English-to-Spanish: Hispanics in the United States

A 2007 report by the Pew Hispanic Center provides statistics about how Hispanic immigrants in the United States manage Spanish and English.

Here, we recap a few points that are of great interest for anyone involved with Spanish translations for the United States.

• 52% of foreign-born Hispanics speak only Spanish at home.
• Only 23% of Latino immigrants say they can carry on a conversation in English very well. However, for their adult sons and daughters, this figure rises to 88%.
• Only 7% of foreign-born Latinos report that they speak English mostly or exclusively at home. In contrast, 48% of their adult sons and daughters speak mainly (or only) English with their own families.
• English proficiency also correlates with educational level. 54% of newly-arrived adult Latino immigrants with college degrees speak English “very well,” compared with 34% for those with high school diplomas. Among foreign-born Hispanics without high school diplomas, only 11% say they speak English “very well.”
• Ability of immigrants to speak English also varies according to country of origin. 52% of Puerto Rican immigrants say they speak English “very well,”, compared to 39% of South Americans, 31% of Cubans, and only 16% of Mexican immigrants.
• 71% of Mexican immigrants say they speak little or no English, as do 64% of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, 62% from Central America, 57% from Cuba, 44% from South America and 35% from Puerto Rico.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Spanish Translations for Business

When translating from English to Spanish for business purposes, it is essential that the team of translators working on the Spanish translation be familiar with customary business language!

You may be surprised to learn that many freelance Spanish translators don’t come from a business background. Consequently, they may not be familiar with nuances and style conventions in commercial correspondence. When this is the case, you run the risk of receiving translations that can be overly literal, stilted, or be written in an excessively informal tone.

A professional translation agency uses teams of qualified linguists who have been tested for their knowledge of contemporary style conventions—including business language in both English and Spanish. Experienced translators know whether a given bit of jargon or business idiom should be translated, stay in English, or be substituted by some equivalent expression in the target language.

Business Spanish tends to be slightly more formal than contemporary English correspondence; for example, going to greater lengths to make requests sound less like commands. Greetings and closings also tend to be somewhat more formal, even slightly old-fashioned sounding when they are literally translated back to English. In short, there are style conventions, just as in any other language—and no matter how strong a person’s linguistic qualifications, these are no substitute for real-life experience with modern business correspondence.

Be sure to work with qualified, professional translators, whose field of expertise includes business as well as your particular technical field.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com