Organizations - both public and private - receiving funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 must comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Title VI prohibits discrimination based on national origin, "including language access for limited English proficient persons".  State and local governments also receive federal funds so they must follow the federal statute.

"Limited English proficient persons" (LEP) are defined as "individuals who do not speak English as their primary language and who have a limited ability to read, speak, write, or understand English".  The 2000 LEP Executive Order requires both Federal agencies and recipients of federal funding to provide access to services to their LEP beneficiaries.

Although AIG has a Spanish website, many municipal governments and departments do not.  A random search of www.nashville.gov shows that the Metropolitan Development and Housing Authority has information on Fair Housing in Spanish, Somali, and Lao.  Spanish-speakers can learn how to recycle, take the Civil Service exam, or become a police officer, but if they need information from the Health Department, they're out of luck.  www.health.nashville.gov only has a link to the Spanish content at the Centers for Disease Control. 

Photo by Steve Wampler. Licensed under Creative Commons.

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Business software buyers in 8 non-English speaking countries reported they are more likely to buy products that have been translated and localized for their markets.  Despite the commonly held belief that proficient English speakers do not have a preference, Common Sense Advisory's study shows that purchase intent  increases when the local language is used.  Another key finding is the correlation between having marketing materials translated and sales:  "More than 80 percent said they wouldn’t give full consideration to a product that did not have localized marketing materials."

More information on the study can be found here: http://www.pitchengine.com/free-release.php?id=1903

Photo by Anya Quinn. Licensed under Creative Commons.

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In the United States we use business cards as a quick way to exchange contact information.  In other countries, having a business card translated into your hosts' language is a sign of respect and shows you are serious about doing business with them.

Here's how to get started:

Edit, edit, edit.  The people you are meeting only need to know your name, your title, who you work for, and how to contact you. 

Do not have the address translated.  A package couriered to you with your address in Chinese will be undeliverable in the U.S.

Look at the phone number on your card.  If it is a toll-free number, it will not work from outside the U.S.  Replace it with a number that can be called from abroad, including the country code.

Check your itinerary.  If you are going to Hong Kong and mainland China, you will need two different cards.  Traditional Chinese characters are used in Taiwan and Hong Kong while you will need a card with simplified characters for the mainland.

Do you want your name translated?  Many people decide to have their name transliterated into characters based on the pronunciation of their name.  This will help your hosts say your name correctly.

http://www.pandltranslations.com

Internet World Stats has released new information on internet usage through the end of 2008.   The number of users in South America grew more than anywhere else, 65%, and has reached almost 129 million.   The number of Asians online increased by almost 140 million last year to 650+ million, but 83% of the population is still not online. 

The U.S. Census Bureau calculates the global population to be slightly above 6.7 billion, which means that 23.5% of the world's population is online.  Future growth will come from Asia,  South America, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and Africa.  Will your website be ready? 

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More information is avalable at http://www.internetworldstats.com/

A article posted online yesterday about marketing to Hispanics is called "Como Se Dice 'Brand Loyalty'?".  Although the subject interested me, what really caught my eye were the two errors in the title. 

It should have read "¿Cómo se dice 'brand loyalty'?".

• All questions in Spanish begin with an inverted question mark.
• The first "o" in "como" needs to have an accent; omitting it changes the meaning of the word.

Why is this important?  Because mistakes like this communicate that you don't value your Latino customers enough to produce good work.  The translators pooh-poohed in the article would have caught the errors and corrected them before the article was posted. 

The authors explain that targeting the growing Hispanic market goes beyond simply translating your ads.  True, understanding the cultural aspects that drive behavior is vital to developing an effective marketing strategy.  But what message are you sending to consumers when you ignore grammar and punctuation?  What will they think of your brand when what you write is wrong?

That you really don't care. 

http://www.pandltranslations.com