Social Media, Latinos, and the New Marketing Environment
As the marketing atmosphere changes and evolves faster than ever with new technological developments and new ways for companies to connect with their customers, we are seeing more companies reach out to their Spanish-language audiences. One way that they are doing this is by translating their web pages into Spanish. But they’re also going further […]
The Importance of Providing Written Translations of Company Policies
While US labor laws require that employers provide translations of certain kinds of information regarding company policies to Spanish-speaking employees, the laws which are currently on the books do not necessarily cover all of the information that these employees require. As a result, it is not unheard-of for employees with limited English abilities to be […]
Frankenstorm: The Perfect Storm with a Perfect Name
Can a new word become part of a language before the event it refers to officially happens? That seems to be what happened with “Frankenstorm” — the storm currently terrorizing cities and towns along the East Coast. Paul Payack, the president and chief word analyst of Global Language Monitor, which tracks word usage in the […]
Communicating for Life: The Language Barrier in Health Care
Learning a foreign language for the purpose of living in another country goes beyond mastering the basic conversations one might have on a street corner. With the complexity of life, comes the wide variety of situations that a person must know how to navigate in their new language in order to get by. But even […]
Indigenous Influence on the Spanish Language
The history of the lexical influences that have come into contact with the Spanish language is one steeped in geography, politics and colonization. When Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas representing the Spanish crown, he was immediately put into contact with various native groups and tribes with their own respective languages. As colonization spread out […]
The Dynamics of Language and Sociolinguistic Norms
Language change is a well-documented phenomenon and one that has contributed greatly to the idea of language as a dynamic, evolving form of communication. This evolution manifests in everything from vocabulary to syntax, punctuation and accent. Because it encompasses so many influences over a period of time, language change is generally too gradual to make […]
The meaning of ‘yirar’
Argentine Spanish is strewn with words and colorful phrases from Lunfardo, a rich vocabulary born on the streets of Buenos Aires in the second half of the 19th century. Now considered a fixture of the Spanish language in Argentina (especially in and around Buenos Aires) and Uruguay, linguists cite the use of Lunfardo as a […]
Take a Butcher’s at Cockney Rhyming Slang
What exactly is Cockney Rhyming Slang and where does it come from? Is it still used today? Was it developed for particular social or political reasons? There are many worthy questions surrounding the use, creation and development of Cockney Rhyming Slang and there’s a lot of fun to be had too in the practice of […]
Courting Votes and Taking Notes: The Delicate Act of Appealing to Latino Voters
A recent BBC article picked up on a gaffe U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made while trying to appeal to Latino voters in this year’s upcoming election. In fact, many news outlets ran the story, noting that it fits into a tradition of presidents or presidential candidates embarrassing themselves before the largest minority group […]
A Guide To Peruvian Slang
In many places, slang is a natural inhabitant of the Spanish language. It’s so common, and yet so often different depending on the country, that people can sometimes find themselves in an embarrassing situation saying something they didn’t intend. It is particularly prevalent in Peru, where so many native languages and cultures intermingle. So taking […]
