International Spanish At an international conference held in Valladolid 15 years ago, “Spanish and the Media”, the then director of a Miami newspaper commented on the various nationalities of the newspapers’ readers and editors, all Spanish speakers, to which she added that the Spanish used could be descr
I found an interesting article on the use of Spanish in the United States, which includes the opinions of several journalist and linguist on how to differentiate and unify Spanish. One of the main topics discussed is the possible and necessary standardization of Spanish in the media, mainly between international Spanish a
Newspaper editors have style manuals that they follow as a bible. With online dictionaries or references gaining such a strong presence, a multimedia and multi-platform project has emerged that focuses on the proper use of language online and on social networks, blogging and new media. The BBVA Fundéu Foundation will cr
Google announced that it would be introducing text-to-speech translation via google translate for Android in February 2011. It will be launched in English and Spanish, but will soon be available in more languages. The service consists of a three-step process: • Speech recognition and conversion into text. • Automatic t
A new study shows that there are more American college students in Spanish courses than any other foreign language. The survey published by the U.S. Modern Language Association (MLA) shows that despite the anti-immigrant movement of recent years and the increase in the number of university students who enroll in Arabic, Chi
There are approximately 2,500 certified court interpreters in the United States, of which only 500 translate from languages other than Spanish, stated Isabel Framer, President of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT), in an article for El Universo. The need for certified court interprete
It is fair to say that Spanish translation is the U.S. is divided equally between the domestic and international market. These markets each have their own idiosyncrasies that represent only one aspect of the language problem in the United States. U.S. based translations face a very different situation from that experienced
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 […
Crowdsourcing, also known as massive outsourcing or voluntary subcontracting, is outsourcing a task, that was traditionally done by an employee or a contractor, to a large group of people or a community through an open call. As of late, the Internet has used it to introduce and manage new projects. This is how it works: t
“There is no language so filthy as Spanish. There are words for all the vile words in English and there are other words and expressions that are used only in countries where blasphemy keeps pace with the austerity of religion.” – Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ch. 27 This quote from the famous [&hellip
Although it seems like Twitter has been with us a lifetime, the Spanish version is only one year old. Thanks to a community of volunteer translators the service began operating in Spanish on November 2, 2009. Gradually, it spread throughout Spanish-speaking users. Twitter managed to grow globally even more after adding thi
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
The problem with illegal translations is not only that they infringe a writer’s copyright. Most of these translations are performed by amateurs, which may result in a completely different version from the original text. For example, in China Harry Potter and Leopard Walk up to Dragon was released. In this book, Harry
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
Although English is the official language in the Philippines, Spanish is still perceived as an elite language for its historical and cultural importance, much more than English. In fact, Mestizo families and young students continued to use Spanish, especially in the provinces of Cebu, Zamboanga and Bacolod. This is conseque
“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, wh
There are a number of organizations who are advocates of the importance of language, localization, and global content. As frequent industry contributors, they organize events to promote quality standarization and help strengthen a community that spreads across the globe. Translation Manager, Localization Managers, Transla
Websites represent an invaluable way for companies to offer their services and products. The possibility of offering websites to an international audience multiplies potential clients for a company, as well as potential revenues. The relevant internationalization and localization of a company’s website is therefore not o
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
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 Sep