EPA comments:

In response to the petition, EPA is considering whether to require bilingual labeling in English and Spanish  for all pesticides or for only certain types of pesticides, certain pesticide use sites, certain pesticide active ingredients, pesticides in certain toxicity categories, or certain parts of pesticide labels.

This decision will be up for public comment until June 28, 2011. Information on the petition and how to participate can be found here.

Here are 3 questions the EPA asks the general public to consider:

1. Language characteristics vary by culture, region, and other factors. How could EPA ensure that Spanish text on pesticide product labels would be understood by all potential Spanish-speaking users?
2. Labeling in Spanish could potentially be required for all pesticide products, for a subset of pesticide products, or for a portion of the product label. If the Agency concluded that translation of a portion or portions of the label were appropriate, which portions of the pesticide label would it be most beneficial to have in Spanish, and why? If the Agency were to limit the requirement for translation to only certain products, which products should be considered, and why? (Note: please see the sample label in the docket to consider the different sections of a pesticide label.
3. Are there languages other than Spanish and English that EPA should consider for inclusion on pesticide labels? Which languages? Please explain your reasoning for including a language other than Spanish or English on pesticide labels, and cite documents that would further bolster your suggestion.

Have you ever wished your Limited English Proficient (LEP) employees could learn the functional English they need to do their jobs more safely, efficiently and comprehensively? That you could cross-train your LEP employees, putting them on the path to promotion?

 Investing in your workforce is a crucial business practice.  Employee Training Investment Program (ETIP) funds are a great way to subsidize on-site vocational language training. To procure ETIP funds, you must be in a funding-eligible category and pay a percentage of all training costs, including books, instruction, materials and wage reimbursement.

 In addition to vocational, technical or remedial skills training, ETIP providers are a great source of free training for innovative technology best practices, embracing lean principles, expanding into new markets and preparing for ownership or management succession.

 For more information about ETIP funding in Illinois or your home state, please contact Hilary Hodge, Director of Programs, at hilary@workforcelang.com.

“To its credit, the academy takes pains to emphasize that it works collaboratively with its associated academies in 21 other Spanish-speaking countries, including in the United States.”

The decisions of the Madrid-based RSA (founded in 1713) influence Spanish grammar across the globe, though the world’s 450 million Spanish-speaker may choose not to pay attention - citing George and Ira Gershwin or other reasons. It’s no easy task to oversee a language spoken by so many - and even rule changes that would ultimately simplify the language may be rejected.  A language in the mouths of its speakers is a living, changing thing that often prefers to follow its own path than align itself with the rules established across the ocean.

“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!

What’s the easiest way to prevent citation and penalties during an OSHA worksite inspection? According to OSHA, in fiscal year 2010, the ten most commonly cited standards were improperly implemented:

1. Scaffolding

2. Fall Protection

3. Hazard Communication

4. Respiratory Protection

5. Ladder Use

6. Lockout/ Tagout Procedures

7. Electrical and Wiring Methods

8. Powered Industrial Trucks

9. General Electrical Requirements

10. Machine Guarding

Far too many preventable injuries occur due to the failure to properly implement these standards.  A great way to avoid these infractions is to translate your employee manuals and safety materials into the languages most commonly spoken in your worksite. You can also bring an on-site language trainer to go over the OSHA procedures in a simplified English training for your Limited English Proficient (LEP) employees.

Workforce Language Services offers translations in 50+ languages as well as on-site English and Spanish vocational training. Contact Hilary Hodge, Director or Programs, for more information hilary@workforcelang.com.