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
On May 2nd 2011, the world was cheering, waving flags, climbing trees, singing and dancing in the streets.Why?…You might ask. Well, because Osama bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world had been brutally murdered. Now, let’s back up a little bit and take a trip down south….way down south, to a city that [&he
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
“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
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
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
Although a lot of the information in areas such as health, medicine, business, technology, industry, laws, etc., is currently being translated into Spanish, it’s a small percentage compared to the information available in English. I came across this article (in Spanish) that discusses one example of this issue. A comm
The U.S. book publishing industry is a $27 billion a year business and consists of approximately 2600 companies. There are 6 large publishers (all in New York), 3,400 medium-sized publishers and 86,000 small/self-publishers in the U.S. Four of the U.S. conglomerate publishers are foreign owned. Although the publishing indu
Spanish is becoming increasingly more common in the U.S., stimulated by an increasing growth of the Hispanic population. Many Hispanics, even those fluent in English, want to maintain their cultural identity by continuing to learn and speak Spanish. Finally, there is a growing group of English-speaking, non-Hispanics who ar
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
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
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
Veo arboles verdes, rosas rojas tambien Las veo florecer para ti y para mi Y pienso para mi mismo, que mundo tan maravilloso. Sound familiar? I came across a site last week called Song Translator that while entertaining, shows just how difficult it is to produce a top-notch song translation. Like poetry, music lyrics have [