In 40 years, the United States will be the country with the most Spanish speakers in the world. It currently more people speak Spanish than in Spain or Argentina, and only second to Mexico in quantity. Immigrants from 20 countries converge with different versions of Spanish and, according to experts, comprise the most im
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 acces
We may like or hate it, but this phenomenon is among us. And I’m not refering to Spanglish, but specifically to Reggaeton. The truth is that this musical style is strongly associated with not just one country’s or region’s culture, but throughout Latin America. Whether it “represents” us or no
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
“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 ma
For those businesses that want to test the potential of their products or services with the US Spanish market, those ready to employ a more proactive approach, or those fully committed to their Spanish speaking consumers, I recommend translating part, if not all, of your website into Spanish and developing a search friendly
I recently wrote about the growing Spanish market in the United States and prior to that I discussed the intent of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language (ANLE) to improve Spanish use in this country. I also commented on the mix of English with other languages spoken in the film “Code 46“, which [&he
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 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. And yet there is no one “Hispanic market”, even if language unifies U.S. Hispanics. This i
A colleague of mine sent me the link to a site called Forvo, which I found very interesting. According to the website, Forvo is the largest word pronunciation dictionary in the world. Ask for that word or name, and another user will pronounce it for you. You can learner how to pronounce in over 220 […]
Tips for interpreters What is interpretation? In a nut shell, interpretation is “oral translation”. That is, an interpreter is responsible for transferring someone’s oral discourse into an equivalent discourse in a different language. By definition, translators are interpreters -although a good interpreter, besides ha
I’m always looking for glossaries, dictionaries and other resources that can help working professionals. Thanks to a Venezuelan colleague, in her blog La Traducción al descubierto, I discovered Invertext.com -a dictionary that covers different business areas. It has around 100 terms in English and Spanish with defini
The Royal Spanish Academy and the Association of Spanish Language Academies present a New Grammar for Spanish Language. This is the first time the academy produces a grammar book since 1931.The two volumes, and a third one being published soon, is a result of eleven year of work from the twenty-two academies of Spanish Lang
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 (liv
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
This the third part of the glossary (just one more left) is a continuation of the previous posts 1 and 2. Below are words from letter F to P. falda (skirt) fontanero (plumber) fregadero (sink; kitchen) fresa (strawberry) frijol (bean) gafas, lentes (glasses) galleta (cracker, cookie) gaveta (drawer) golpiza (beating, th
Spanish is the second most-common language in the United States. There are 45 million Hispanics who speak Spanish in the United States, making it the world’s second-largest Spanish-speaking community. German, Italian, Polish, Russian and Greek are also spoken among older generations of immigrants. Also spoken are Tag
This is part 2 from the previous post. Included here are terms in Neutral Spanish from letters C to E. I’d like to remind you that this list is specifically for subtitling and voice over; there may be different options. Feel free to leave your comments or suggestions to add to the list. cabello (hair) […]
Here an additional note on Neutral Spanish. I’d like to share with you the first part of a list of neutral terms (not exclusive), complied for the use of the movie industry, mainly for subtitling and voice over. As I mentioned in a previous article, these terms are only a standardized version, that is, the […]
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, “