If you seem to be noticing more languages being spoken by your customers and clients, it's not your imagination!

With just a bit of research, you'll find that over 300 languages are being spoken today in the United States. Here are just three authoritative resources with strikingly different totals:

• ETHNOLOGUE.com - 245 languages "The number of individual languages listed for United States is 245. Of those, 176 are living languages, 4 are second languages without mother-tongue speakers, and 65 have no known speakers."


• WIKIPEDIA.org - 337 languages spoken or signed, of which 176 are indigenous and 52 languages are now extinct.


• US-ENGLISH.org - 322 languages "There are 322 languages spoken at home in the United States."

Ethnologue, in particular, has some interesting "language maps" for where you live and work. Check them out here:

We at "In Other Words" will occasionally address the increasingly important topic of multicultural marketing. This is one of those issues.

If you're an occasional reader of Advertising Age, you may have seen a recent issue where columnist Bill Imada interviewed Michelle Scales, director of diverse segments for Wells Fargo Bank.

In the interview, Ms. Scales described exactly why Wells Fargo continues to be a leader in reaching out to its limited English proficient (LEP) customers.

There was a time early in Language Line Services' history when the great majority of our clients needed us to help them react to their LEP callers.

Today, though, more and more of you are becoming proactive, using our interpreters for customer interviews and outgoing marketing campaigns.

If your organization is looking to communicate with the various ethnic communities you serve, we think you'll enjoy reading this Advertising Age article.

Photo courtesy of centinel via Flickr.com

The web page for Language Line's "LanguageTrak" service brashly declares:

Then it goes on to describe in detail what LanguageTrak is, how it came about, who's behind it, and why you as a multicultural marketer should care.

You can certainly read that page, but that's not what this particular article is about.

The other day GlobalAtlanta.com, "Atlanta's International Business News Source", interviewed Language Line's Governments Marketing Manager, Greg Holt.

Columnist Trevor Williams then wrote how LanguageTrak proprietary research for his city's population identified some Atlanta language statistics that, if used by forward-thinking marketers, could be very useful.

Trevor's story begins like this...

"How does an American company handle an inquiry in the Diula or Pashtu languages?

"What about Taishanese, Tigrinya or Tongan?

"Organizations across the metro area are having to answer that question more frequently as they encounter native speakers from a wide catalog of tongues..."

Take a moment now to read the rest of "Atlanta Drawing Speakers of Diverse Languages" here.

Quite often something published in another email newsletter catches our eye.

Following is a brief item in Acento's "Hispanic Market Newsletter" that, in turn, points to an AdAge.com article and its unique look at our Hispanic American neighbors.

"According to AdAge.com, if you're looking to reach upholders of traditional American values, your best bet might be the Hispanic market. We agree.

"One of the most remarkable aspects of Hispanics in America is how closely they exemplify our idealized concept of 1950's America.

"They are young (their median age is about where the whole nation was in 1955) and...

"more often live in large, traditional, married-with-children families with lots of participation from grandparents.

More often than not, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hispanics eat family meals at home.

They're moving to the suburbs, tend to be community-oriented, and have high aspirations for their children.

In short, Hispanics are the "sweet market" for consumer goods and services that the entire nation used to be when baby boomers were young.

If this brief article piqued your interest, there are more where that came from.

In each issue there several interesting articles about how American companies are practicing the fine art of multicultural marketing. Makes for smart reading.

Get your free subscription to Acento's "Hispanic Market Newsletter" just by jotting off a note to Steve Roth at sroth@acento.com

Interested in an ongoing dialogue about Language, immigration and culture?

Follow Language Line Services and our company president, Louis Provenzano on Twitter.

• Language Line Services' - Cross-Cultural Update for July 2010. Useful Cultural News, Tips and Timely Information


• "Obama Gets it Right in Arizona" by Louis Provenzano in the HuffingtonPost.com


• MetroLatinoUSA.com Interviews Habib Serrano, First Nationally Certified Medical Interpreter


• Medical Interpreters Embrace Nation's First Certification Through Independent Board. As Interpreters Become Certified, National Medical Interpreter Certification Program Improves Patient Safety Process

Read more Language Line Services news here >>

Language Line Services, the leader in language interpretation, is seeking to increase its interpreter team in many languages, as well as offering a wide variety of corporate openings.

Dual Role Interpreters in California

An exciting new opportunity is available to experienced interpreters living in the Los Angeles area. Interpreters will now be able to do both on-site, face-to-face interpreting as well as over-the-phone interpreting in the following languages: Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, Farsi, Armenian, and Japanese.

As for over the phone interpreters only, we have openings in a number of languages including:

• Balochi,
• Chamorro
• Chin
• Chru
• Chuukese
• Edo
• K'iche
• Kotokoli
• Mixteco
• Mam
• Punu
• Tigre
• Spanish work-at-home Interpreters (USA), and
• Dual Role Interpreters (over the phone AND on-site) in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange Counties (CA, USA)

And, finally, among non-interpreter positions, here is a selection for which we are interviewing:

• Account Manager
• Data Entry Clerk - Customer Contracts
• Graphic Designer/Production Artist
• Inside Sales - Lingo Systems division
• Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains Application
• Sales Associates
• Sales Executive Government - West Coast
• Senior Sales Executive (one each in: Business Partnership Development; General Markets; Government; Healthcare)
• Onsite Interpreter Trainer
• Portuguese Senior Language Supervisor

For non-interpreter positions, please apply at: www.languageline.com/careers. Click on "Apply Today" under "Corporate Careers" and follow the directions to add your profile.

EEO/AA Employer.

* Some positions may have been filled by the time you apply. However, new positions open every week.

Visit our Career Center here >>

Each month you'll receive our free monthly email newsletter...

featuring news, tips, interviews, surveys, stats, special offers and other useful information to help you better serve limited English speakers.

If you enjoyed this issue, share it with your colleagues and friends. Just ask them to visit our website and subscribe.

They'll receive the bonus "11 Tips for Working with an Interpreter" as our way of saying thank you.

By the way, your information will never be shared with anyone, ever! See our Privacy Policy here.