Reading skills amongst children of Latino descent are at an all-time low.  Studies indicate that U.S. Hispanic children entering kindergarten are already six months behind their fellow classmates in school readiness.   Top educators believe U.S. Hispanics children would significantly benefit from programs that promote literacy readiness prior to entering into the school system.

Many U.S. Hispanic children face serious academic challenges outside of school due to various factors such as: dealing with two languages at home (Spanish and English), lower income levels and parents inability to help with school work due to language issues. 

The large number of Hispanic children heading into their school years with a delayed start on their educational path is a cause for concern. Strong reading and literacy skills are essential to compete in today’s workforce. One study concluded that low literacy levels from economically disadvantaged families significantly reduce the potential for upward mobility.   This is pronounced with Latino families that have a higher poverty rate in U.S. compared to national averages. 

The statistics are staggering, but there are stories of hope and success. U.S. Hispanic parents are highly motivated to help their children and are looking for ways to better educate and prepare them for the highly competitive U.S. job market.   First generation Hispanics are especially aware of the need for higher education and strong reading skills in English. They have every desire to support their children’s education and achieve a better lifestyle.  These families clearly recognize the ability to read and write as core foundational skills for almost any career. 

Hopefully, the school systems and our local communities will become more aware of this problem among Hispanic children and fund additional programs to correct this disturbing trend. 

Spanish is currently the most widely taught non-English language in the U.S. Of more than 1.4 million university students enrolled in language courses, Spanish was the most widely taught language in U.S. colleges and universities with 53 percent of the total number of people enrolled.

There are many advantages to learning Spanish as a second language and many will enrich your life beyond your imagination.

First, especially in the U.S., learning Spanish can be a key differentiator in the work force.  Companies prefer employees / candidates with Spanish language capabilities.  In some cases, having Spanish languages skills is a job requirement.   Learning Spanish can make all the difference in a competitive job market especially as the number of Hispanics continues to grow in the U.S.

On a related note, given that Spanish is one of the most spoken languages worldwide with around 420 million native speakers and about 60 million second language speakers, learning Spanish can increase your social and work network significantly.  Spanish will not only allow you to communicate with individuals from 20 sovereign countries but can also facilitate communications with those that speak Spanish as a second language.   In today’s cyber social / work environment, this increased social and work network will certainly have a positive impact in your life no matter what line of work you may be in.

A second major advantage of learning Spanish relates more to opening new cultural doors and experiences.   The amount of literature, art, film and music projects in Spanish continues to grow and will provide you an endless source of enjoyment.  Whether you consume these cultural experiences online or in person, having a firm grasp of Spanish will likely heighten the enjoyment and understanding of the work and/or performance.

The third, and probably most significant advantage, is your ability to communicate and connect with other Spanish-speakers.  Whether you are in a foreign country or meeting new friends in your local community, your enhanced ability to connect with people from different cultures will enhance your life on many levels.  There are even studies to suggest that learning a second language has direct medical benefits including help protect against the effects of Alzheimer.

Whether you are looking for a new job, new life partner or just to appreciate a new song, learn Spanish and gain access to a new world of possibilities.

If you were to mention the name “Barack Obama” to a Guarani, you would literally be telling them in their own language “I already moved the guitar” (Mbaraka Ovama). Despite this accidental fact, several English words actually have Guaraní roots, such as “tapioca”, “piranha,” “toucan” and “jaguar.”

Guarani refers to a group of indigenous peoples in South America, primarily in Paraguay, the Entre Rios and Corrientes provinces of Argentina, south Brazil, and some parts of Bolivia. Although their population has been significantly reduced because of European Colonization and mestizaje (ethnic cleansing process), there are important populations of Guarani throughout the continent, and guarani has become a written language recently. Guarani became an official language largely because the Jesuit missionaries from Spain chose it to preach Catholicism to the Indians; the Jesuits created missions to physically protect the Guarani peoples from European slave hunters, and many Guarani peoples are descendants from survivors of the Jesuit missions.

Today, Guarani is the second official language of Paraguay, where 90% of Paraguayans speak Guarani, other than Spanish, the first official language. In fact, teaching Guarani has become fundamentally important in Paraguayan public schools, with official translations of literary texts like “Don Quijote.” Despite the undeniable importance of the Guarani language in South America, the Guarani people still have to actively fight for recognition of their civil and human rights, so that they may preserve their cultural heritage as well as their community’s standing. The Guarani language actually borrows a large amount of words from Spanish, especially verbs, and so the preservation of the original language has become more difficult over time.

So, when thinking about the languages of the Americas, don’t underestimate the value of indigenous languages like Guarani, and consider the importance of including all linguistic groups and subgroups. If you have a text in or into Guarani or any other language, do not hesitate to contact us by requesting a free Trusted Translations quote.

It is extremely difficult these days to get recurrent or additional clients to buy more translations. In this blog I will mention a few methods that either the Account Manager or the Marketing/Sales Department can perform in order to receive more translation requests from recurrent clients or new prospects.

Obviously it is the responsibility of the Account Manager to fuel the relationship by keeping a fluid communication with a client either by e-mails or phone. In this regard, it is important to find out what your client actually prefers, whether it be phone call or e-mail, as some do not want to be called.

Besides following up on a regular basis (i.e. a planned Customer Service), it is also important to have your recurrent clients included in several e-mail campaigns that offer a certain discount. Make sure only to include recurrent clients that haven´t bought a translation project within at least the last quarter, as you do not want to offer a discount to a client that recently purchased one. These e-mail campaigns are typically executed by the Sales/Marketing and/or IT department. If the discount does not work as a trigger to buy, at least the campaign will help you feed your share-of-mind.

Another way of trying to recover customers, is to call them up directly and ask them if they have any translation needs in the near future. This method is a lot more personalized, however you might end up calling them several times, before actually getting in touch with them.

Online visibility nowadays has become a necessity and not only in one language, but your website should be available into several languages, in order to expand your market share. Obviously the website needs to have informative and competitive contents in order to get your leads to leave their information. However, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Adwords are a must when it comes to positioning your website correctly within the internet jungle. This are all tactics that need cooperation between the Marketing and IT Departments.

At the end of the day, it is important to stay positive and to never lose focus. Listen to your clients and make sure their needs are satisfied.

Subtitling is one option whenever the source language (original narration) is in a language other than the target audience’s language.

Clients typically choose subtitling for media distribution and for broadcasting.

In the US, many times subtitling is used for national broadcasting to reach a broader audience.

First off, when deciding whether or not subtitling is suitable for programming, you must understand your audience.

In this regard, keep in mind that many countries prefer subtitles over dubbing.

If your client is creating a media disc for distribution, and you are already planning on doing voice dubbing, it is recommendable to also include subtitles in the menu, as many viewers prefer this option, especially the deaf and hard of hearing.

Your provider should have the capability to accurately translate and subtitle your programming, delivering the service in various languages directly to DVD and Blu-ray authoring systems, and even to NLE systems. This will secure an accurate delivery of your message to any audience around the world.

Trusted Translations, Inc. uses only the best translators and subtitlers available, who are always not only native speakers of the target language but also perfectly fluent in the source language.

It takes a lot longer to read than to listen, therefore each translation is carefully edited, providing a comfortable reading speed for the viewer while maintaining the meaning and impact of the video. Proper names, technical jargon, and industry terms are researched to ensure proper spelling and undertone.

Trusted Translations, Inc. has the aptitude to take personalized approach to you and your product and deliver a satisfactory final project.

Have you ever contacted a Translation Agency to get a quote for a translation project and the Account Manager started mentioning DTP costs besides the cost per word? What does DTP stand for and when is this Service actually necessary?

DTP stands for Desktop Publishing and it refers to the creation of documents using page layout software. Typically, this includes the combining and rearranging of text and imagery (in case there are any images) through computer software, using Fonts and Graphics of your choice, to produce documents such as Newsletters, Brochures, Manuals, Slide shows, Books, etc.

In today´s business world there are many different types of documents used, such as in the following formats: Word, Excel, Power point, Pdf, Adobe InDesign, Adobe FrameMaker, Adobe PageMaker, Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Corel Ventura, QuarkXPress and many more.

When a prospect contacts a Translation Agency to receive a quote for a certain document, any Account Manager typically will ask for the source file, which is the document in which the text had originally been created in. This is important, so that the document does not have to be recreated, which can be very expensive sometimes, depending obviously on the format used.

In a specific example: the prospect has a Manual of Industrial Machinery and would like that Manual translated from English into Latin American Spanish, as the prospect would like to penetrate the Latin American Market. The Manual itself is in an Adobe InDesign format. In order to keep the DTP cost as low as possible, and to assure that the translated Manual looks as similar as possible to the original English Manual, the prospect would have to send the Account Manager the source InDesign file/s, all Fonts and Links to the Images that are contained within the Manual.

Being an Account Manager in the Translation Service Industry can be a very stressful job at times. It involves not only being involved in the entire Sales process, but also making sure that the Project Manager has sufficient information regarding the scope of the translation project, following up on clients by phone and e-mail, issuing Invoices, collecting Invoices and finding new clients.

There are certain peak times in our day, when our responses and follow-ups are very crucial and we have to process many quote requests at the same time, deliver translation projects (sometimes these need to be uploaded in the FTP Server, which can take quite some time), and resolve translation issues, where the client feels there might be some translation quality issues.

During these peak moments, it is very easy for an Account Manager to start multitasking and doing 3 or 4 tasks at the same time and before you know it, you made a mistake. The danger in this is that the human brain cannot focus well, when multitasking, and mistakes are an automatic result in the work output. In addition, people take longer to complete a task, as they are involved in several tasks at the same time. This is where Time Management plays a very important role of how to overcome multitasking.

Time Management as defined by the free encyclopedia is  “the act or process of exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase efficiency or productivity”. This means that one´s skills, tools and techniques are used to manage time in order to reach an objective of a certain task or achieve one´s goal.

Before multitasking becomes a bad habit, it is very important to manage time by being able to incorporate the following activities in one´s daily work routine: planning, setting goals, prioritizing, organizing, scheduling, delegating, analyzing time spent, monitoring and allocating.

My experience as an Account Manager, is to learn how to prioritize and set certain goals, so that I am not forced to multitask and hence make mistakes, while I am trying to resolve all of my work issues at the same time.

Not sure what your day in the office looks like, but a typical day at the office for me as an account manager at Spanish Translation US revolves around many different things that seem to need my attention all at once. From answering phone calls, to replying to clients’ emails, to completing my daily tasks… which believe me are many.  I constantly find myself going back and forth to each of these tasks and often find it challenging to complete one before I am interrupted by something else. With multitasking being such an important part of my daily experience I found the section on time management in Chet Holmes “The Ultimate Sales Machine” to be very helpful and interesting.

Chet’s six tips on Time Management are:

• Touch It Once: If you touch it take action and handle that task.  Do not revisit the task.
• Make Lists: Lists help you prioritize and stay focused on your daily tasks.
• Plan How Much Time You Will Allocate to Each Task: This helps you manage your daily tasks and dedicate enough time to accomplish them.
• Plan the Day: Give yourself a time frame on how much time you will dedicate to complete each of the things on your list.
• Prioritize: Always start with your most important and difficult task. As the other guru Brian Tracy says in his book “Stop procrastinating!”. By completing the most difficult task first, you will feel a tremendous sense of control and accomplishment having checked the biggest thing off your list.
• Ask Yourself, “Will it hurt me to throw this stuff away?”: Untidiness hurts your productivity. Studies show that 80% of all filed or stored information is never referred to again. So get rid of it!!

I do not have these 6 steps 100% into effect just yet, but I am really working on it. I’m sure that applying these six steps will assist me in completing my daily tasks efficiently. I know they are going to help me manage my time and be more productive on a daily basis. No doubt that I will also help me turn into a happier man!

Following my last entry, I’m going to start off with some shocking and/or interesting statistics of the ever changing fabric of our American quilt.  While there are many demographics of immigrants and non-native English speakers in the US, this entry will focus primarily on the rapidly growing Hispanic population in the US.

• Young people 24 and under represent 35% of all Hispanic online users.  (Emarketer)
• The US Hispanic market that is online has grown from 15.7 million to 20.9 million in the last 5 years alone.  (Emarketer)
• “The 47 million-plus Hispanic population in the U.S. accounts for 15% of the total U.S. population and have spending power of $850 billion. (University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth)
• From 2000 to 2006, Hispanic purchasing power in the US climbed more than 63%, to $798 billion. (University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth)
• Latinos and other minorities were responsible for 85% of US population in the last 10 years (Adage)

It’s clear to see that the Hispanic market in the US is nothing to ignore.  There is an ever growing percentage of Americans that are looking for your messages, your products, and your services: in Spanish.  Making this connection isn’t easy, but it’s not as hard as you might think; it’s a learning process.

However, if we’re learning anything at all, it’s that Google translate isn’t going to get us there.  A translation is not just a translation; reaching out to the Hispanic market takes more.  It means understanding cultural nuances, sensitivities, humor and colloquialisms. In addition, Spanish phrases and idiomatic expressions are not consistent among all Spanish speaking countries.

Esther Novak, CEO, VanguardComm hits the nail on the head here when she says “Those who are anxious to tap the market but inexperienced at reaching it must not make the easy mistake of “selling to the Hispanic bloc” — the assumption that a Cuban thinks like a Mexican thinks like a Puerto Rican. Each of the 22 Latino nationalities has its own cultural nuances, idioms and assimilation. Businesses need to understand these factors, which include a connection to home country; multi-generational households; mistrust of institutions; a belief in fate; respect for the elderly; the influence of community leaders; the role of faith; and the upholding of tradition, celebrations, humor and cultural icons.”

Here I have a couple examples of a good and bad way to approach the situation:

Here’s a failed attempt by AT&T.

The telecommunications giant AT&T created a series of marketing ads in Puerto Rico where a wife tells her husband to go downstairs and call Mary because they are running late.   Seems innocent enough, right? Oh no!  In Puerto Rico this behavior was seen as offensive, as many wives would never order their husbands in this way nor would they think it’s necessary to call regarding their late arrival.

This campaign proved to be ineffective and failed to resonate with the consumer on a personal and cultural level.   It did not draw on cultural experiences nor connect with the consumer.  Instead the poor translation became distracting and was merely an advertisement gone awry.

Here’s a successful approach by The Home Depot.

When I say successful, I mean excellent.  The Home Depot has successfully integrated a variety of ways to approach the Hispanic population.  They have shown a strong commitment by providing bilingual signage on all of their products, offering bilingual workshops and how-to-clinics, as well as tips and tools on Spanish directed Youtube site.  What’s more, they sponsor Major League Soccer as well as the Mexican National soccer club.  They clearly understand the cultural importance of soccer to their Hispanic clients and show their loyalty by supporting their teams.  By taking this multi-faceted approach The Home Depot is able to connect with their customers not only in Spanish but also to their cultural needs and wants.

Bottom line is this: It is important to address this rapidly growing and changing market in the correct way; not only in their own language but also within the context of their local culture.  Working with a translation agency is an excellent way to bring your message full circle by providing cultural understanding.  They can work with you directly to understand what you are trying to do and figuring out the best ways to approach your translation. Concisely expressing your message in the tone and voice of a native speaker is priceless.

The traditional American Christmas is usually celebrated until December 25, which is the official day of celebration. Children wake up as early, even when the day before was a struggle to get out of bed, and run to the Christmas tree to see what gifts Santa brought them. Adults try to sleep a late, but it’s impossible. The day is followed by a late lunch or an early dinner and watching sports on television or playing games in the patio.

Many Latino-Americans continue these traditions as they assimilate the culture and get used to their new country. But Latinos closer to their roots tend to consider the 24th just as important as the 25th, or even more so for being the birthday of Jesus. Immigrants adapt these customs with their own, and each family mergers new traditions with those of the country of origin. Far from their home and missing their old ways, they do everything possible to incorporate them by introducing their foods and traditions any way they can, and to make it as close as possible to how it was before, at home, while trying to keep alive the memory of their homeland.

For many in the United States, Christmas is synonymous with gifts, parties and last minute visits to the malls. However, for Latinos this is the time of year where the holiday spirit and New Year atmosphere is what is most important. The majority of Latinos are Catholic, so family and sharing with others becomes very important especially during the holidays celebrations.

Celebrations usually start on December 1, or in some cases the day after Thanksgiving, lasting until January 6, the day of the Epiphany (Three Kings Day). It is a time for sharing,  when the family comes closer together, something very common among Latino families that are usually very big and who try not to separate, especially during the holidays. Thanks to this spirit of unity, many Latinos try to spread their traditions in the areas in which they live and to their neighbors, sometimes making a mixture of the traditions of many countries.

Merry Christmas to all Latinos in the world, especially for those living in the United States and trying to make this union produces something better for all people by spreading their customs and promote family unity.

This is another business area which is experiencing a booming in the United States.

Growth in the Latino population translates into growth of the industry specialized in this area: it’s an unstoppable trend.

The economic strength of Hispanics is generating a growth in the number of advertising agencies focused on this sector. This goes hand in hand with an increased interest from U.S. advertisers to aim part of their budgets to Latino ad campaigns.

As discussed in this article, written in Spanish, in 2004 the U.S. spent $ 3.091 million on advertisements targeted toward the Hispanic market. This represents a 10.8% increase over 2003, when the total reached 2.790 million, according to figures published by AdAge in its special edition: Hispanic Fact Pack.

Buffagni Paul, president of the Circle Makers of the U.S. Hispanic Market and creative director of the agency Conill & Saatchi (Los Angeles) believes that this success is due to “market growth and purchasing power.”

According to data from the Census Bureau, there are 41.3 million Hispanics currently living in the United States, all of whom are potential customers and are part of the fastest growing minority in this country, who have a purchasing power estimated at 600.000 billion.

Houston, San Antonio, New York, Miami and Los Angeles are the main cities chosen by the Hispanic advertising agencies to open their offices. They have done so both independently and as partnering with some of the big global advertising networks.

Another big market is Miami, where 11 of its advertising agencies are considered to be among the top 50 in the United States.

Digital Advertising Online

Online advertising is another large and fast growing industry in the advertising field.

“The growth comes at the expense of the agencies that target the main stream market”, says the newspaper La Flecha.

Online Digital Hispanic advertising increasingly appeals to Latino agencies. Although advertising agencies in the United States still control half of the turnover, the main stream market faces a tougher competition from Hispanic agencies, which meet the needs of advertisers who want to connect with that segment of the population.

The growing demand of Hispanic services is helping create new Hispanic digital agencies, as well as the creation of digital departments in existing agencies.

Latino immigrants feel they have no rights in the U.S. because they are undocumented. This is a situation that occurs constantly, due to the lack of knowledge or information available for Latinos.

There is an increasing amount of web sites that publish articles, laws, news, medical information, etc., that may be helpful for Latinos who do not know their rights or need information, or that inform them where to obtain information on more specific topics.

Below is a list of web site that provide useful information regarding the most important issues for Latino immigrants.

WomensLaw.org has articles and relevant information about immigrant rights and the legal options that exist, including:

• As an immigrant, what are my rights in a situation of domestic violence?

• What I can do if I am in an abusive relationship?

• How I can legalize my status? What are there options?

• Help for HIV / AIDS patients in an abusive relationships in the Latino community.

The American Diabetes Association provides online information about this disease, as well as links to support groups and legal resources. The site also contains a list of lawyers and legal resources available to Hispanics.

Latinos have the right to receive information and help, but they also have a moral obligation to seek out information and investigate where and who can help them.

“The United States is de facto bilingual, but politicians will not accept it”, stated Dominican-American writer Junot Diaz, 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner, in an interview with Europa Press.

The trend in American culture is to be interested in knowing the reality of immigrants, but the opposite trend also exists, which “rejects everything Latino.”

What does it mean to be bilingual?

Many Latinos grow up speaking, reading and hearing two languages … in short, they grow up bilingual.

The number of Latinos born in the United States increases every year. They are the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of immigrants who are raised using “Spanish at home” and who use English more than anything in public. In other words, in conversations with parents, siblings or other relatives or friends they speak Spanish, and with friends, teachers and others in English.

Then surely they are bilingual, as are many others who continue to use the language they speak at home.

Being bilingual means more than just being able to speak two languages. In this definition, we need to include important elements that must also be associated with the word bilingual. Language and culture are connected to each other.

As we grow, we all learn the culture of our ancestors, by speaking their language. As Latinos, we learn Spanish as part of our Latino culture.

However, by being a United States resident, we also learn English to communicate with virtually anyone who is not a member of our family (except for those fellow Spanish-speakers).

Thus we live in two cultures and speak two languages as part of the environment in which we live and are in constant contact. We can see that being bilingual is part of our culture, and also is part of our own identity as Latinos raised in the United States. We merge the two cultures into one; and it could happen that at some point all residents share and support each other’s culture.

As Latinos, our identity is formed by the use of two languages in daily life.

This way as there are more and more Latinos in America, everyone may one day live under the same conditions, by incorporating Spanish into their daily lives, schools, television, government, etc.

It will be like seeing it from the other side of the glass …

Different areas of the economy, education and government are becoming more aware of the urgent need for bilingual staff in order to improve their services and products and the performance in their activities. I’d like to share with you a couple of cases I found of situations that happen among all types of people and social level in the United States, because of this.

This year the police increased the recruitment of bilingual agents in the U.S., according to an article in the NY Associated Press (in Spanish).

Police departments in the United States increased their efforts to recruit agents who speak a second language other than English, and in some cases, offer higher pay and the opportunity to travel abroad as part of a language immersion programs.

The police chiefs are confident that the investment will result in better law enforcement in communities with large numbers of immigrants, and reduce the distrust that many immigrants feel towards police agents.

A third of the employees of the New York Police Department speak a second language. Of these, 785 have a language or translation certification into 63 languages.

In January in Charlotte, North Carolina, a school secretary of Hispanic origin sued the largest school system in this state because the campus director forbade her to speak Spanish with parents who had a low level of English. (Univision.com)

This Nicaraguan secretary filed a lawsuit because it was clearly a violation of her civil rights, as she was only trying to help the parents.

Companies across the board increasingly feel the need to hire a greater number of bilingual staff because of the growing population of mostly Spanish speaking immigrants. The Hispanic immigrant population is the largest in number and growth.

After so many years and so many new residents of Hispanic origin, among others, living in the U.S., Americans should ultimately adapt to the idea that the country is a melting pot composed of immigrants from everywhere, of all kinds and of all languages. This is how the country was formed in the first place, by immigrants.

It is better to work together and progress, rather than to stop advancing and lose so much of what we have accomplished just because people speak a different languages.

Hispanic Heritage Month honors people of Spanish-speaking backgrounds in the United States. It begins on September 15 because of its coincidence with Independence Day celebrations on September 15 in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, on September 16 in Mexico, and on September 18 in Chile . From September 15 to October 15, a number of special programs, events and exhibits celebrate the heritage, culture, spirit and extraordinary contributions of Hispanic Americans.

This year’s theme recognizes the strength and hard work of Hispanic Americans and pays tribute to the generations of Hispanic Americans who have positively influenced and enriched our nation and society. Mentioned among them is actress Rita Moreno, singer Celia Cruz, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, activist Cesar Chavez, Nobel prize-winning physicist Dr. Severo Ochoa, U.S. Navy Admiral David G. Farragut, singer Joan Baez and actor Desi Arnaz.

Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority group in the United States, according to the Census Bureau. It is estimated that the Hispanic population will triple, from almost 47 million to 133 million, from 2008 to 2050. This reflects an increase from 15 percent to 30 percent of the population.

Today, more than ever, Hispanic Americans play an integral role in positively influencing and enriching our nation and society. They serve as leaders in government, law, business, science, sports, the arts and many other occupations. The influence of Hispanic culture is reflected in every aspect of American life, from politics to education through music and television.

As immigrants settle in the United States, they also experience economical growth. Little by little, as they spend more time in their new country of residence, several have decided to start businesses and fully establish themselves in the field to progress and fight for a better future.

The Hispanic community in the U.S. grew by 3.1% in 2009, reaching 48.4 million people. This represents 15.8% of the U.S. population, making it the largest minority in an increasingly diverse country, according to the Census Bureau.

New data released in Washington show how minorities continue to grow and now represent 35% of the total population. Similarly it confirms the trend that, in a few decades, Hispanics could become a majority, according to an article in Dinero.com. These figures were revealed before the 2010 census provided the actual data, which will happen later this year.

The younger population is more and more diverse, as evidenced by the fact that 48.3% of children under five are minorities. By contrast, only a low 19.9% of the population aged 65 years or older belong to this groups. These transformations create an increasingly diverse landscape of the country, even more when you take into account that now more Americans define themselves as belonging to different races and ethnic groups.

Due to the variety and the need for diversity on both the demand and supply sides, new businesses and different services providers and products have emerged.

National food chains strive to attract Hispanic customers and offer them everything they need and prefer to buy and consume, opening shops targeted at the Hispanic audience, aimed exclusively at that market (elnuevodia.com).

There are Internet sites that provide help and advice for those seeking to start a business, according to the state where the person is located, where they can find information, create free ads, etc.

Some of these pages, available in Spanish, are:

• U.S. Hispanic Business

• Your Business Partner

• Chamber of Latin American Entrepreneurs

Job opportunities are becoming more difficult due to the increasing number of Latinos who immigrate to the United States. Is it essential to know more than just English; a wide array of other skills is also of great importance.

In addition to knowing the functions, services, rights, responsibilities and obligations that are in the new place of residence, you also have to into account the abilities and skills needed to get a good job.

It is also important that professionals comply with other requirements which may differ and vary from one profession to another and from one state to state. Furthermore, it is crucial to know the rights and obligations in the workplace to those moving to a new country.

Students are also included in this process, especially college students, who sometimes need to perform equivalence on certain subjects, or those who lack resources to get a scholarship or some kind of assistance.

Here are some sites where you can find information or obtain this information, what can be done about it and where to start.

Hispanic jobs

Aemigrar.com

LosRecursosHumanos.com

Latino News

Opinion Abilene Christian University

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.

While Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. will need to learn many things, others require adaptation. In addition to a new language and customs, which can be completely foreign to many, immigrants must also develop other essential skills if they wish to settle in the country permanently.

It is basic that immigrants know about government sites that provide help and information in the state where they are to live, as, for example, general knowledge on health, the education system, etc.

There are also other sites that provide social, economic, cultural, sporting, and religious information, among others, for people who have more experience or lived some time in the U.S.

Below are some general and specialized sites, in Spanish and English, where you can view and obtain information about different topics:

• Contacto

• PEW

• Ahorre.com

• Allied Media Corp.

• Negocios Hispanos

• Hispanos en USA… sólo para hispanos

• El Periódico U.S.A.

• Impre.com

• Intelamerica.org

There is growing number of Latinos living in the United States, and their reasons are diverse and may range from economic to educational, to political and social.

Although several of them are prepared or have knowledge of the language, many of them enter the country without being bilingual or having the slightest knowledge of English.

This has made necessary the existence of bilingual material (educational, instructional, informational, commercial, medical, recreational, etc.) of every kind and presented in all formats, in order to help Latinos with limited knowledge of English to a better and more agile adaptation to their new home and country.

One thing to take into consideration is that the target audience for such bilingual material ranges from children to seniors, through all ages, singles, couples, groups or families, so this material must include all kinds of issues and cover all types of social and cultural levels.

Below are some examples of sites where you can find a variety of information in Spanish: