If you have a business or company in the United States and are considering investing in Spanish translations, it is important to have access to Hispanic trends, census data, and demographic information. Below are some good resources:

United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Statistics – Information and statistics on the population and economic strength of Hispanics living in the United States.

The Hispanic Population – U.S. Census – United States census data relating to the growing Hispanic population in the U.S.

Hispanic Marketing -United States Hispanic Market – Demographic projections.

Pew Hispanic Center -Research center focused on: demography, economics, education, culture, identity, attitudes, immigration, labor, politics, remittances.

Hispanic Business -Online magazine that offers a variety of business services such as career placement, recruitment services, business research, surveys and advertising.

What to read:

Online resources

The book club Mosaico for ideas about what to buy

Críticas and publisher catalogs such as Ediciones Serres, Random House Español, and Ediciones TUTOR

Spanish is becoming increasingly more common in the U.S., stimulated by an increasing growth of the Hispanic population. Many Hispanics, even those fluent in English, want to maintain their cultural identity by continuing to learn and speak Spanish. Finally, there is a growing group of English-speaking, non-Hispanics who are learning Spanish as a second language.

Below is an excellent list of online resources for Spanish and bilingual publications.

Latino Book & Family Festival (LBFF)

The Latino Book & Family Festival promotes literacy, culture and education.

Barnes and Noble Bestseller List

“The best selection of Spanish-language books, music and movies” according to their page.

Publishers of Spanish Language and Bilingual Books

Arte Público Press

Emphasizes U.S. Hispanic culture and cultural recovery.  Includes fiction, poetry, autobiographies, anthologies, drama, non-fiction, and reference.

Continental Book Company

Importers and distributors of books in Spanish, French, German, Italian, bilingual Spanish, and ESL English.  Spanish collections include text books, videos, critical studies, readers, and much more.

Dominie Press

Spanish K-3 reading materials, including books, magnetic letters, parental involvement tools, and alphabet books.

Editorial Pax México

Leading Mexican publisher trade and educational titles, distributed in the U.S. through Whitehurst & Clark Book Fulfillment.  (website is in Spanish)

Grupo Editorial Norma

Translated and bilingual books for children and adults.  Features text books, literature, and titles of general interest.

Lectorum

An imprint of Scholastic, Lectorum publishes translated versions of familiar old and new classics, including Franklin, Dr. Seuss, and Arthur books.

Lee & Low Books

Publisher of multicultural books for children, website includes booktalks and classroom guides.

Libros Sin Fronteras

Latin American, Spanish language and bilingual books for children and adults.  Core collection development services are provided as well.

Mariuccia Iaconi Book Imports

While not a publisher or an imprint, MIBI’s catalog consists of children’s books in many foreign languages, including Spanish and bilingual titles.

Océano Grupo Editorial

An imprint of the Gale Group.  Specialty is reference materials for children and adults in the arts, computing, math, history, science, and more.

Pinata Books

An imprint of Arte Público Press, features books for children of all ages.  Most picture books are bilingual; fiction books for older kids are about Hispanic cultural identity and maintaining a sense of self.

Spanish Book Distributors

Most titles are translations into Spanish. Catalog includes books in a variety of topics including business, computers, health, history, parenting, reference, religion, travel, and much more. Translated current fiction best-sellers and romance titles are also available.

Barahone Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents – (also bilingual)

Has a frequently-updated database of recommended titles in Spanish. You can search by author, title, publish, etc.

According to the 2000 census, over 21 million people in the United States have limited English proficiency (LEP). Nearly 28 percent of all Spanish speakers in the United State fall into this category. This language barrier can be a serious disadvantage in providing quality health care. It can affect an LEP patient’s access to services, their ability to give informed consent for medical treatment, and their compliance with drug regimens and follow-up. Patients who speak little or no English may be at greater risk of medical error or misdiagnosis if they are not provided with an interpreter, are less likely to use preventive care services, and more likely to use emergency rooms than English speakers. They also need more diagnostic tests, are less satisfied with the medical care they receive, and are often dissatisfied with the quality of the translated material they are given.

Addressing these concerns, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health has issued a number of guidelines which are primarily directed at health care organizations with the goal of providing meaningful access to LEP patients; however, individual providers are also encouraged to use the standards to make their practices more culturally and linguistically accessible. These guidelines are detailed in the Department’s National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care (CLAS). Most relevant for this article is Standard 7, which states that “an effective language assistance program ensures that written materials that are routinely provided in English to applicants, patients/consumers, and the public are available in commonly encountered languages other than English. It is important to translate materials that are essential to patients/consumers accessing and making educated decisions about health care”.

These guidelines discuss in great detail the importance of using qualified translators and the need for establishing procedures that will assure the quality of the translated materials given to the public:

The section ends with the injunction to “avoid ‘wildcat’ translations (e.g., the doctor’s sister who took Spanish in collage), however tempting the financial advantages”.

Spanish Translation US has teams of life science expert Spanish translators that can work on all life science related documentation from complex pharmaceutical manual to patient customer care documentation and forms.

For more information, visit: Spanish Life Science Translation

For more information about CLAS standards, visit:

Related News:

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) voted in favor of President Obama’s health care reform proposal. They belive it will greatly improve the quality of life for millions of Latinos. The measure is expected to expand coverage to 8.8 million Latinos, or 60%of the currently uninsured Hispanic community.

“This bill is important for all Americans, but it is particularly critical to our Latino communities which have the highest uninsured rate of any racial or ethnic group in the country. The bill provides access to affordable health care to the millions of uninsured Latinos in this country through Medicaid expansion, access to health insurance exchanges, and subsidies to help low and moderate income families,” said Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), the Chair of the CHC Task Force on Health.

A press release from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus:

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Calls for Passage of Health Care Reform

A dictionary is a simple tool which helps us with the pronouciation, spelling and grammar needed for correct and effective communication. A glossary is an alphabetical list of technical terms in some specialized field of knowledge. The list below are helpful resources for general and specialized terminology in English and Spanish aimed for students, teachers, professionals and the general public.

English and Spanish Dictionaries and Glossaries

Biology Glossary English – Spanish glossary of technical terms used in ecology, evolution, and systematics

Business Dictionary English to Spanish terminology and vocabulary

Child Welfare Glossary English – Spanish child welfare terms from the Child Welfare  Children’s Bureau

Deaf & Blind Glossary English – Spanish glossary of concepts and terms from the National Consortium of Deaf-Blindness

English Spanish Glossaries Portals and search engines that take you to a large number of glossaries on every topic imaginable, as well as general dictionaries, encyclopedias and other resources for translators. If you are looking for a very particular glossary that does not fall in the other categories, check the portals in this section

As I promised here’s the last part of the glossary of Neutral Spanish terms, which I shared with you in previous posts.

quitar (take off, take out)
rabo (tail)
rasurar (shave)
refresco (soda,”coke”)
refrigerador (fridge)
renta (rent)
retrete, excusado (toilet)
rosquillas  (donuts)
sabroso (tasty, yummy)
sala (living-room)
salchicha  (hot dog)
sanitario (lavatory, w.c., bathroom)
sofá (couch, sofa)
sortija (ring)
sostén (bra)
sudar (sweat, perspirate)
sujeto (guy,chap)
tienda (store, shop)
tienda (de campaña) (tent)
tina (bathtub)
tocino (bacon)
tontería (silly thing)
traje de baño (swimsuit, bathing suit)
trasero, nalgas (butt, bottom, bum, buttocks)
trozo (piece, bit)
tubo, tubería (pipe, pipes)
velada (evening/night)

I’d like to remind you once more that this glossary was created mainly for subtitling and voice over. Although it’s a useful guide, some terms are debatable.

In the US, when a transcript contains a translation of conversations spoken in a foreign language, a qualified witness must authenticate and verify the translation. See United States v. Llinas, 603 F.2d 506, 509-10 (5th Cir. 1979).

A party who wishes to challenge the accuracy of a translation is responsible for presenting another translation. The jury may then choose which version to believe. United States v. Rosenthal, 793 F.2d 1214, 1238 (11th Cir. 1986) (citing Llinas, 603 F.2d at 509).

For more information, please visit:

http://www.leagle.com/unsecure/page.htm?shortname=infco20091124124

Remember the Telephone Game? Most of you probably remember it from childhood. You would whisper a short sentence into someone’s ear and so on until it went full circle. When the message reached the last person it was totally different from the original and it had everyone laughing out loud. You’re probably thinking, “Yes, I remember that game. But what does it have to do with Machine Translation?” Machine Translation is playing a fast-growing role in the translation industry. Some companies admit that it’s only partially effective (some say 70%); I beg to differ. Let’s play the Telephone Game and see what happens after 10 consecutive translations of the same text.

If you have a text you need translated, we recommend professional translation services from our company, Trusted Translations.

Can anyone stop the ever growing Spanglish movement in the U.S.? After all, Spanglish is not a language but rather people who speak English and Spanish badly. The North American Academy of the Spanish Language (ANLE, for its initials in Spanish) has taken on this challenge. Seen by some as the “language police”, the Academy has teamed up with the U.S. government to improve and standardize the use of Spanish particularly in government public service communications. Their mission is to help implement the use of correct Spanish for the 40 million Hispanics living in the U.S.

For more information, please visit: www.nydailynews.com/latino/2009/05/14/2009-05-14_academy_to_become_spanish_inquisitor_.html

It is commonly believed that any bilingual person can translate. However most fail at written translations. This is because such informal translation is oral, not written. For an informal translator, any translation which communicates the main idea of the message suffices. But in a professional translation, the original document must be understood thoroughly and accurately. There are professional standards which a translator needs to follow. And while bilingual interference may not be as important in an informal translation, it is a serious problem in professional translation. Later I’ll continue on the subject by talking about the importance of Consistency.

Will the web ever be internationalized? Yes, the web as we know it will change forever by mid 2010. The net regulator ICANN will be introducing web addresses using non-Latin characters, which will allow the use of domain names written in Asian, Arabic or other scripts. ICANN has said that this will be the “biggest change since (the web) was invented 40 years ago”.

For more information, please read

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8326241.stm

In a previous post, Justin had mentioned that there are language differences in countries where English is the official language (e.g. in England, the Unites States, Australia and Canada). There are also differences in countries where Spanish is natively spoken, for instance Spain, Latin America, and even Spanish speakers in the United States.

Although a large part of the Spanish language is shared by its speakers (what we call “Neutral Spanish”), there are many words, phrases, idioms, and mannerisms that are not found in all linguistic varieties.
Before we begin translating a text (novel, document, web page, etc.), it is important for the client to define the target audience in order to localize the product for that specific market, by accounting for the differences of each market.

What does localization mean?

One word can be used to talk about the same thing in different parts of the world. For example, peanut can be maní in South America, cacahuate in Mexico, or cacahuete in Spain. Although the national varieties of a term may be understood, even if it sounds odd, some may not recognize the term or will find it to have a negative or offensive connotation, which leads to a misunderstanding of the text. A translator who is a native Spanish speaker or a specialized translator will identify the difference and know which version to choose in order to produce a translation adapted to that target audience without losing the meaning or the tone of the original. However, if you want to cover a broad spectrum of Spanish speakers, a neutral version of Spanish is the solution. But we can continue to discuss that some other day.

Multiterm is one of the most useful translation tools available, and this video will show you how to use it in Microsoft Word.

I found a few jokes for/about translators on a website. Maybe I’ve been at this job too long and they hit too close to home, but some of the jokes didn’t seem too funny to me. They reminded me of some hard times when I had just started out… But there were some others that I’m going to publish here because I liked them quite a bit. I hope that you enjoy them as well, especially as we count down to our “special day,” Translator’s Day.  I’ve included some jokes in English and some jokes in Spanish.

- ¿A qué se dedica?
- Soy traductor.
- ¿En serio? ¡Qué bien! Pero yo le preguntaba cómo se gana la vida.
- ¿Se refiere a trabajar? No trabajo. Gano tanto traduciendo que no necesito trabajar.
—————————-
- ¿Podría tenerlo listo en tres días? Me urge mucho.
- Por supuesto.
- ¿Cuánto me costaría?
- 1.500 dólares
- ¿Tanto por tres días de trabajo?
- Si se queda más tranquilo puedo tardar una semana.
—————————-
- ¿Y no podría hacerme un descuento?
- ¿Por qué?
—————————-
- ¡Gana usted más que yo!
- Pues debería plantearse hacerse traductor.
—————————-
- Tenemos un presupuesto mejor. Sepa que hay muchos traductores dispuestos a aceptar el trabajo con una tarifa más sensata.
- Bueno, pues sepa que hay muchos clientes dispuestos a pagar las tarifas que le he dado.
—————————-
- What’s the best price you can offer me?
- X dollars.
- That much for a sheet of paper?
- Ah, my mistake, the paper’s free. It comes with the translation. The price is for putting the words on the paper.
—————————-
- I’m sorry, but we can’t pay you any more than that. We’d be losing money with this project.
- Ok, well call me back when you’ve got a more profitable project.
—————————-

The UK Haringey council recently came under fire for unwarranted spending on its translation program after computer records showed that over one third of the translations it deemed necessary and spent tax money on were not read even once. With over fifty million pounds spent on translations annually, government officials began digging deeper into exactly where the money was going and their findings have caused a bit of a scandal in the UK.

Among the translations were a document for Gypsies translated into Polish and an FAQ on new secondary schools pamphlet translated into Turkish, Somali and Polish. Neither document was viewed once.

Community members spoke out against the waste, citing the fact that the money earmarked for the languages area, which totals over fifty million pounds annually, could have been spent on translating other documents into different languages or spent on ESL programs in London.

As we’ve talked about in previous posts, while it is possible to drag out the old typewriter and our trusty Simon & Schuster’s and put a translation down on legal paper, we live in the twenty-first century and these days we have: a) a computer, b) a fairly high-speed internet connection, and c) one or more computer translation programs (not essential, but very valuable): a CAT tool like Trados, for example.
Furthermore, we keep our trusty dictionaries on hand (that is, in our computer bookmarks and favorites) a bilingual one, a monolingual one in the source language to check definitions, a monolingual one in our native language to make sure the term we chose is correct, and finally some specialized dictionaries for the particular text:  medical, technical, legal, etc. For the most specific texts, we can check a glossary, bilingual if possible. Maybe the client has sent a “memory” or glossary which may serve as reference or simply tell how the client prefers certain terms are translated.
Ok, now we are ready. What steps do we take?
The first thing to do is read the text. A lot of translation professors recommended reading the entire text before starting the translation. While useful, this is not always easy when we’ve got a tight deadline (as we almost always do…). But it is useful to skim the first few paragraphs to see what we are dealing with, be it a technical manual for some machine, a lease or a love letter… We don’t translate each word by itself, which means that going over the original will let us see what the general topic is and help us keep the proper vocabulary (and style) in mind.
But then halfway through the project comes the big conundrum: what to do with a “problem” word or phrase, something we can’t find in a dictionary, in the glossaries… We’ve mentioned “Googling” words before, and while it’s not a definitive resource, it can help us find out if the word at least exists, is used somewhere, the phrase is correct, etc.
Finally, it is ideal if we can consult a specialist in the field or expert on the topic we are translating (a doctor, engineer, computer tech, etc.), but this is usually a luxury due to the difficulty in getting in touch with the person you need while facing time constraints.
My advice, and what I’ve learned from my personal experience, is to consult a colleague: a different perspective can’t hurt and teamwork can be an excellent idea. Another translator can “help us think,” give us an option we hadn’t thought of or corroborate something we hadn’t been able to verify any other way.
If we also have the good fortune to have a colleague who is a native speaker of the source language in our corner, then this is an added bonus. But this is only if we’re lucky enough to have them.

It is common knowledge that language changes over time, and we can easily see that it is not immune to the effects of globalization. Nowadays, the use of swear words has become more standardized: on TV, in movies, in sports, etc. These are areas that reflect the way people actually talk. There are certain channels and stations- as there are certain individuals- that prefer not to use them, as well as websites that filter out the “dirty” words.  I think the list of words we aren’t allowed to use will seem a bit ridiculous to us in a few years, as they’ve stopped being “bad” (like others that have survived this charge) and become more common. Of course, they will most likely be replaced by new ones. And with any term, it will still be hard or unpleasant to call certain things by their name… and so the euphemisms will go on.

I think kids will continue to search out those words to see what they mean or confirm what they know or think they know, just like we’ve all done at some time (although they probably won’t look in Webster’s, but just check the internet and then giggle about the words through text messages or over Messenger). They will continue to do this because it’s an intriguing subject, because words- all words- are necessary, and because learning about them are a part of growing up. And now that we don’t get our mouths washed out with soap, we continue using these words, perhaps adding a whole new set in a different language, even though we are now grown up and more “polite.” And professionally, we will continue trying to learn about bad words in another language however we can (because most of them aren’t in the dictionary), looking for their meaning and translation of bad words we need to put into our language.

I always think about a professor from University who would insist– and rightly so– that it was imperative for us to check and recheck that we had correctly translated all the different figures correctly: prices, amounts, measurements, dates, etc. An incorrect sum or total in a contract, for example, could lead to a serious problem and even legal action. The wrong measurements on blueprints could make a building crumble or a bridge collapse… But an incorrect dosage on a medical prescription –stressed the professor– could be fatal. “Imagine that a patient is supposed to take one pill every four hours and is given four pills every hour.” And we would laugh at his example…
But the truth is– it’s not funny at all. A translation error in the instructions for implanting a knee prosthesis led to problems for 47 patients who underwent the surgical procedure in 2006-2007 in a hospital in Berlin. Apparently, the doctors implanted the prosthesis without first applying the necessary adhesive because “non-alterable [prosthesis] that requires adhesive” was translated as “prosthesis that does not require adhesive.”
In March of 2007, a similar error caused four deaths (and various complications in another nineteen patients) in a hospital in France. It appears that the patients suffered overexposure to X rays because the instructions for using the medical software were incorrectly translated.
Being in a hurry to finish the job and make the deadline is no excuse. Knowing that someone, perhaps an expert on the subject or a proofer, will go over it after the editor does not make it ok. Medical negligence can cause serious injury, and negligence on our part can do the same.

Personally, one of the things about translating that gets under my skin is having to check over it once I’m done. I hate it. But after a few jobs where I wanted to bang my head against the wall because I hadn’t gone back over it and spotted my stupid mistake (but of course someone else did, and was kind enough to point it out to me)…..Well, let’s just say that I accepted that reviewing translations is a must and cannot be avoided. And it may seem unnecessary if our translation is going to be revised by an editor, but isn’t it better for us to correct our errors before they do?

My solution? I always try to leave at least a couple of minutes before delivery time for going back over it. 10 or 15 minutes is plenty. The first three or four minutes are to relax: I finished the job. I’m no longer looking for words, I’m not after that exact phrase. I’m done translating. I go to the kitchen for some juice, maybe eat an apple, or step out on the balcony for some fresh air. And then I come back to face the final step.

I run spell check (for Word documents, which are the most common for me), which is necessary and helpful. But you have to remember that it’s not perfect: spell check doesn’t know when “sí” needs an accent and when it doesn’t, when you want to say “tale” or “tall” or when you’ve mistakenly written “his high-heels.” You have to reread the text, there’s no way around it. Sit down and read it closely and carefully. The little break between translating and reviewing helps you distance yourself from it a bit, making it seem “newer.” Being so into the text causes our eyes to play tricks on us, leading us to believe that we had written evrey word perfectly…

If there is one thing that almost all translators can agree upon, it’s that two of the most things to translate, no matter what the language, are jokes and poetry. Jokes, because they usually have a play on words or phrases with a “double meaning” that are practically impossible to transfer from one language to another.

Take this English one-liner for example:

“Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He’s all right now.”

One possible translation would be: “¿Te enteraste de ese chico al que le cortaron todo el lado izquierdo? Ahora está bien.” It would be technically correct, understandable, but missing the punch line. The joke works in English because “right” here means “bien” and “derecho.” Maybe you could make a play on words with “derecho” in the sense of “recto,” or maybe in the sense of laws… Eventually, and with a good bit of work, a good translator could get some kind of humor out of it.  But it would never be the same joke.

And poetry holds even greater challenges, even if it the original does not rhyme or you decide not to try and make the translation rhyme, it still involves meter, cadence, and rhythm that tend to be most difficult to translate. If it’s not a translation, you’re writing a new poem… A poem is a unique combination of special words- and not others– that are also laid out in a unique arrangement. How does one do that? So then, does everyone need to learn the original language in order to read the poem? Exactly how many languages do we need to learn? Right.
Every language has its own ways to twist words around, its own double meanings and plays on words. It’s not exactly vital to translate jokes since every country or region has its own style of humor. But for poetry, I feel that we translators don’t have a choice. we wouldn’t have access to Russian poetry, Greek classics, Latin sonnets, or Japanese haikus if a translator hadn’t first taken on the task of translating them. And although it may not turn out “perfect,” I think we should keep trying…