Hockey, soon to be “El hockey”

In my last blog, I talked about the influence that Hispanics have played in the NFL, which led me to inquire about the Hispanic influence in the NHL, the National Hockey League. As it turns out, Hockey does not possess the type of Hispanic-based audience that Football or Basketball have, but that has changed in […]...

El Super Tazón: Our very own Spanish Super Bowl

February 10, 2015 1 Comment »

Last weekend was Super Bowl Sunday, when millions of Americans glued their eyes to their TVs to watch the New England Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks to become the Super Bowl 49 champions. I could talk about the neck-to-neck race that seemed to be consistent throughout every second of the game, but that would take [&hell...

Legal Synonyms In Spanish

January 28, 2015 2 Comments »

Being a Spanish translator/interpreter, coming across a legal interpreting assignment or a legal document to translate is inevitable. Being as I am still a very young individual, I’m aware of the fact that there will be at least one thing that I’ll learn out of each of these assignments. And that’s actually something ...

“Pen” vs “Pen”???

Living in Miami, where there’s such a high population of Hispanic people, from every Spanish-­speaking country in the world, has taught me many, many things. One such thing I’ve learned is that there are not one, not two, not three, but several translations for the word “Pen”. Where I’m from, Cuba, we refer to th...

Be Ready Before Traveling

In June of 2013, I made a trip to Puerto Rico with some friends, one of them Puerto Rican, who invited us to go see his island. There I understood why they call it the Island of Enchantment, as I was enchanted by its music, culture, colors, people, and of course, by El Yunque, Puerto […]...

Husband and Wife: Not so simple in Spanish

Just a few days back, I had a little discussion with a friend on whether the correct Spanish translation for “Husband and Wife” is “Marido y Mujer” or “Esposo y Esposa”. Now, I am what you would call “old school”, I was raised with the values of an older generation, things like respecting my elders, [&hellip...

A Rose by Any Other Name

  Translating is a difficult feat for obvious reasons, and when translators are faced with the dichotomy of stylistic aesthetics versus textual fidelity, one “correct” choice is often impossible to come by. This dilemma is only deepened when one speaks about literary translations. Literary translations are a whole ...

What is inconsistent translation?

When large quantities of texts are being translated, it is challenging to produce consistent translations of recurrent stretches of text, such as paragraphs, sentences and phrases. This can be due to many different reasons such as rush nature of the project, missing glossary or list of terminology and non-availability of th...

The Lure of the FIFA World Cup!

The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup is an international soccer/football competition contested by the men’s national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport’s global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the...

Independence Day

Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday here in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, proclaiming independence from Great Britain. As a practical matter, the Declaration of Independence publicly announced to the world the unanim...

Father’s Day in the US

Father’s Day is celebrated around the world on different dates depending on the country you reside in. Also, the customs and celebrations differ from one country to another. This being said, most countries, including the US, celebrate it on the 3rd Sunday of June. The presence of a father figure in children’s lives is s...

The Significance of Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a day to remember and honor men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. This holiday is celebrated every year on the last Monday of May. Many people consider Memorial Day to be the unofficial start of the season. This year, we celebrate the holiday on May […]...

Mother’s Day

Mother’s day is a date that holds a very special place in the hearts of many people around the world. Many countries including the US, celebrate on the second Sunday of the month of May, although other countries around the world may choose a different date altogether. Generally Mother’s day is associates with spring and...

Thinking Outside the Box

As a new-century salesperson, you have to be a quick thinker. It’s not just about hitting the road and trying to meet a quota for the number of calls per day. Thinking outside the box entails your finding creative ways to maximize the accounts that you have. Think about focusing on multiple contacts within an […]...

How to Achieve Customer Loyalty

In a previous post, we identified the fact that it is a lot more expensive to gain new clients than to retain existing ones and that an increase of 5% in client retention can lead to an average of 75% increase in the average business’ profitability. Here are a few more important strategies that will […]...

Understanding Sales in the New Century

Well, let’s look at sales today. Has it really changed? Is sales in the ‘new century’ really so different that the concept of pioneering a territory and then servicing the customer for life. The answer to this question is yes. So, now what do we do to prepare ourselves to pass through this time warp […]...

Why Should Change Be Your Constant?

So what do I mean by this statement? Any seasoned account manager will take offence to this. “After all, what’s the use? I know how to sell. I’m good at it and I’ve been doing it for years.” So what’s the point? Well, chances are, you may be absolutely correct. You might have been a […]...

Valentine’s Day Celebrations

Saint Valentine’s Day, which is also known as Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is observed on February 14. This remains to be debated, but the day was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the middle ages.                           […]...

How Can We Boost Customer Loyalty

It is a well known fact that it is a lot more expensive to gain new clients than to retain existing ones. In the U.S. alone, only around 50% of all small- and medium-sized businesses have actually proactive strategies in place that ensure their recurrent clients come back for repeat jobs. It is very important […]...

What Is CART?

 CART is the acronym for Communication (also Computer) Assisted Real-time Translation. CART is an assistive technology that converts speech to text. It is additionally known as real-time stenography or even open captioning. CART services were first used in 1996 to provide a hearing impaired student access to classroom lect...