The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) passed last year will significantly increase the number of people on insurance plans.  Some insurance industry analysts estimate that there will be an additional 44 million enrollees, many of whom do not speak English as their first language.

The PPACA requires that health plan details as well as benefit, prescription, and treatment information be “culturally and linguistically appropriate.” In other words, the information must be translated into languages other than English by July 1, 2011.

Are insurance providers prepared to meet this deadline?

I recently spoke to someone preparing an estimate to produce a 20 minute film. One of the components that she needed to include was the cost of translating the script from English to Spanish. The only problem was that the script hadn't been written yet, but I was able to give her a number for the estimate. 

If you find yourself in this situation, you can roughly calculate the number of words that your script will have. Here's how:

Speech Count

• The average person reads 3 words per second
• The average person reads 88 words in 30 seconds
• In one minute, the average person reads 170 words

For a twenty minute script, there would be approximately 3400 words. This does not take into account pauses or scenes when there is no voiceover, but it gives you something to work with.

Two thousand words is a good day's work. - Evelyn Waugh

The same can be said for translation. We are frequently asked how long it will take to translate a document and the answer depends on several factors. The quality and complexity of the original text affects how quickly a translator can work. Most translators can translate 2,000 words a day or about eight pages.

When the translator is finished, the translation is edited and proofread by a second translator. While this process doesn't take as long as the original translation, it also needs to be built into the schedule.

The Chinese New Year begins on Thursday, February 3rd and ushers in the Year of the Rabbit. People born during a rabbit year are said to be considerate, fragile, modest, calculating, ambitious, well-mannered, fashionable, obsessive,  and sophisticated. Sting, Tiger Woods, Angelina Jolie and Orson Welles were all born in a rabbit year.

If you eat the right foods, good luck, more money and a long life may be in your future. Here are a few to try.

For a long life: Eat long noodles or long green beans.

Why?: For their shape but don't cut them into smaller pieces.

For wealth:  Eat dumplings or eggrolls.

Why?: Egg rolls resemble gold bars and dumplings look like old Chinese silver and gold ingots.

For good luck: Eat oranges and tangerines.

Why?: The Chinese words for these fruits sound like luck and wealth.

Happy new year, Xin Nian Kuai Le, 新年快乐.
 

Photo by Andrew_B under Creative Commons license.