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Language Line Services Newsletter
July 2007

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Welcome to In Other Words.

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In this issue
  • Services for You, Your Staff and Your Customers
  • QuickChart - More Limited English Speakers in Your Community
  • New Report from the Pew Hispanic Center
  • Gung ho, Tycoon, Amuck
  • Thank You For Subscribing to ?In Other Words?

  • QuickChart - More Limited English Speakers in Your Community
    immigration chart

    Here's a link to the full 2005 report


    New Report from the Pew Hispanic Center
    PewHispanic1


    Size and Characteristics of the Unauthorized Migrant Population in the U.S.

    With immigration in the news and on the minds of politicians, social activists, broadcasters and immigrants themselves (legal and otherwise), this Pew Hispanic Center report is particularly timely.

    The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that there are currently 11.5 to 12 million unauthorized migrants living in the United States. This estimate is based on data from Census 2000, the March 2005 Current Population Survey (CPS) and the monthly Current Population Surveys through January 2007.

    The report, by the way, uses the term "unauthorized migrant" to mean a person who resides in the United States but who is not a U.S. citizen, has not been admitted for permanent residence, and is not in a set of specific authorized temporary statuses permitting longer-term residence and work.

    Highlights of the report

    • Since 2000, growth in the unauthorized population has averaged more than 500,000 per year.
    • In the March 2005 estimate two-thirds (66%) of the unauthorized population had been in the country for ten years or less.
    • Unauthorized migrants accounted for 30% of the foreign-born population in 2005.
    • Most of unauthorized migrants came from Mexico. There were an estimated 6.2 million unauthorized Mexican migrants in 2005.
    • About 2.5 million unauthorized migrants, or 22% of the total, have come from the rest of Latin America.
    • There were 5.4 million adult males in the unauthorized population in 2005, accounting for 49% of the total.
    • There were 3.9 million adult females accounting for 35% of the population.
    • In addition, there were 1.8 million children in the unauthorized population, or 16% of the total.
    • Unauthorized migrants accounted for about 4.9% of the civilian labor force in March 2005, or about 7.2 million workers out of a labor force of 148 million.
    • The unauthorized were 21% of the workers in private household industries.
    • They were between 12% and 14% of all the workers in food manufacturing, farming, furniture manufacturing, construction, textiles, and food services.

    You can download and read the full report here.

    Additional Fact Sheets available below:

    The Labor Force Status of Short-Term Unauthorized Workers

    Recently Arrived Migrants and the Congressional Debate on Immigration


    Gung ho, Tycoon, Amuck

    One of the chief characteristics of English is its teeming vocabulary, an estimated 80% of which has come from other languages!

    Linguistic borrowing has occurred over many centuries, whenever English speakers have come into contact with other cultures, whether through conquest and colonization, trade and commerce, immigration, leisure travel, or war.

    While English has borrowed most heavily from the languages of Europe and the Near East, it has also acquired many loan words from Asia, sometimes through the intermediary of Dutch, the native language of the merchant-sailors who dominated the Spice Islands trade in the 17th century.

    Many of these borrowed words no longer seem foreign, having been completely assimilated into English.

    Some examples are boondocks, gingham, and ketchup. Others are still strongly associated with their country of origin, such as terms for specific "ethnic" dishes or the different schools of martial arts.

    Chinese & Korean Words

    Cantonese (southern China, Hong Kong)
    chop suey, from a word meaning "miscellaneous bits."
    chow, related to chop in chop suey, from a word meaning "food, miscellany."
    kumquat, a small citrus fruit.
    typhoon, from the words for "great wind."
    wok
    yen, meaning a "yearning" or "strong desire."

    Mandarin (Beijing, China; official national standard)
    gung ho, a motto used by the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society, from words meaning "work together." It was picked up by U.S. Marines during World War II.
    kow-tow, from words meaning "to knock [one's] head."
    kung fu, from gong fu, meaning "skill, art."

    Korean
    tae kwon do, meaning "trample-fist-way."

    Japanese Words

    aikido, from words meaning "mutual spirit art."
    futon, a type of mattress.
    geisha, from gei, meaning "art" and sha, "person."
    hara-kiri, from hara, meaning "abdomen, bowels" and kiri, "to cut."
    honcho, from a word meaning "squad leader."
    judo, from words meaning "soft way."
    jujitsu, from words meaning "soft arts."
    kamikaze, is translated literally as "divine wind," from the name of a typhoon that saved Japan by destroying the Mongol navy in 1281.
    karaoke, from kara, meaning "void, empty" and oke(sutora), meaning "orchestra." In a case of reverse borrowing, the Japanese word okesutora came from the English word orchestra.
    karate, from words meaning "empty hand."
    kimono
    ninja, from nin, meaning "to endure" and ja, "person."
    ramen, ultimately from the Mandarin Chinese words for "pulled noodles."
    rickshaw, from jinrikisha, meaning "person-strength-vehicle."
    sake, a rice wine.
    samurai, "warrior."
    shogun, "general."
    soy
    sushi
    tofu, originally borrowed into Japanese from Chinese.
    tsunami, meaning a "large ocean wave."
    tycoon, from taikun, meaning "great prince." Used as a title, the word was originally borrowed into Japanese from Chinese. It was brought to the U.S. after Matthew Perry's visit to Japan in 1853 and 1854. Members of Abraham Lincoln's cabinet used it as an affectionate nickname for the president. Later it was applied to business magnates such as J. P. Morgan.

    Malay & Tagalog Words

    Malay (Malaysia and Indonesia) amuck (or amok)
    batik
    cockatoo, from Malay kakatua, via Dutch.
    gingham, borrowed from Malay into Dutch (ginggang), and from Dutch into English.
    ketchup, from kicap, meaning "fish sauce."
    launch, a type of boat.
    orangutan, from orang, meaning "man" and hutan, "wilderness, jungle."
    paddy, from padi, meaning "rice, rice field."
    rattan
    sarong

    Tagalog (northern Philippines)
    boondocks, from bundok, meaning "mountain." During the U.S. occupation of the Philippines, the word was adopted by American soldiers, who used it to refer to any far-off or wild place. Later it passed into the general vocabulary.

    Polynesian Words

    Hawaiian
    hula
    luau
    ukelele, from words meaning "flea jumping."

    Tahitian
    tattoo, introduced to the English-speaking world by Capt. James Cook in his account of his voyage around the world from 1768 to1771. Sailors later brought the actual custom to Europe.

    Tongan
    taboo, like tattoo, occurs for the first time in Capt. James Cook's journals.

    May is Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month - a celebration of Asian and Pacific Islanders in the United States. For much more information, click here.

    By permission:
    Imbornoni, Ann-Marie. "Gung ho, Tycoon, Amuck." Infoplease.
    © 2000-2006 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease. 28 Apr. 2006
    < http://www.infoplease.com/spot/asianwords1.html>.


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