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Confucius Launches Chinese Online Test and Programs

The Confucius Institute and XuetangX have launched a platform for students around the world who want to learn Chinese and pass the HSK proficiency tests. The courses are available at www.chinesetest.cn. Beginners can register and access the course HSK Tsinghua Chinese: Start Talking with 1.3 Billion People.

The most attractive part of this course is the fact that it is closely connected with the HSK tests. There are exercises for the tests at the end of each unit. After completing the program, students who get more than 60% will receive an HSK (Level I and II) score report issued by Chinese Testing International (CTI).

HSK is China’s only standardized test of Chinese language proficiency for nonnative speakers. The new six-level HSK test was launched by Hanban in an effort to better serve Chinese language learners. It is the result of coordinated efforts by domestic and foreign experts from different disciplines including Chinese language teaching, linguistics, psychology, and educational measurement.

According to the president of XuetangX, Li Chao, “For months, our company and the Confucius Institute have been working together with the University of Tsinghua to enable the study of Mandarin in a simple and modern format. Research shows that students listen to lectures more attentively if they have been given a problem or task to solve before the lecture. In this regard, the structure that most MOOCs have—short video lectures alternating with assignments and quizzes—is perfect.”

XuetangX is a leading platform for lifelong learning, with more than nine million registered users.

Tamazight Protests Hit Algeria

Algeria national flag on flagpoleProtestors in northern Algeria are calling on the government to fund promotion and preservation of Tamazight, their indigenous language.

The protests come after the Algerian government rejected an amendment to next year’s budget that would have formalized the teaching of the Tamazight language in local schools.

Students and other activists have rallied against the decision, which they say highlights the country’s wider rejection of the language and identity of its Berber citizens, also known as the Amazigh.

Lemnouar Hamamouche, a sociology student at the Abderrahmane Mira University of Bejaia, in Algeria’s northern region of Kabylie, told the Al Jazeera news network, “A social upheaval is coming,” claiming that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s government has not allocated any funds to boost the language at the national level.

“The popular masses are starting to protest” because they “reject the fact that [the state] is marginalizing a mother tongue” like Tamazight, said Hamamouche, a member of the local coordination committee for students at Bejaia.

Dozens of protesters blocked a road in Bouïra Province, and protesters clashed with security forces at rallies.

Algeria’s Kabylie region is at the heart of the struggle for Amazigh rights.

Hsain Ilahiane is an anthropology professor at the University of Kentucky, originally from Morocco, and the author of the Historical Dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen).

Without reliable figures, Ilahiane estimates that between 15 and 50 million people speak dialects of Tamazight across countries in North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Mediterranean.

“When one speaks about Tamazight or language in North Africa, whether it’s in Algeria or Libya or Morocco, you’re really speaking about politics of identity,” he said.

He said the struggle to recognize the Tamazight language has “been a long time coming.”

According to Ilahiane, in the late 1950s, as Algeria was fighting for an end to French colonial rule, a split occurred between Algerians who wanted a pluralistic society that would incorporate all ethnic groups and Algerians who wanted to anchor the state in the Arab and Islamic world.

Similar situations developed in other North African countries too. In 2011, Morocco recognized Tamazight as an official language.

“Tamazight has been discriminated against since the independence days of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and so on,” Ilahiane said.

Tamazight Now ‘Official’

In earlier versions of the Algerian constitution, the first of which was passed in 1963 after Algeria gained independence from France, Arabic was named the country’s sole “national” and “official” language.

An amendment to the constitution made Tamazight a second “national” language in 2002, and the state pledged to “work to promote and develop [the language] in all its linguistic varieties.”

A revised constitution, which entered into force last year, went even further, naming Tamazight as the state’s second “official” language.

It also created the Algerian Academy for the Amazigh (Berber) Language, which is responsible for promoting Tamazight “in view of cementing, in the future, its official language status.”

A similar process occurred in Morocco, which recognized Tamazight as an official state language in 2011.

But according to Ilahiane, designating Tamazight an official language does not mean much if the state does not invest in its use in state institutions. ”We have Tamazight in the constitution, but the central question then becomes, what do you do with Tamazight once it’s officialized?

“How do you implement that? How do you generalize, instate, propagate the use of Tamazight in state official business, from education, health, in media, in [the] legal system?” he said.

“It’s great to say that it’s official. We are all happy, we clap… But you need a budget; you need funding.”

Protest in Paris

That is what the protesters are calling for. Their push for Tamazight language rights has spread to Algerian diaspora communities as well.

A group called Les Kabyles de Paris (The Kabyles of Paris) organized a protest in the French capital to show solidarity with protesters in the Algerian region of the same name.

Organizers hope the rally “will be a strong signal [of solidarity] to our brothers and sisters [in] Kabylie that continue to fight every day for our identity,” they wrote on the event’s Facebook page.

“Coming together for Tamazight is also to come together for democracy, liberty, equality, brotherhood, solidarity, [and] secularism.”

Spanish Media Lacking Diversity

rainbow flag lgbt wavingGLAAD, the pressure group for acceptance of the LGBTQ community, has released its second annual Spanish-language media report, Still Invisible/Todavía invisibles (https://www.glaad.org/stillinvisible-todaviainvisible). The bilingual report analyzes the LGBTQ characters in primetime scripted television airing in the U.S. between July 1, 2016, and June 30, 2017, and finds that only 3% (19) of the 698 characters seen in primetime (7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.) were LGBTQ. Of these characters, 30% died and six did not have motivations of their own and only served to further other characters’ storylines.

“As the Trump administration continues its attack on marginalized groups, it’s more important than ever that television share the stories of those groups onscreen,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD president and CEO. “Still Invisible shows a severe lack of LGBTQ representation in Spanish-language programming—something sorely needed in a time when the country’s Spanish-speaking and immigrant populations are more at risk than ever.”

Still Invisible also found a severe lack of diversity among the LGBTQ characters. Of the 19, 13 were gay men, three were lesbians, two were bisexual women, and one was a transgender woman. No series offered any trans or bisexual men.

To accompany the report, GLAAD also launched the #PantallaInclusiva/#InclusiveScreens campaign, which calls for more inclusive, nonstereotypical representation across multiple identities on all media, especially Spanish-language media. The campaign also includes artwork from ten Latinx LGBTQ artists to illustrate messages related to the report and other elements to spark a call for and conversation about the need for more inclusive representation.

“Like a lot of Latinx people, I love Spanish-language media. I love the voices, the points of view, the way it makes me feel connected to my native Uruguay,” noted GLAAD’s director of Spanish and Latinx media representation, Monica Trasandes. “But, like a lot of Latinx people, I’m tired of being invisible. I want to sit down like I did as a kid and watch TV with my family and not roll my eyes or walk away annoyed at seeing yet another stereotypical portrayal.”

Still Invisible comes on the heels of GLAAD’s English-language television report Where We Are on TV (https://www.glaad.org/whereweareontv17), which found that despite an increase in the number of LGBTQ characters, nuanced and complex stories were still lacking.

Paper Books are Better in Bed


Many of us choose to end the day curled up in bed with a good read, and as technology revolutionizes the publishing industry and convenient, sexy e-readers replace bulky, paper-cut-inducing books, more and more of us take a gadget as a bedfellow— but a new study suggests that paper books are better in bed. Light-emitting e-readers have detrimental effects on the circadian rhythm, or body clock. According to researchers, evening use of light-emitting e-readers suppresses the release of melatonin, harms sleep quality, and even affects next-morning alertness.

Assistant professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State, Anne-Marie Chang, explained, “Electronic devices emit light that is short-wavelength-enriched light, which has a higher concentration of blue light — with a peak around 450 nm — than natural light.”

The researchers, led by Chang, observed 12 adults over a two-week period and asked participants to read for four hours prior to bedtime and compared when they read from a tablet to when they read from a paper book, paying special attention to melatonin levels, sleep, and morning alertness. Researchers used hourly blood samples and a polysomnograph to measure sleep quality. After a night of e-reading, participants took an average of 10 minutes longer to fall asleep and had lower-quality sleep than when they read from books.

“Our most surprising finding was that individuals using the e-reader would be more tired and take longer to become alert the next morning,” remarked Chang. “This has real consequences for daytime functioning, and these effects might be worse in the real world as opposed to the controlled environment we used.”

According to the 2011 Sleep in America survey, 95% of people in the U.S. reported using some sort of light-emitting device, such as computers, tablets, and cell phones, within the hour before bedtime. In the same survey, 63% of Americans expresses dissatisfaction with their sleep during the week.

“We live in a sleep-restricted society, in general,” said Chang. “It is important to further study the effects of using light-emitting devices, especially before bed, as they may have longer term health consequences than we previously considered.”

 

 

 

 

 

The Disintegration of Our Schools

Daniel Ward argues that expansion of the school voucher system could undermine integration

Growing up in a multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic, multilingual environment is the basis for the establishment of the integrated society that most of us claim to want for our children. Many of us would prefer a multilingual and religiously diverse environment as well, as it may provide the best chance for survival in an increasingly radicalized world. However, the desegregation of public schools in the U.S. is faltering and may even be on the decline. Unfortunately, federal education policies are set to accelerate this decline unless action is taken to reverse it soon.

The U.S. public education system is based on the core principles of equality and inclusion; however, schools are about as segregated today as they were 50 years ago. While racial segregation plummeted between the late 1960s and 1980, it has steadily increased ever since, mainly due to school districting, demographic shifts, and private preferences. The result is that 37% of our public schools are one-race schools—nearly all white or all minority (“Brown at 62: School Segregation by Race, Poverty and State,” UCLA Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, May 2016).

Many policymakers argue that public schools are failing, especially in urban areas, and parents are just exercising their right to seek the best education for their children, so they move to areas with better schools or seek out charter schools. However, the reality is more complex, as there is little evidence to support the claim that charter schools are more successful than other public schools and plenty of examples of for-profit charter school failure in economically disadvantaged areas.

A federally backed school voucher system would exacerbate the problem.

Voucher supporters argue that school choice will allow low-income and minority children to go to a school with their more affluent white peers, but David Berliner and Gene Glass have shown that school choice increases segregation, leaving minority students in under-funded public schools (50 Myths and Lies That Threaten America’s Public Schools, 2014).

New research from the Albert Shanker Institute (“Public and Private School Segregation in the District of Columbia,” September 2017) suggests that private schools are a major factor in the segregation of children in Washington, DC’s public schools. So much so, in fact, that if segregation between black and white students within public schools were completely eliminated, over half of total segregation would still remain, specifically because of how segregated the student populations are between public and private schools.

Another report (White Growth, Persistent Segregation: Could Gentrification Become Integration?), released last month by the UCLA Civil Rights Project, shows that DC’s most rapidly gentrifying areas have seen a decline in racial segregation, more so in traditional public schools than in charter schools.

America’s public school system is one of the nation’s greatest achievements because it is for every child, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, language, income, or legal status. By encouraging states to implement voucher systems to fund enrollments in private schools which are not subject to the same standards and free to exercise religious or cultural bias, the administration may not only undo decades of progress in social integration, it may undermine the cohesive fabric that bonds together this country’s disparate mix of races, ethnicities, and religions.

 

 

Macron Sees Bright Future for French

 

Burkina Faso

French president Emmanuel Macron said his native tongue would “be the first language of Africa” and “perhaps of the world.”
Speaking to students in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, the French president, who is currently on a tour of West African nations, added that French should not be viewed as a “relic of a colonial power.”
He said, “It is not just a heritage to be protected. It has a future and this future is playing out in Africa . The radiance,  the attractiveness of French does not just belong to France.”
Macron was on the three-day regional tour to improve relations with France’s former colonies and boost cooperation on migration, terrorism, and human rights. He told students in Ouagadougou that slavery and human trafficking in Libya were a “crime against humanity” and that he wanted a “European-African initiative” to end the “terrorists’ and human traffickers’ strategy.”
He pledged to end a history of “Francafrique”—a term often used to criticize France’s relations with its former colonies—saying, “I haven’t come here to tell you what is France’s African policy, because there no longer is one, there is only a continent that we need to look
straight in the face. The crimes of European colonization are unquestionable… It’s a past that needs to pass.”
Shortly before his arrival in Burkina Faso, authorities said several people were wounded by a hand grenade aimed at French soldiers, the Associated Press reported.

Brazilian Literature Goes Global

Kristal Bivona hopes Kindle catches fire in Brazil

Brazilian literature has been a well-kept secret from the rest of the world for decades. While Hispanic countries in Latin America have been exporting their literary production since the Boom of the twentieth century, comparatively few Brazilian authors have reached an international audience. To the horror of Brazilian literary scholars, many international readers can only name one Brazilian writer: Paulo Coelho. However, governmental and private sector investments are attempting to change that by promoting Brazilian literature abroad.

The Brazilian government is anteing up over US$35 million to fund a program over the next eight years that aims to inject Brazilian literature into international markets by funding translations into other languages, grants to publishers outside of Brazil to promote Brazilian publications in translation and in other Lusophone countries, and travel grants to send Brazilian authors on world publicity tours. Meanwhile, Brazilian publishers, authors and translators are preparing for the 2013 Frankfurt Book Fair, where Brazil will be the Guest of Honor. International companies are also looking to Brazil as an untapped digital publishing market.

Last month’s announcement that e-commerce leviathan, Amazon, closed deals with some of Brazil’s largest publishers, including Globo, Objetivo, and most recently Companhia das Letras is more evidence that Brazil’s culture industry is bleeding into the rest of the world. With the new Brazilian Kindle Store, readers everywhere have access Brazilian literature in a digital format. Additionally, Amazon is offering  Portuguese language reading apps for Android, iOS, Mac and PCs.

“With the collaboration of Penguin, […] we seek to experiment with new formats and make our catalogue available to the most channels possible, giving more freedom of choice to the reader,” said Companhia das Letras editor Luis Schwarcz in a statement. “The agreement with Amazon and our conversations with other international players represent another step in this direction.”

For the growing number of Portuguese speakers in the U.S., the possibility of accessing ebooks is good news considering the rarity and high cost of traditional books in Portuguese.

Brazilian literature is also becoming increasingly available in translation. With a new issue of Granta literary magazine released in November entitled The Best Young Brazilian Novelists (issue number 121), readers around the globe can absorb texts on the cutting edge of Brazilian literature.

“We buy Brazil’s clothes, we admire its football, we dance to its beats, but the dream-life of the nation – something contemporary fiction creates in a unique and vital way – remains mostly invisible to us, simply because of a lack of translation,” explained Granta editor John Freeman. “I’m hoping this issue can change that a little, and introduce writers who will be with us for decades.”

The international release of The Best Young Brazilian Novelists and the availability of Brazilian ebooks abroad are part of a general push to share Brazil’s culture with the rest of the world.

 

Kristal Bivona is an assistant editor at Language Magazine.



Youthquake Hits Oxford

Today, Oxford Dictionaries announced its Word of the Year 2017 is YOUTHQUAKE (noun /ˈjuːθkweɪk/), defined as a significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people

In a statement, Oxford Dictionaries explained its selection: “2017 has been, without doubt, a year of seismic cultural, political, and social shifts played out across the globe. But it was the so-called political awakening of the oft-maligned millennial generation which generated the word of 2017.”

Announced as the chosen word in a blog post and video, youthquake saw a 400% increase  in usage between 2016 and 2017, following the British general election where much debate focused on the mobilization of young voters in supporting opposition parties. Aftershocks have been felt across the world, including in New Zealand and in France, and whether or not they experienced a youthquake, the word certainly highlights the increased awareness of young people’s capacity to influence, and even drive, political change.

However, despite so aptly capturing the mood of 2017, youthquake is not a new word but rather one that is newly prominent this year and being used in different contexts. Based on the formation of the word ‘earthquake’ and originally coined in the 1960s by then-Vogue editor, Diana Vreeland, to describe how British youth culture was changing the world’s fashion and music, youthquake was resurrected this year to be used in a new context.

“Youthquake may not seem like the most obvious choice for Word of the Year, and it’s true that it’s yet to land firmly on American soil, but strong evidence in the UK calls it out as a word on the move,” says Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Dictionaries.  In a dedicated blog post, Grathwohl notes, “We chose youthquake based on its evidence and linguistic interest. But most importantly for me, at a time when our language is reflecting our deepening unrest and exhausted nerves, it is a rare political word that sounds a hopeful note. Sometimes you pick a word as the Word of the Year because you recognize that it has arrived, but other times you pick one that is knocking at the door and you want to help usher it in.. This past year calls for a word we can all rally behind.”

Susie Dent, consultant to Oxford Dictionaries, said: “There’s not a lot of sunshine in the standout words this year. Words like Antifa, and kompromat speak to fractured times of mistrust and frustration. In youthquake we find some hope in the power to change things, and had a little bit of linguistic fun along the way. It feels like the right note on which to end a difficult and divisive year.”

The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a word or expression chosen to reflect the passing year in language. Every year, the Oxford Dictionaries team debates over a selection of candidates for Word of the Year, choosing the one that best captures the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of that particular year.

In alphabetical order, the shortlisted words (along with Oxford’s definitions and context) for the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2017 are:

Antifa noun- a political protest movement comprising autonomous groups affiliated by their militant opposition to fascism and other forms of extreme right-wing ideology

Antifa is a shortening of ‘anti-fascist’ and has morphed over time to become a proper noun used to refer to an extreme anti-fascist movement. Originally a loan word from German with usage dating back to WWII, Antifa is only becoming widely used in English now and its pronunciation and grammar are still very much in flux. Our current definition uses a capital letter and gives two pronunciation forms: primary stress can either go on the first syllable (as it would for the word ‘antifascist’) or on the second syllable as with Spanish words like ‘tortilla’. Use of the word skyrocketed following high-profile protest movements across the world this year and it looks set to become a permanent part of our current political lexicon.

broflake noun (informal, derogatory) – a man who is readily upset or offended by progressive attitudes that conflict with his more conventional or conservative views

Lexically, broflake combines two prominent trends in 21st century English lexical innovation: the appropriation of terminology from one’s political opponents and the popularity of compounds using ‘man-’ and ‘bro-’ to refer to male behaviour and characteristics. Spawned by the growing derogatory use of ‘snowflake’ to refer to an overly sensitive or easily offended person, progressive activists reversed this by combining the ‘-flake’ from ‘snowflake’ with ‘bro-’to target behaviour regarded as emblematic of male privilege and anti-feminism.

Widely used to deride conservative figures when they revealed their own sensitivities around issues such as female-only spaces and challenge the idea of the male experience as a default, broflake was being used in social media by late 2016 but appeared for the first time in mainstream sources this year and is now spreading to social media in non-English languages. It is a word that not only emerged in 2017 but truly captures some of the most hotly debated issues underpinning it.

gorpcore, noun – a style of dress incorporating utilitarian clothing of a type worn for outdoor activities

A 2017 fashion trend, the word gorpcore was created by combining ‘gorp’, an American term for trail mix and frequently thought to be an acronym for ‘good old raisins and peanuts’ (although this is unsubstantiated), with the suffix ‘-core’ taken from ‘normcore’. It refers to a trend for functional outdoor clothing worn for fashion, rather than for practical reasons.

Popular with fashion commentators in 2017, gorpcore was celebrated for capturing an idealism in the outdoors—without its wearers necessarily having to directly interact with anything more wild than the leafy suburbs—as well as bringing comfort to the upper reaches of designer fashion.

kompromat noun – compromising information collected for use in blackmailing, discrediting, or manipulating someone, typically for political purposes

A loanword from Russian, kompromat is a blended abbreviation of the phrase komprometirujuščij material (compromising material), which is ultimately derived from those English words, making this a sort of ‘boomerang loanword’, in which an English word is adopted into a foreign language, changed and remixed, and then borrowed back.

Kompromat hit the headlines at several points throughout 2017 following high profile accusations against politicians across the world and shadowy suggestions of secret dossiers. The prevalence of kompromat this year underlines the global nature of our political interchange as well as our free flow of language between different countries and cultures.

Milkshake Duck noun – a person or thing that initially inspires delight on social media but is soon revealed to have a distasteful or repugnant past

Imagine a milkshake-drinking duck. Beloved of the online community for its innocent and adorable milkshake-drinking antics. Cute, right? But then you find out that this duck is actually a rampaging racist… Voilà, the quintessential ‘Milkshake Duck’!

Originating in the Twittersphere in 2016, ‘Milkshake Duck’ has become a way to refer to any person or thing that gains fleeting popularity for something seemingly pleasing, only for a deeper exploration to reveal unfortunate truths about their past or opinions, typically a connection to or history of some form of bigotry. It saw a spike in usage in June 2017 following some unfortunate revelations about a popular game developer.

newsjacking noun – the practice of taking advantage of current events or news stories in such a way as to promote or advertise one’s product or brand

Remember when La La Land was named Best Picture instead of Moonlight? And remember how Specsavers jumped straight on that meme band wagon? The internet loved it – a perfect example of how newsjacking came to the fore this year.

The term itself originates from the 1970s where it was used in reference to the theft of newspapers in order to sell them to scrap dealers. The current usage has been around throughout the early 21st century and the technique utilized by savvy marketers for years. The strength of feelings around the themes and stories that were the focus of this year’s newsjacking campaigns and the support or backlash they inspired ensured that “newsjacking’”took a slot on this year’s Word of the Year shortlist.

unicorn adjective [attributive] – denoting something, especially an item of food or drink, that is dyed in rainbow colors, decorated with glitter, etc.

The “rainbowfication” of the world’s foodstuffs has been on our radar (and Instagram feeds) since 2016 but peaked this year with the launch of a Unicorn Frappuccino by Starbucks in April. Bringing the trend fully into the mainstream, 2017 will go down in history as the year that we all had our fill of unicorn lattes, unicorn bagels, and even, unicorn grilled cheese…

white fragility  noun – discomfort and defensiveness on the part of a white person when confronted by information about racial inequality and injustice

Coined in a 2011 journal article by the U.S. academic and educator Robin DiAngelo, white fragility reached the mainstream this year as questions of racial equality ran close to the surface of debate across the world. With evidence for the term’s use particularly strong in university newspapers, white fragility encapsulates a key undercurrent of political and cultural debate in 2017 and could not be overlooked for this year’s Word of the Year shortlist.

Bookworm Gets the Girl

James Snyder photo credit: Philicia Endelman.

If you’re in the Los Angeles area over the holidays and are looking for hugely enjoyable way of impressing the value of reading on kids, look no further than the Lythgoe Family Pantomime Beauty and the Beast: A Christmas Rose, now playing at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

Being British, I may be biased in favor of this oh-so Anglo tradition, but my three Californian, surfer-dude sons (12,10 and 8) all said it was the best show they’d ever seen and that it might even inspire them to read more. This is interactive theater with today’s pop hits, superbly-choreographed, and executed, modern dancing, performed by an all-star cast, with the timely message of never judging a book by its cover.

Kelli Berglund photo credit: Philicia Endelman.

In addition, Lythgoe Family Panto (LFP), in association with Pasadena Playhouse, announced that the opening night celebration of the world premiere of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST – A CHRISTMAS ROSE at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on Wednesday, December 13 will benefit Give Kids Panto, a non-profit educational program, serving yearly over 5,000 Title 1 students across America, many of whom will see theatre for the first time through this program.  All funds raised that evening will go to support the Panto student matinees for LAUSD and PUSD students.

Live theatre Pantos are produced across the country and Give Kids Panto raises funds so that theatre production companies can add a student matinee to their performance schedule. Give Kids Panto supply the bus, organize the bus and buy the tickets to the performance for these shows.

For tickets, visit www.Ticketmaster.com/PantoPasadena or call 626-449-7360.

My Linguistic Career

Nataly Kelly looks at full-time and freelance opportunities for world languages teachers
in translation and interpreting

Translation and interpreting offer two distinct career paths with ample opportunities for linguists to put their skills to use in exciting areas. From video game localization to interpreting for astronauts in outer space, from translating Harry Potter books to accompanying heads of state on diplomatic missions overseas, translation and interpreting offer many career opportunities to inspire and encourage students to learn foreign languages while allowing them to pursue other interests as well.

A Fast-Growing, Recession-Resistant Industry

The market for outsourced translation and interpreting is worth more than US$33 billion globally in 2012, according to the latest estimates from Common Sense Advisory. The market is divided into numerous segments with written translation making up by far the largest component, followed by on-site interpreting, which refers to spoken language interpretation services that are provided in person. Another important segment of the market is software localization, which involves not only translating text so that software can be used in other languages, but preparing the software for international use and acceptance in a given market.

Other services exist too, such as telephone interpreting (in which interpreters render information verbally over the phone), multilingual subtitling, and trans-creation (also known as cultural adaptation or multilingual copy-writing). Within the U.S., many industries have suffered job losses due to global economic uncertainty – but the opposite has occurred for jobs in translation and interpreting. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that from 2010 to 2020, the number of jobs for interpreters and translators will increase by 42%, compared with just 14% for all occupations, and only 13% for other jobs classified in the “media and communications” field.

Where the Jobs Are

The vast majority of translators and interpreters are freelancers, but there are many organizations that offer full-time positions too. Full-time positions for interpreters are available at hospitals, courts, and schools in nearly every major city in the U.S. Most cities also have translation or interpreting agencies serving the local market. These firms do not usually employ translators, but they hire individuals with language backgrounds for other jobs — such as project management, account management, and sales positions. Typically, they offer freelance assignments to translators and interpreters. However, students need not limit their dreams of job prospects to within U.S. borders. The Canadian government’s Translation Bureau has more than 1,700 employees. Many international organizations, such as the United Nations, have an ongoing need for translators and interpreters. Some even visit universities in the U.S. to recruit students on campus.

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation employs 2,500 people who translate information into and out of 23 different languages, and the European Parliament has 350 full-time interpreters on staff. Even some manufacturing companies — including major European automobile companies — hire in-house translators for their research and development or technical documentation teams. Nearly every industry that requires companies to communicate across languages relies on translation at some point. If a company sells its products to customers who speak other languages, chances are there is translation taking place at that company.

This means that students can find work in areas that combine their other interests with their language skills. For example, many Major League Baseball players come from Japan or Latin America, so there has been an increase in demand for interpreters who not only speak those languages but who also are knowledgeable about baseball. Similarly, professional players in other sports — such as basketball, hockey, and golf — require professional interpreters too. Interpreters who are specialized in sports can end up interpreting for the Olympic Games or the World Cup. Even the astronauts working with the International Space Station depend on teams of full-time interpreters and translators.

As another example of how passions and interests can combine with language skills to become a career, students who are passionate about engineering or technology can work in the field of localization. In fact, there are many translators who spend their workdays testing the newest video games and coming up with the best ways to translate the information that appears on the screen or recording voice-over material. Similarly, there are many translators who are highly specialized in a given area, such as health care, financial, or legal fields. Some translators even earn a living from translating material related to fashion or cosmetics, while others translate breaking news from around the world.

Getting Started

Translation and interpreting require different skill sets, so the choice between the two tracks generally needs to be made before choosing program.

Prospective students are expected to have advanced fluency in two or more languages before they can begin studying translation or interpreting, and language proficiency tests are often required before students can enroll. For both professions, additional education is a must. Translators must learn to use computer-assisted translation tools and terminology management software. Interpreters, on the other hand, must learn how to take notes, improve their memory skills, and quickly render information accurately in different modes, such as consecutive and simultaneous. Unfortunately, there are not many formal degree programs in the U.S. for these fields, but the number is increasing. The Monterey Institute of International Studies in California offers some of the best-known graduate-level degree programs for translation and interpreting.

Many of its graduates go on to interpret at the United Nations, to translate for the Department of State, and to work in prestigious positions throughout the world. The University of Arizona has a program that prepares students to take the federal court interpreter exam. In the U.S., there are several universities that offer undergraduate programs and certificate programs, such as the University of Minnesota, Century College, Virginia Commonwealth University, Bellevue College, and University of Wisconsin.

There are also several community college programs. The American Translators Association (www.atanet.org) publishes a helpful list of relevant schools worldwide. Some certificate programs are offered online as well, although these often do not prepare students well enough to pass professional examinations. Once students graduate from a degree program, they can sit for professional exams and certifications. Usually, professional accreditations are available for the most commonly requested languages.

In the U.S., the American Translators Association certification is the most widely recognized for translators. For interpreters, various certifications exist. Court interpreters can be certified to work in state courts, but they must take a different test to work in federal courts. Medical interpreters are not generally required to have certifications, but there are programs currently in development. Conference interpreters often take exams depending on where they wish to work – for example, the Department of State has exams that are different from the ones administered by the United Nations.

Earning Potential

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the median annual wage for interpreters and translators in the U.S. was $43,300 in 2010. However, the top 10 percent earned more than $86,410. How much a person earns can depend on many things, but there are several main determining factors. The languages a person speaks will dictate to a great degree how much work is available for them. Translators and interpreters for less common languages can typically charge more for their services because they are more difficult to find. However, there is no shortage of work for interpreters and translators who speak languages that are commonly needed, such as Spanish in the U.S. One of the biggest factors that influences how much money an interpreter or translator can earn is how specialized they are. Some translators have doctoral degrees in specialized fields such as microbiology, so they can be trusted with highly technical patent applications for life sciences firms, and they can charge more for this work.

Others might have a talent for advertising or marketing copywriting, so they can command a higher hourly rate for this kind of creative work. In general, translators charge by the word for translation services, but many also charge by the hour for other services, such as developing glossaries. Translators often charge a minimum fee and will charge more for expedited or quick-turn projects. Some translators do also charge by the page or by the line, but this is less common. Interpreters charge differently depending on where they work. Conference interpreters normally charge a minimum daily rate. Interpreters who work in courts or hospitals are often paid by the hour, but some charge a minimum fee in order to cover their travel, because they may need to drive from one city to another or across town in order to get to an assignment. Interpreters who work via telephone may be salaried, paid by the hour, or paid by the minute. Another major determining factor with regard to earnings potential is the amount of work the individual accepts.

Freelance translators and interpreters can take on as much or as little work as they wish, but they generally have to build up their own client base over time in order to ensure a steady stream of work. Translators and interpreters who are self-employed can experience peaks and troughs in income. However, given the demand for these services, most freelancers report that they have no problem getting enough work. For some languages, translators must compete with individuals who live in other countries and might be able to charge less. Interpreters who provide their services in person generally do not have this problem because they tend to work near where they live.

The need for translation and interpreting is not going away. In today’s globally connected world, demand for these services is at an all time high. Governments around the world are clamoring for more interpreters and translators. Advances in technology, such as Google Translate, only appear to be fueling demand. As more people see the possibilities offered by translation on the internet and on their mobile phones, their tolerance for language barriers is decreasing, thus fueling demand. The professions of translation and interpreting show great promise for the years to come, making the work of language educators and trainers all the more necessary.

Nataly Kelly is the chief research officer at language services industry research firm Common Sense Advisory. Her latest book is Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World, which features stories about interpreters and translators working in many of the settings mentioned in this article. She publishes a free newsletter for interpreters at www.interprenaut.com.

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