The UN celebrates English Language Day annually on the 23^rd of April.  This date was chosen in commemoration of the birth date of the influential English playwright and poet, William Shakespeare.  To celebrate the English language, all United Nations staff takes the opportunity to attend a series of events and activities that entertain, inform and enlighten.  Book signings and readings are held at the UN bookstore, featuring American authors.  Poetry exchanges take place, also in honor of “National Poetry month” established by the Academy of American Poets.

English is often referred to as the “lingua franca” or the common language- of the modern times because it is so widely spoken.  Among the top three most spoken languages in the world, English is spoken by over 300 million people as a first language, and by another 300 million or so as a second language. English has status as an official language in approximately seventy five countries.  In populations of the world where English is not often spoken, demand for competency in the language is on the rise.

JR Language Translations joins the United Nations in celebrating English Language Day.  With the English language increasing in demand for a wide variety of translating needs, high quality translation and interpretation work is a necessity for our clients.  We take this opportunity to acknowledge and extend our heartfelt thanks to our translators and interpreters for their hard work and quality services.

The Spanish language is celebrated on International Spanish Language Day, which takes place annually on April 23^rd.  The day was chosen to pay homage to the great Spanish novelist, poet and playwright Don Miguel Cervantes Saavedra, who passed away on April 23^rd, 1616.  In Spanish speaking regions throughout the world, events and activities are held in celebration of the Spanish language and culture.  Readings of one of Saavedra’s most acclaimed novels, Don Quixote, are a common staple of honoring classic Spanish literature on this date.      

With approximately 400 million speakers to date, the Spanish language is among the top three of the most widely spoken languages in the world.  It is an official language in up to twenty countries.  As one of the most phonetic languages, Spanish is one of the more accessible languages to learn due to the fact that much of Spanish vocabulary is pronounced the way it ‘looks’ or is spelled.  This has contributed to the steady 8% annual growth in Spanish speakers/learners, especially among younger people.     

JR Language is delighted to join Spanish speakers worldwide in celebration of the Spanish language.  With the steadily growing popularity of Spanish language, the need for high quality Spanish translation/interpretation services grows as well.  We are thankful to our Spanish translators and interpreters for their hard work and consistent delivery of high quality services to our clients.              

Pan American Day and Pan American Week in the United States is observed by Presidential proclamation on April 14 and the week thereof. This observance commemorates the First International Conference of American States in 1889-90, which created the International Union of American Republics. Pan American Day and Week also commemorates the diplomatic ties and relations of the United States with the other countries of the Western Hemisphere, including Latin America.

Each year Pan American Day and Pan American Week set the moment when Americans of all ages and nationalities can strengthen the bonds of friendship. Americans from one end of the continent to the other, come to know each other better through special observances, classroom projects, club programs, plays and pageants, parades and social events.

As part of both, Latin America and the United States, JR Language Translations joins the Pan American Day and Week celebrations. We proudly and diligently provide, day after day, high-quality translation, localization and interpretation services to hundreds of clients along the Americas in Spanish, Portuguese, French, and many other languages, allowing effective communication that enables business, social, and diplomatic relations.

Let’s celebrate the cultural richness of the Americas and sing together the Pan American hymn!

Back in August, we wrote a post about Legal and Medical interpretation. Regarding medical interpretation, specifically, we presented an article about a program at the University of Rochester Medical Center were interpreters are hired to help lower admissions and readmission rates due to language barriers non-native English speakers may have. This practice was a success but, what happens if those non-native English speakers don’t have the language resources to even access medical care in the first place?

This is the problem the health insurance industry is facing now. As if choosing a health insurance wasn’t difficult enough, for those whose English or Spanish is not their native language, this process becomes exponentially more dreadful. Starting October 1, the Affordable Care Act will come into effect allowing people to compare multiple health care plans in one place. Until know the applications have been traditionally translated into Spanish, due to the ever-increasing amount of Spanish speakers in the United States but, it completely leaves out the 4 million Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the U.S. who speak other language than English.

The solution? Translating the application forms into the main foreign languages spoken in the United States among them Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese, French, Russian, Korean, and Farsi. Translation is the only way in which people who speak different languages can accurately communicate and get the right message across. We all know how important health care is so, the translation of these forms is not something insurance companies can “think about” or “do later on”, it is a vital necessity that should be addressed and solved immediately for the benefit of their potential insured people.

Let’s work together so everyone can have access to the same information, and therefore, access to the same benefits. We must push for better legislation and more comprehensive and affordable health care option that are accessible for everyone alike. Health care should not be an option, a luxury only those who can pay for it have, it is a right and we need to do whatever it is in our hands to make sure everyone enjoys it.

A college student preparing a thesis paper would not know where to begin without a set of directions and guidelines.  A linguist or translator would fare just as poorly without them during the translation process.  The translation process may be a deceptively straightforward process to many, but just as a college student must cater his or her writing to meet the standards of the school/professor, translators must also mold their work to satisfy the requirements and standards of their client(s).  Throughout their careers, professional translators will work for a wide variety of clients from different types of organizations.  A translator has an added duty of being sensitive to the respective cultures of their clients.  Translators are able to deliver their service with the help of a style guide.

A style guide sets the parameters for a translator’s work.  In short, it lets the translator know what to do and what to avoid.  In further detail, these parameters address the grammatical and technical requirements of the translation work.  Rules of grammar vary depending on cultures, and are discussed in the style guide.  The following questions are addressed, among many others:

-          What words should be avoided for a particular company?

-          When should certain words be capitalized?

-          What types of abbreviations are appropriate to use?

-          How should honorary/professional titles be displayed?

-          Are there words that ought not to be translated?

Most importantly, the style guide addresses the cultural considerations and required tone of the translation.  The translator must deliver a translated document/service that is perfectly suited to the culture of both the client and associated organization.  The tone of the translation must accurately reflect the environment/character of the client (and associated organization), and goes in hand with its culture.

Preparation of a proper style guide involves strong team work.  Often, professional translators are completely unfamiliar with the corporation or organization that they are working for.  They must work closely with the client in developing an appropriate style guide.  All parties must be equally satisfied with and approve of the final version.  Only then, will the translator be able to deliver professional, high quality work that meets the requirements of the client’s party, and respects the client’s unique culture.

Every year in March, French people all over the world, as well as people who study French, celebrate French Language Week (“La Semaine de la Franchophonie” or “La Semaine de la Langue Française”). During this celebration, French institutes, universities, theaters and cinemas hold French film and play festivals, food and wine tastings, and French language workshops.

Following traditions and customs different countries start their week on different days, some do on Monday other on Sunday, due to that variance the festivity starts on March 8 and ends on March 24. Additionally, the International French Day is celebrated on March 20^th. Furthermore, UNESCO also set this day as the UN French Language Day because it coincided, in 2010, with the 40th anniversary of the International Organization of La Francophonie.

JR Language team joins the celebration with a special recognition to our French translators from France, Canada, Africa, and from all over the world. We thank them for their hard work, professionalism, and expertise, which allow us to deliver high-quality French translations to our clients every day of the year! Their wide range of subject matter expertise make us the first translation option for business clients and individuals for their legal, marketing, and technical translation needs.

Let’s celebrate together with the 200 million French speakers worldwide. Let’s promote the francophone culture and the beautiful language of Camus, Voltaire, Hugo, Dumas and many others great writers, artists and, of course our outstanding, professional French Translators!

On International Women’s Day, JR Language wants to take the opportunity to highlight the professional and valuable contribution of the women working for our translation agency. Founded by a woman, JR Language always looks for ways to recognize the women in our community and around the globe. Today we celebrate the success and achievements of the women in our team and of the many women translators and interpreters around the world.

As we all know, women are from Venus and men are from Mars; two different planets with very distinct characteristics. Humans are the same; gender somehow predisposes us and provides us with a set of skills and characteristics that makes us more inclined for certain tasks.  According to statistics from studentscholarships.org, 71% of translators, interpreters and terminologists in Canada are women. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find gender-related information for the United States or other nations but, we are convinced that this is the rule around the world given the proportion of women that we find in our team and the colleagues that we have met within the localization world.

There are many organizations dedicated to help and empower women. In the language industry we could mention Found in Translation, a Massachusetts-based program which helps low-income and homeless multilingual women become professional medical interpreters. This program was also founded by a woman, Nobel Prize nominee Kip Tiernan, a fierce advocate for social justice and we can’t stress enough about the amazing and noble job they are doing and the enormous difference they represent in the lives of all the women they have helped.

Whether it is because we are natural multitaskers or because we like to communicate (aka talk, now accredited to a gene), the truth is we love and enjoy helping others (and apparently language-related careers) and we excel at it!

Happy International Women’s Day to all our friends and colleagues!

JR Language will attend GALA’s 5^th annual conference at the end of March 2013. GALA’s acronym stands for Globalization and Localization Association.

We are looking forward to this conference after the fantastic experience we had last year. From Monaco 2012 we got new partners and providers, as well as a myriad of new ideas for the growth and development of JR Language in 2012. Overall we came back energized, and with new technologies to improve quality and the specialization of our translation services.

After checking the conference schedule, we are looking forward to get more insight on the maturity and new developments in Machine Translation; we have big plans for this technology in 2013. We are especially interested in post-editing techniques and measurements for TM.

GALA brings together a diverse and interesting group of people from all areas of the translation industry, among them: language technology developers, translation agencies, localization providers, consultants, and clients. Presentations will continue to focus on the tag line of the organization: “The language of business and the business of language”. This year the keynote speaker is stressing the importance of embracing technology, in general but, particularly in localization and translation services.

We are also interest in the updates on localization standards and connectivity between applications and translation tools.

Stay tuned for JRL’s summary of this important conference, which gathers representatives and players from all industries and countries of the world.

As an effort to develop a culture of peace that emanates from a complete belief in the importance of translation in achieving rapprochement among peoples, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia created the King Abdullah International Award for Translation. Texts can be submitted in Arabic or any other language in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, religion, and literature although one of the main purposes is to further knowledge about scientific research.

According to UNESCO reports, Greece alone translates double the entire translation volume of all of the Arab countries put together, and Spain translates five times the volume that the entire Arab world together translates. In other words, the Arab world has translated less than 10,000 books during the past 50 years, while Greece has translated 10 times the amount of books translated in the Arab world during the same period.

There are two prizes, one is a $200,000 and a $140,000 second prize for the appreciation  of contributions of individuals. The first award was presented in 2008 for works published in 2007. During the past five years, the award has received about 650 submitted translated works from different countries, submitted in various languages. So far, a total of 50 people have won this award.

We encourage professional translators as well as translation agencies around the world to submit their translations in and from Arabic and may the best ones prevailed for the conservation and enrichment of the Arabic language.

After reading and very much enjoying the book “Found in Translation” by Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetzsche, what we found was validation. Not that we ever thought our job as translators and interpreters wasn’t relevant but, hearing people talking about translation services as if anyone could do it, it is scary sometimes, mostly because these are the same people that could potentially hire us and if they think they can do it, they will, no matter the consequences. We are not trying to say that this is a translation-specific issue, we know, for example, there are many “doctors” out there but, in the end, people value their health more than they value words on a piece of paper or a screen. There is a misconception about translation being a commodity and not a service that requires skills, knowledge, and dedication.

Going back to the book, here are some of the stories we enjoyed the most:

1. Lifeline- What a way to kick off the book! It is a one minute horror movie. If there is one story that could summarize the relevance of our job, it is this one (and perhaps Parlez-Vous C++). Lifeline is about an interpreter who gets a call in the middle of the night after a long and tiring day of work, to interpret for a person who called an emergency line: a woman who’s about to be murdered.
2. Flowery Words- The joy of localization at its best! A Bellagio employee gets completely lost in translation when a guest asked for orchids. Pretty simple request, right? The problem? The employee is a Turkey native and, in his native country, Orchid is the name for the sanitary napkins we know, in this side of the world, as Always. So, you can imagine the face of the guest when she received sanitary napkins instead of flowers!
3. It’s Raining Falafel- Who doesn’t love movies and, who doesn’t love (or hate) movie translations? Those titles! Those subtitles! In this story there are a couple of good examples of translated titles:

a. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatball became Rain of Falafel for the Israel market. My question is: did it really rain falafel instead of meatballs in the movie?  I guess we’ll have to rent that one!

b. Knocked up became Slightly Pregnant in South America and Very Pregnant in Italy. But, is there such a thing as being slightly or very pregnant?

These are just some of the stories you’ll find in the book. They are all very well-written, well-researched, entertaining and most of them, very surprising. If you haven’t read it, please buy it and, if you like it, like we did, share it. We want to thank the authors for compiling these amazing stories and for sharing them with the translation community and the world. May this be the beginning of so many other books that point out the importance of translation and interpretation services day by day and in some crucial moments of life. Well done!