Tag Archive for 'US'

Providing Financial Services to the “Unbanked”

Published on November 26, 2008 in Latinos, Spanish Translation and Translation Buyers. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , .

An article from the website Hispanic Bank Marketing cites that roughly 56 percent of Latinos are currently “unbanked,” meaning that they do not use financial institutions to keep their money safe and grow their savings.  Why such a high percentage?  The usual suspects of distrust, lack of accessibility, language barriers, and lack of understanding about how financial institutions can help come into play.

So what can banks and credit card companies do to reach out to this growing demographic in such a way that builds trust and shows Latinos how using financial institutions can be beneficial?

1. Having Spanish translations of flyers, publicity, forms, and contracts is always an excellent start.

2. Since online banking is becoming easier every day, a bank should have an easily navigable website available in Spanish.

3. At least one fully bilingual staff person should be available to answer questions, process transactions, and open accounts.

  • 4. Banks and lenders may want to consider providing financial literacy training in community settings (such as at churches or community centers) with the aim of educating potential customers rather than selling products.
  • 5. Once a bank representative finds a group to provide onsite financial literacy training to, she can offer add-on services such as one free credit counseling session at the bank.

Many Latino immigrants arrive in the U.S. with alternate ways of saving money.  An example of this is the Mexican tanda which allows a group of people to pool their savings over time so that each receives a large lump sum, then used to make a larger purchase or down payment.  And though remissions to family in one’s home country are decreasing in this economy, many Latinos continue sending potential savings back home. 

Most likely the latter situation will not change, and is indeed an important part of the Latino immigrant experience.  But by working with Latinos who are uneasy about putting their savings in the bank or nervous about cutting into their remissions, financial institutions can educate Latinos about alternate ways of savings and creating a long term safety net for their families both here and abroad.

Latinos “Moved the Needle” in 2008’s Historic Election

Published on November 12, 2008 in Latinos. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

As we mentioned in an earlier Transpanish Blog post, several groups pushed for Latino permanent residents to apply for citizenship in time for this year’s election.  In fact, one in five new voters is Hispanic.  Both Obama and McCain spent millions reaching out to Hispanic voters, especially in the swing states.  These campaigns, along with non-partisan groups which encouraged Latinos to participate in civic life, made the votes of Hispanic citizens critical to the presidential race.

So what does this mean for Obama’s success?  One well-known blogger says that Latinos voted against the Republicans and not for Obama.  Tejeda’s blog offers some fascinating commentary about Latinos and politics, and is worth a read.  In an Oppenheimer Report released before the election, the point is made that Obama’s almost flawless Spanish pronunciation and use of the familiar tu, may be disingenuous and make Latinos think that he’s more on their side than he actually is.

In Colorado and Florida, both key states, Latinos voted more than ever before.  In Colorado, the number of Latinos who voted more than doubled from the 2004 election.  A Colorado Independent article cites Pew Hispanic Center data showing that Latinos in Colorado made up 17 percent of total voters, up nine points from the 2004 election.

In Florida, Obama was the first Democrat to win the vote of the majority of Latino voters.  While nationwide, Obama won by a larger margin, no other democrat has ever taken Florida since they begin doing exit polls in the 1980s.  Older Cubans typically vote Republic, but Florida is experiencing a demographic and generational shift, as non-Cuban Hispanics and younger people of Cuban descent lean towards the blue.  The Miami-Herald reports on what this may mean for Florida’s political landscape.

The Pew Hispanic Center, as always, provides detailed demographic info about Latinos in the U.S. and their report on the exit polls is no exception.

Of course, Obama hasn’t yet articulated a plan for immigration reform and Latinos themselves certainly don’t have a uniform stance on immigration.  But whatever opinion Latinos have of immigration in the U.S., the NALEO Educational Fund is an incredible resource for Latinos who want to participate more deeply in civic life.

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month!

Published on October 1, 2008 in Latinos, News, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators and Translation Buyers. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

We are right in the middle of Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15th to October 15th.  These 31 days are meant to celebrate the rich cultural heritage of the U.S.’s largest linguistic and ethnic minority.  The month-long homage to the contributions that Hispanics (those who trace their roots to Spanish-speaking countries) appropriately begins on September 15th, which is Independence Day for five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.  Mexico’s Independence Day is September 16th and Chile’s September 18th. 

President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaimed the week that includes September 15th and 16th to be National Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968 and in 1988, the observance was expanded to an entire month.  Each year there is a theme, and the theme of 2008 is Getting Involved: Our Families, Our Communities, Our Nation, which was chosen from the top five suggested themes.

Local and federal governments, private industry, community organizations, and media all contribute to the offerings throughout this month and the Internet is a great resource to learn about the impact Hispanics have made on this country as well as events that are happening across the country.

The U.S. Census Bureau provides a great set of statistics on Hispanics in the U.S. in honor of this month in such categories as Population, Businesses, Families, and Jobs.  To read the stats and find links to the original sources of information, click here.

The Smithsonian Institute’s list of teaching resources gives a broad set of tools to begin exploring the range of ways that Latinos have contributed to our country. 

AOL’s Latino Tu Vida channel is a portal to popular Latino culture with quizzes, info about Latino celebrities, and recipes.  To sample these eclectic, entertaining offerings, start here.                                                               

These three links are just the beginning to exploring the rich and diverse culture that Hispanics bring to America.  With two weeks left to the month-long celebration, try to attend one of the many celebrations and educational events happening across the country.  Here are two links to calendars of events: Smithsonian calendar and National Council of La Raza calendar. 

More resources:

Hispanic Community in US

Spanish Language

Books: Hispanic Community/Latinos in US

Bilingual Education in the U.S.

Published on August 6, 2008 in English Language and Spanish Language. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

If your goal is to become fluent in another language, many times total immersion is the best practice. However, this is not the case for young recent immigrants in public schools because they also must become proficient in the subject matter of instruction. This is where bilingual education comes in.

Bilingual education and its alternatives have been up for political and moral debate. Its proponents posit that mastering English, literacy, and subject matter simultaneously is too overwhelming for most students and that a combination of instruction in one’s native language and in English is necessary for success. Its detractors state that bilingual education retards the mastery of English which in turn retards students’ acquisition of knowledge in all areas.

There are varying levels and approaches to bilingual education, roughly broken into the following strategies:

  • Transitional: the goal is to transition English language learners into English-only classrooms as quickly as possible and provides content instruction in the student’s native language while they learn English.
  • Two-Way or Dual Language: these programs are designed to teach both native English and non-native English speaking students to be bilingual and biliterate.
  • Specialized Dual Language: subjects are taught in the students’ second language with bilingual teachers who can field students’ questions when they need assistance in their native language. Literacy instruction in students’ native language is also provided separately.
  • Late-Exit or Developmental: Students are educated in their native language for an extended period of time, complemented by education in English.

The debate over bilingual education takes place within a larger political and social context, which may be to the detriment of students’ acquisition of knowledge of both English and material in content areas. Furthermore, while bilingual education might be effective practice in areas of the country where there are fewer native languages spoken, the system becomes unwieldy and impossible in areas where immigrants come from all over the world.

For more resources on bilingual education, both for and against, follow these links:

National Association for Bilingual Education

Twisted Tongues: The Failure of Bilingual Education

The Case Against Bilingual Education

California Association for Bilingual Education

Voting en Español: The U.S. Presidential Race

Published on June 11, 2008 in News, Spanish Language and Spanish Translation. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

With an estimated population of 44.3 million as of July 2006, Hispanics are the nation’s largest ethnic minority in the U.S. It’s no wonder that the three main presidential hopefuls (McCain, Obama, and Clinton until just recently) spend a lot of time and money courting this powerful demographic. The political realm is always convoluted and ever-changing, but throughout the presidential race, each contender has reached out to win over the Hispanic community in a variety of ways and to different degrees.

Each candidate has his or her webpage translated into Spanish and clicking through their online information and rhetoric shows varying levels of commitment to swaying the Hispanic vote in their favor.

Take, for instance, Obama’s Spanish language website. While all the navigational buttons are in Spanish, when you click on Temas (Issues), you are taken to a page in English. He also hasn’t updated his blog since the beginning of May. For an in-depth discussion of Obama’s website, click here.

Senator Hillary Clinton’s Spanish language website has a substantial amount of information and commentary in Spanish. But her navigational buttons are all in English and you must scroll down to the bottom to get to the Spanish information on the right sidebar.

John McCain’s website en Español has the most attractive, eye-catching layout and you can access the majority of his website in Spanish. Upon opening the website, a voice over from a former Cuban political prisoner presents support for McCain’s campaign.

Of course, the measure of a presidential candidate’s dedication to the Hispanic community can’t be solely determined by how well his or her website is translated. Each candidate has aired Spanish language TV and radio spots and both Clinton and Obama have released campaign songs in Spanish. Continue reading ‘Voting en Español: The U.S. Presidential Race’

Spanish usage in US

Published on April 30, 2008 in News and Spanish Translation. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

On April 23, 2008 Transpanish posted a blog article about the movement to cultivate the usage of “proper” Spanish on the Internet. Remember that this movement originated in Spain. But what import does this movement have on Spanish speakers residing in the United States? The usage of proper written and spoken Spanish may still be of import in university Hispanic Studies or translation studies programs in which students are working from documents written by native Spanish speakers. But the reality of spoken and written Spanish and how they’re used in the U.S. is very different from what the Real Academia Española purports.

Take the following points into consideration:

• Mainly monolingual Spanish speakers immigrate to the U.S., but by the third generation, the descendants of those immigrants are primarily English speakers.

• The children and grandchildren of first-generation immigrants generally speak some Spanish, but are educated in English and therefore do not have a background in the conventions of written Spanish.

• Spanish speakers in the U.S. are extremely heterogeneous with regard to their educational level and country of origin.

• Spanish speakers, regardless of their fluency in English, must to some degree navigate an English speaking world.

The result of these combined points is that Spanish spoken in the U.S. is constantly transforming and deeply informed by English, which results in the unique language that we refer to as Spanglish.

Spanglish is the popular term for what linguists refer to as code-switching, which can be either mixing English and Spanish terms within the same sentence (i.e. “Voy a hacer un appointment” instead of “I’m going to make an appointment”) or transforming words from one language by applying the conventions of another (i.e. parquear instead of to park). Spanglish can only be used when both the speaker and listener are equally versed in both Spanish and English, the numbers of which are constantly growing.

Because of this, those who market to Spanish, English, and Spanglish speakers have to be flexible and aware of the truly fluid nature of language use in this country. A good translation agency will be able to help clients navigate the constantly transforming landscape of Spanish as it is spoken in the U.S.

Certified Translations in the U.S. and Abroad

Published on February 25, 2008 in Spanish Translation and Translation Buyers. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

While the words “certified translation” may bring to mind a translation that has gone through a rigorous process to check its validity, in the United States the reality is much simpler. A certified translation is simply a translation accompanied by the source text and a straightforward signed statement in which the translator attests to her ability to translate the material and the accuracy of the document.

Most documents granted by any government body must include a certification of accuracy along with the translation. The following is not an exhaustive list, but will give you an idea of which translations may require a certification from the translator:

  • Birth certificates
  • Marriage certificates
  • Transcripts
  • Identity documents
  • Immigration documents
  • Wills

Some clients may request that the translation be signed by a notary public to add an extra layer of assurance that the translation is correct and complete. In these cases, the notary public simply adds her signature and seal to prove that she has witness the translator sign the certification.

Continue reading ‘Certified Translations in the U.S. and Abroad’

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