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July 23, 2008
Mayor Bloomberg, my translation role model
Many of our clients struggle with the challenge of when and how to translate communication from English to other languages spoken by employees. The fact is, translation is difficult and expensive. As a result, far too many companies avoid the issue, delegating the problem to local management and hoping that translation is occurring.
That’s why New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is my role model. Yesterday he announced an executive order requiring that city agencies offer services in the six most common languages spoken in New York City: Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian and French Creole.
We all know that New York is a multicultural city, but it’s surprising how many New Yorkers struggle with speaking English; by Mayor Bloomberg’s count, 1.8 million (out of 8 million) residents have little or no proficiency in English. And, nearly one-half of all New Yorkers speak a language other than English at home, with 25 percent of residents speaking a primary language other than English.
Having these demographic facts at his fingertips no doubt helped Mayor Bloomberg and his team make the decision to sign the order.
Here’s my question: Do you have similar demographic information about your employees? Could you draw a pie chart illustrating the major languages spoken by employees? Could you say with certainty how many employees struggle with English, and how many are proficient in English but don’t speak it as their native language?
Are you using this data to inform your translation strategy?
Posted by Alison Davis at July 23, 2008 01:39 PM
Comments
New York Mayor Bloomberg's companies allowed numerous tax warrants, tax liens, Department of Labor judgments to occur that are scattered across the country from California to New York
Here are just several
Posted by: Robert Lewis at July 24, 2008 08:36 AM
Many companies use the ostrich approach to translating by pretending that they have no need to disseminate information in languages other than English.
The question you pose begs for a call to action: if you don't have this demographic information on your employees, you should start compiling it.
Posted by: Janine Libbey at July 24, 2008 02:13 PM
Greets! Really interesting. keep working!
Posted by: bmepain at August 31, 2008 12:58 PM