Workforce Language Services

Sometimes a small business owner gets to enjoy a relaxing Saturday morning. And sometimes she doesn’t. This, unfortunately, is the latter kind of morning.

For the last six years, Workforce Language Services has provided translation services in over 50 languages for clients of all sizes and industries.  We pride ourselves on our quality services and the trust our clients place in us.  But we also pride ourselves on the relationships we foster with our translators across the world.  Since 2006, 83 translators we’ve worked with have left feedback on our profile on proz.com – all 5 out of 5 based on our excellent communication and speedy payment.

We recently completed a large multilingual translation project involving 50 translators. Unfortunately, we were made aware that one of the translators we hired to proofread a small Korean portion of the project has been in the scamming business for years now in Tianjin China.  Here’s how it works:

• He presents himself as a qualified translator/proofreader in response to a project bid and is hired by the client (in this case, my company). 
• He then falsely presents himself as a project manager for a legitimate translation agency (using a fake email address) and hires translators to complete the work. 
• He delivers the translation (or in this case, the proofread files), his client pays him, and he keeps the money – never paying the translators he hired. 
• When his translators contact the translation agency they think they’re working for regarding compensation, the agency, rightfully so, denies knowing anything about the project, and the translator is out hundreds or thousands of dollars. 

Click here for just one example of this clever (and unfortunately successful) scam, but rest assured that there are many, many more that he can take credit for – all under various aliases and companies that have since been banned for proz.com and other translation community sites.

We initiated a wire transfer to his bank in China before we understood the extent of his fraud, but his bank returned the funds to us due to other suspicious activity associated with his account.  Now, given that the translators that actually proofread the documents have come forward, we’ve decided to pay them directly rather than reward this man for his deceit.  Last week he sent a list of the many ways he would smear my company and coworkers online if we didn’t pay him, and to further intimidate us even included our photos from our linkedin profiles.  As of last night, his smear campaign has begun.  At the time of this post, he has sent an email with the subject “An American transalation (sic) agency “Workforce Language Services” is a cheating company” to some 60 translation agencies, in which he attempts to gain sympathy by referencing his tireless efforts to provide for his young motherless daughter and aging parents.

He has said that he will stop smearing me if we pay him:

I worked for WLS and WLS should pay me! If they don’t pay me, I will ruin their business. If they pay me, I will stop, it is simply.

Not surprisingly, as of today, his company’s website has disappeared, but thankfully, we have domain registry records. We have hired a lawyer, and in an effort to protect/defend our reputation – as well as to protect others from falling for this scam – I wanted to share this information.  I hope that the feedback from 83 independent translators will speak more loudly than the lies of one man, and I apologize for anyone that has to waste another minute or dollar in the face of such unethical actions.

-Jill K. Bishop, PhD - Founder & President of Workforce Language Services

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UPDATE 1/31/11

The scam artist claims to have sent the email to some 500 American translation agencies, as well as my former employers (he cc’d us on many of them - but we’ve lost count).   He blasted all of our company email addresses with multiple 9MB attachments to clog up our server.  He claims to have contacted our client and has stated that he will continue sharing our contact information, as well as our personal photos, with more companies.  He closed his final email to our lawyer with the following words:

Finally, If Jill has parents, I hope they have cancer soon. If Jill has a husband, I hope he has cancer soon. If Jill has a child, I hope the child has cancer soon.

We are in contact with the proofreaders who worked on this project, and we will be processing payment to them this week.

If anyone has questions about this, please feel free to contact me directly: jill(at)workforcelang.com.

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UPDATE 2/5/11

He’s sending fewer emails than before but still sending them - now to universities my project managers and I attended and special interest groups we are associated with - with subjects like “Please note Jill Kushner Bishop, PhD from Workforce Language Services is a Scam Artist” or comments about a project manager including “please keep away from the cheating bitch”.  And always closing with his night and day struggle to feed his family (recall his multiple cancer wishes for mine)…

In a further breach of ethics, he’s begun sending emails around, purportedly to other healthcare companies, with the subject “Free Healthcare educational materials”.  He writes:

After discussed with our lawyer, we decided to distribute the materials to Internet and send the materials to other companies, you can use it freely for any purposes :-)

 I’ve now spent just about as much in legal fees as I would have had I decided to pay him, not to mention significant lost productivity, and we will also be paying the two editors that completed the work.  I still stand by my decision to withhold payment to him and not reward him for his continued scam and complete lack of ethics, and I am continuing to share information regarding his background and the way he works to help prevent agencies and freelancers from falling into his trap.

With more than 45 million Latinos in the United States and the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasting the ethnic group to account for 30% of the population by 2050, Latinos are now the fastest-growing segment of the population. Restaurants are now targeting the Latino population with Spanish-language signage, marketing campaigns, translated menus and other strategies.

Read more http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_23_44/ai_n56328251/?tag=content;col1

Do you know what a translator does? How about an interpreter? If you have a general idea but want to see it for yourself, take a few minutes to watch the day in the life of two interpreters in Washington, DC. (ATA)

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!)

Multicultural literature seems to be the new buzzword in books. Why this sudden demand for multicultural lit? If you think about it, over half of all kids under the age of 5 are minorities, and multicultural kids want to see themselves represented in what they read. Plus, book editors and agents see the value in the growing market.

Young adult writer Ingrid Sundberg blogs about this new trend, examining the genre and also providing tips for writers of multicultural lit. She talks about how to write about culture while avoiding cliches, about whether you have to be an “insider” if you want to write about a particular culture with authenticity, and how to get sources.

Here are a few words of Sundberg’s advice:

How Do You Approach Multicultural Books the Right Way? 

• Take evaluative measures. Be aware of how to avoid stereotypes. These can be the greatest pitfalls.
• No distortions! Befriend people in the culture. Ask questions, check facts. Find primary and secondary sources and have them help check your dialog, etc. People love to talk to writers!
• Beware of insulting those in the culture. Make sure your characters are fully developed and multi-layered.  Complex!
• Be aware that there are different dialects within the same language (Spanish for example). People speak differently in California vs. Arizona vs. Texas vs. New Mexico. Think about this like the use of the word soda. It can be called: soda, pop, or coke, all depending upon where you live and the slang for that area.
• Characters should be strong enough to solve their own problems. Don’t have another culture bail them out! There should be personal strength within the character.
• You don’t have to be PC on every little thing. But be careful, there is a fine line.
• The idea of the hero is important in race related books. Don’t have the characters bail out, or undermine the culture.

Read Sundberg’s full post about multilingual lit here.

Immigration reform is one the most controversial political topics today. Let’s face it: any decision made related to immigration crackdowns are going to affect our workforce, where many sectors are based on cheap, unskilled labor that immigrants provide. For better or for worse, how will these crackdowns affect the U.S. workforce?

The New York Times uses Michel Malecot as an example, who is the owner of a small French restaurant in San Diego. He was charged and indicted with charges of employing 12 illegal immigrants. If found guilty, he faces the forfeiture of his restaurant and up to $4 million in fines.

The Obama administration has been getting tough on immigration enforcement laws, which were once considered lax. This year federal employees expect to announce a record number of investigation and fines.

Taking a look at the restaurant industry, 1.4 million workers, both legal and illegal, are foreign-born. “According to 2008 estimates from the Pew Hispanic Center, about 20 percent of the nearly 2.6 million chefs, head cooks and cooks are illegal immigrants. Among the 360,000 dishwashers, 28 percent are undocumented, according to the estimates.”

While hiring illegal immigrants may be industry standard, the crackdowns are welcomed from many immigrant rights supporters, who see that illegal immigrants are underpaid and also afraid of complaining to their employers.

It can be complicated business for everyone involved. Employers don’t want the burden of policing their employees when they provide what appears to be legal paperwork, and even electronic verification systems have incorrect information that could turn away eligible workers. Many employers are now petitioning for immigration reform that makes it easier for undocumented workers to gain legal status.

Read the full NYTimes article here.

A blog called “Latina-ish” brings us some fun tongue twisters (”trabalenguas”) to practice with your Spanish-English bilingual tots. For kids (or adults!) who have difficulty rolling their ‘r’s, try this one:

Erre con erre cigarro,
Erre con erre barril.
Rapido corren los carros,
Cargados de azúcar al ferrocarril.

The blog’s author, who is not a native Spanish speaker, tries speaking a few of the tongue twisters in this short video:

If you want to squeeze all the Spanish sounds into one sentence, have a go at this:

La cigüeña gigante bebió ocho copas de whisky, más quince jarras llenas de fría cerveza rubia, y enseguida huyó en un taxi.

Translation:

The giant stork drank eight glasses of whiskey, plus fifteen full mugs of cold pale ale, and escaped in a taxi right away.

Read the full blog post here.

We’ve seen many recent examples where language comes into play in our healthcare system (see “Poor prescription translations have dangerous results“; “Do Latinos receive adequate healthcare in the U.S.?“). Now, the NYTimes reports that some hospitals are looking beyond language to confront larger cultural and diversity issues that affect care.

In New York, hospitals are realizing that their patients, who come from all over the world, may not be accustomed to U.S. practices and protocol. So, they’re adopting new methods to make sure their patients feel comfortable during a stay, no matter where they come from.

At Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, a borough that is home to 2.3 million people from more than 100 countries, lactation consultants spend extra time explaining to Bangladeshi women that the yellow breast milk they produce right after birth is not dirty.

Female obstetricians are always on duty overnight at the hospital’s maternity ward in case a Muslim woman arrives in labor and does not want to be treated by a male doctor.

At the diabetes nutrition classes, where participants are mostly from Latin America, diet plans incorporate items like guava paste, plantains and chayote squash.

At Mercy Medical Center in Merced, Calif., shamans tend to the spiritual needs of the hospital’s many Hmong patients. Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital in Houston has a floor devoted to Asian patients, where the menu offers a selection of Chinese and Vietnamese comfort food, like chicken congee soup and steamed dumplings.

If you’ve ever been hospitalized overseas, you probably felt an extra level of discomfort caused by unfamiliarity with the medical practices, or simply the food served at the hospital cafeteria. Imagine how your experience might have been improved (and how much more you might have understood about the procedure or condition) had your healthcare provider understood where you came from.

That’s exactly how hospitals are starting to think. “Doctors and nurses are interviewing religious leaders, visiting cultural centers and even traveling abroad to better understand their patients.” It’s a great start!

Read the full NYTimes article here.

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.

In our last post we mentioned that Latin America is now the fastest growing Twitter population in the world. We found a tech blog that breaks down the trend and gives us more data about who the users are.

Although based on a relatively small sample pool, we now have a better idea of which Latin American countries use Twitter the most. Amazingly, of the 93 million Twitter users around the world, 15 million are Latin American! Just in the past year, the Latin American Twitter population grew 305%.

Some other fun facts:

• Brazil (20.5%) and Venezuela (19%) are in the second and third place respectively in terms of Twitter users, after Indonesia.
• The Asian region ranked second with a growth of 243%
• The portrait of a typical user of twitter is: male (75%), between 21 and 30 years (56%), blogger (83%), linked to the world of Internet and new technologies (72%), using the tool because of professional interests (52%).

What does all this new social media technology mean for worldwide communication? We’re only beginning to find out. As one corporate communication strategist states, “Even many who now use Twitter did not understand it until they started to follow people with similar interests, participate in discussions and feel the value of such contacts. Twitter is one of those applications that rather than we try to explain, are understood only by the experience.”

Read the full blog post about Twitter in Latin America here.