“Spanglish” is the title of the 2005 comedy starring Adam Sandler (John), Tea Leoni (Deborah) and the Spanish actress Paz Vega (playing a Mexican housekeeper, named Flor), in which the characters come to understand each other without words. According to the executive producer of the film, in which an American married couple and a Latino housekeeper are faced with a language barrier, “the word ‘Spanglish’ is a metaphor for the collision of cultures in this house. It’s also a metaphor for the general limitations of language. To some extent, whether or not we speak the same language, we’re always interpreting the behavior of others.” The writer/director notes that “the cultural differences in our heterogeneous society can be profound. But with Flor and John, their similarities are profound.”

This film is unique because the main theme is Spanglish. Yet there are other films and several television series that are incorporating Latino characters and mixing Spanish in the dialogue. Abc guionistas discuss a study by Professor Nieves Jiménez Carra, from the University Pablo de Olavide (UPO) in Seville, Spain, about 5 television series (The West Wing, Friends, Without a Trace, Cane, and Dexter) and 2 movies (Quinceañera and Real Women Have Curves). The researcher analyzes the strategies used by the original writers to include Spanish in the script or characters of Latin American origin, and also discusses the subtitling and dubbing strategies that translators in Spain use to translate these “bilingual” scripts. It says that American writers tend to include English subtitles when the Spanish is spoken in a series or movie if it’s important to the story line. However, subtitles are not included if what the character is saying is not as important. “They prevent the public from knowing what Spanish speaking characters are saying,” says Jiménez Carra. “If there’s a recurrent character who speaks Spanish, as in Cane or Dexter, the character sometimes translates his or her own words. For example, if the character says, “¿Como estás?” it’s sometimes followed by “How are you?”

Maybe the answer is to teach Spanish at an early age … The same thing that happens in the above-mentioned series is even more obvious in children’s programs. PBS Kids, Disney Channel and Nickelodeon focus on acceptance over discrimination, and there are already several bilingual programs that feature Latin American culture.

Bebés Latinos, a site “for Latino parents throughout the world,” comments on all these children’s programs that “teach” Spanish or include characters of Latino origin. Dora the Explorer is a bilingual series that has created a new interest in non-Latino children to learn Spanish while also learning aspects of the Latino culture. For Latino children living outside of Latin America, this is a character with whom they share something in common and to whom they can relate. Another bilingual program is Maya & Miguel, two siblings living in a culturally diverse neighborhood and with friends of many nationalities and races, who focus on being good family and community members. These characters and their relatives, of Mexican origin, use Spanish phrases and individual words translated into English. Dragon Tales tells the story of a 6-year-old girl and her 4-year-old brother, who are friends with four dragons in Dragonland. The program focuses on cultural diversity, emphasizing the Latino culture through games, songs and stories of Latin America. For smaller children Jay Jay the Jet Plane, which is about a 6 years old plane and his adventures with his plane friends, highlights teamwork, responsibility and cooperation. New episodes feature a red Latino plane named Lina who helps Jay Jay discover how airplanes fly and the five senses. Handy Manny features the adventures of Manny (Manuel García), a billingual Latino handyman always willing to help his neighbors and friends, who fixes everything in his town. Manny’s friends are his talking tools, and all use individual Spanish words and phrases (in the Latin American version, greetings and numbers and other simple phrases in English are incorporated, usually followed by a translation). It teaches the importance of cooperation, problem solving, teamwork and multiculturalism. The program makes reference to Latino customs and traditions and the opening has Latin music (the title song is performed by the band Los Lobos).

Surely there will be more integration and less discrimination, more knowledge of “other cultures” with these programs, but I wonder what these children speak when they are older, a mixture of Spanish and English (the familiar Spanglish)? Will these programs teach children to speak both languages well when they’re older? The other possibility … I’ll keep it to myself.

Source: Idioma español y cultura latina en la pantalla de EE. UU.

The current population is estimated to be 6 million. However, the United Nations expects this number to increase to 90 million by the year 2025. And the world’s population is expected to reach 9 billion in 2050.

According to UNESCO data, there are approximately 400 to 500 million Spanish speaking people in the world. The Spanish language is used by 7-8% of the world’s population, although that figure will increase significantly.  These figures account for the population of countries with Spanish as their official language, including 30 million people in the United States who speak Spanish on a regular basis. Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority in the United States and Spanish ranks second as the language spoken most widely at home.

These numbers clearly indicate a tremendous growth in the demand of Spanish media communication, information, entertainment, websites and so on.  Companies are starting to realize that translating their websites into Spanish is a must if they are reach a consumer market that continues to increase at a significant rate. Although most Hispanics live in big cities, states such as Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North and South Carolina and Virginia are experiencing larger migration.

Communication media tries to meet market demand by offering quality Spanish programming, as the Spanish media and publicity market in television, newspapers and magazines published in Spanish continues to grow. However, the demand is not only for Spanish content but for quality Spanish content, i.e well translated material.

I have already mentioned that there is no single form of Spanish. Each target market should be considered when a products being launched into the Spanish language (Mexican, Columbian, US Spanish), Latin American Spanish in general (or what we call “neutral Spanish”) or Spanish from Spain. By taking into account this information, a good translation service can deliver a good quality product specific to each customer and thus provide the Hispanic market in the United States with the translations needed. Follow the links to find general information about the Spanish translation for the United States, specifically the online Hispanic market or Hispanic market research.

Source: Mercado de español en los Estados Unidos

The Hispanic population is a consumer segment that is growing faster than any other minority group in the United States. Already many businesses are starting to implement new approaches and strategies to target Hispanics.

The assimilation of generations and diverse countries of origin within U.S. Hispanics has created a complex culture. There are many factors that make the Hispanic consumers unique: historical, contextual, cultural, demographic, and financial.

Direct translations and general market strategies tend to miss emotional and culturally relevant elements. This is where translation vs. trancreation comes in.

For example, in the marketing industry the language used in a transcreation should have a similar impact on the target audience. For this reason, marketers cannot simply transfer directly to the Hispanic market an idea, product or a service that works with the general market.

For more information go to Hispanic Market Research Services and Spanish Website Translation