In last month's newsletter, we reported that "Linguists Discover New Language in India". That discovery was a welcome exception to a disappointing trend if you are a linguist, or anyone who loves the world of languages and cultures.

According to the National Geographic Society:

"Every 14 days a language dies. By 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth-many of them not yet recorded-may disappear, taking with them a wealth of knowledge about history, culture, the natural environment, and the human brain.

"National Geographic's Enduring Voices Project (conducted in collaboration with the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages strives to preserve endangered languages by identifying language hot spots-the places on our planet with the most unique, poorly understood, or threatened indigenous languages-and documenting the languages and cultures within them."

Take a few moments to visit one of the Society's most popular websites. You'll learn about many of the world's language hot spots, the project team involved in identifying them, the expeditions they've taken, and the photos and videos that capture what they've seen.

Once again, here are the links:

• National Geographic's Enduring Voices Project


• Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages

By Louis Provenzano

The Supreme Court of Georgia's ruling that defendants with limited ability to speak English have a constitutional right to court interpreters is an important victory for 1 in 5 legal U.S. residents who have trouble with the language.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Georgia and Legal Aid Society -- Employment Law Center (LAS-ELC) had filed a friend-of-the-court brief asserting that denying Limited English Proficiency (LEP) defendants interpreters violates the U.S. Constitution and civil rights laws.

In the 4-3 decision, the court said that native Mandarin speaker Annie Ling should be granted a new trial because her attorney failed to provide her with an interpreter.

Ling had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for abusing her two children. Not only could she not understand testimony against her during the trial, she had no idea if she agreed with attempts by her attorney to clear her name.

She also did not understand it was her legal right to plead guilty, likely for a much shorter sentence than she ultimately received.

Her attorney admitted he could not communicate with Ling, but he did not to ask the court to provide an interpreter because he feared delaying the trial and irritating the jury.

Read the rest of this HuffingtonPost.com article here >>

Louis Provenzano is President & COO of Language Line Services.

Marketing to multicultural audiences has become a growing way of proactively identifying, and communicating with, new and existing customers.

In this article, Felipe Korzenny's of "Marketing Trends in a New Multicultural Society" discusses what he believes are keys to successfully increasing your organization's business with ethnic consumers and their communities.

"There are companies that have dedicated groups to deal with Latinos, for example.

"And sometimes they have separate groups to handle multiple minority groups.

"In some cases there is a multicultural marketing group as distinct from the main marketing group.

"Some companies have had niche marketing units for a while and then have disbanded them.

"Some recreate them after a while and then merge them into discrete business units.

"There may not be one recipe for how to organize the marketing function to account for cultural diversity among consumers but the following are important requirements:

"1. First and foremost, there must be members of the cultural groups of interest within the organization at most levels of decision making. These individuals should, at least conceptually, be vigilant about issues that affect their cultural communities.

"2. There should be cultural expertise in the organization that goes beyond objective culture to address the subjective culture of the groups in question. Ideally these would be cultural anthropologists that also have marketing expertise.

Read the rest of this recent posting from Felipe Korzenny's Blog, "Marketing Trends in a New Multicultural Society" here >>

"Recently, more companies than ever have begun using social media to reach multicultural consumers. "If you're wondering what's behind the trend, it stems (in part) from a recognition of the size and economic clout of multicultural groups - now about 34% of the U.S. population, with an estimated spending power of over $2 trillion.

"For companies and organizations looking for ways to connect with multicultural consumers, below are eight strategies for engagement discussed in this article:

• Include Multicultural in Your Larger Marketing Strategy
• Engage Across the Cultural Landscape
• Celebrate Culture!
• Just Say "No" to Stereotyping
• Second That Emotion
• Research Your Audience
• Test Your Assumptions
• Work the Networks

Read the rest of this Mashable.com story here >>

About the author: Jessica Faye Carter is an award-winning author and columnist. Her company, Nette Media develops social media technologies for women and multicultural communities, and she blogs at Technicultr.

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 Riverside, San Bernardino, and Orange county areas. 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 work-at-home, over-the-phone interpreters, we have openings in a number of languages including:

• Arabic
• French
• Somali
• Cantonese
• Korean
• Portuguese
• Russian
• Vietnamese

As well as...

• Bambara,
• Cakchiquel
• Cape Verdean (Portuguese Creole)
• Chamorro
• Chru
• Dakota
• Garre
• Hausa
• Lusoga
• Mankon
• Punu
• Susu
• Trique
• and several others (see our Web site)

And, finally, top Corporate opportunities include:

• Human Resources Coordinator
• Sales Executive - Federal Government
• Senior Sales Executives in Business Partnership Development, Healthcare, Government, General Markets, and Face-to-Face Interpretation
• Account Managers in Healthcare and General Markets
• Business Manager - Face-to-Face Interpretation
• Reporting Analyst - SQL Server

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 >>

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