¿HABLAS ESPAÑOL? Officers practicing Spanish to improve communication with Hispanic residents
The language barrier in St. Joseph between English- and Spanish-speaking communities is being broken down in small steps. St. Joseph Police Department training officer Marla Wilson said in an effort to bridge the cultural gap, 15 officers, as well as other officials and members of the community, recently participated in a three-day Spanish language training […]
Police receptionist in Anderson helps break Spanish language barrier
ANDERSON — Nora Punales was happy to get a job at the Anderson Police Department as a receptionist. Turns out, the police department got a bargain; Punales speaks fluent English and Spanish. Those skills have helped the department and Hispanic visitors or prisoners cross the language barrier nearly every day. It’s not that she’s not […]
Delicate work in translation
A letter to the New York Times Book Review complained that Gerald Martin, the biographer of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, had not given due respect to Marquez’s translators. Martin raves about Marquez’s “gorgeous sentences,” but the letter writer complains that he “neglects to mention whether he read those sentences in Spanish or English.” I have often […]
LACMA learns to tweet en Español
Today, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art officially went bilingual on Twitter. The museum launched a Twitter account, @enLACMA, that will provide Spanish-language tweets to online users. “We were looking for new ways for Spanish speakers to engage in the museum, and this is the next natural step,” said museum spokeswoman Allison Agsten. LACMA’s […]
3 more schools add bilingual immersion programs
The popularity of dual-language classes in Ventura County schools continues to grow, with three schools starting programs this fall. Ventura Unified School District started a two-way immersion kindergarten class at Montalvo School about a decade ago. Five more dual-language programs have since come online at elementary and middle schools in Camarillo, Rio, Hueneme and Ventura. […]
Hispanics have a wild card to play
Did you know that Hispanics are less impacted by the recession, and their overall outlook about the condition of our economy is more optimistic? They are also more avid shoppers and have a tendency to react better to TV advertising than the general population. The Hispanic consumer is able to rebound quicker to trends than […]
Translators Wanted at LinkedIn. The Pay? $0 an Hour.
About half of the 42 million members of LinkedIn, the online professional networking Web site, are outside the United States, and to further expand internationally, the company hopes to be translated into more than its current four languages — English, Spanish, French and German. But when LinkedIn asked thousands of its translator members to complete […]
Lost in translation: Latinos and the bilingual divide
What’s best for Latino students who struggle with English? Should they be taught through bilingual education or are English-only programs the way to go? The answer for a school district in Charlotte, N.C., seems to be a strong combination of both. At the Collinswood Language Academy (kindergarten through sixth grade) students spend half their day […]
White House Preparing To Launch Web Site In Spanish
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–The White House is preparing to launch a Spanish-language version of its Web site, Whitehouse.gov, by the end of the year, according to the company doing its recruiting. Earlier this week, Rock Creek Strategic Marketing sent out four job postings that, when filled, will expand the first White House Office of New Media […]
Credit union staff learning to speak Spanish
In the basement below United Educational Credit Union’s lobby on Riverside Drive, nine employees commit to memory the phrases, “This is a deposit slip,” and, “How can I help you?” in Spanish. Some of its credit union tellers, asset managers and maintenance staff were learning a few banking-related phrases to help bridge language and cultural […]
