Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload by Stever Robbins. Hat tip: Online Business Networks.

In yet another example of government-endorsed multilingualism gone awry, election officials in San Diego County, Calif., are recalling more than 8,000 copies of the Spanish edition of the local Voter Guide after discovering that the translations were, according to one translator, “horrific.” The 8-1/2 x 14 booklet is being taken from local libraries and city halls after a host of errors were found, including missing words, absent accent marks and incorrect spelling.

“The San Diego voter guide represents just one of thousands of ballots, election handbooks and voter information materials that have been translated for this election,” said U.S. English Chairman Mauro E. Mujica. “There is no telling how many other translation errors have been made, or how many more will crop up between now and Nov. 2. One can only imagine the effect these may have on what is expected to be an extremely close election.”

The rise in translation errors is tied to the rise in multilingual materials as required by recent additions to federal law. The Department of Justice has been relentless in its pursuit of enforcing the unbalanced act, which mandates multilingual voting materials for languages such as Spanish and Japanese, but not others such as Arabic and Italian. In all, more than 300 counties nationwide have been forced to offer ballots in as many as six languages.

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Wireless companies and record labels see salsa music as the next ring with bling for cellular phones.

Both industries are attempting to gain leverage in the Latin ringtone market, offering more merengue as a hook for Hispanic consumers. Industry executives say the demographic is relatively untapped for companies that sell ringtones. And at $1.50 to $1.99 for each tune, wireless companies and record labels stand to build rapidly on a $3 billion industry.

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“Beware the CEO blog,” says Seth Godin. Since Seth Godin isn’t up for comments on his blog, this CEO with a sense of candor, urgency, timeliness, pithiness, controversy, and utility will post his comments here and invite yours and Seth Godin’s in return. “My work in the world is about sharing and acquiring knowledge globally, through the awesome power of languages and technology…” (from my life plan). That’s why I founded Linguistic Solutions. That’s why I started the Linguistic Solutions Blog.

The Nebraska Supreme Court will be examining the accuracy of a Spanish translation of the Miranda rights.

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Greg Thibodeaux sent me a link to a Houston Press article featuring our mutual friend Matt Mullenweg, lead developer of WordPress, on which the Linguistic Solutions Blog runs (thanks to Matt and another mutual friend, Scott Allen).

U.S. Hispanic purchasing power has surged to nearly $700 billion and is projected to reach as much as $1 trillion by 2010, according to new estimates by HispanTelligence®.

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HispanicBusiness.com announces HispanTelligence Hispanic market projections for 2005 planning.

Justice Department auditors found that 123,000 hours of untranslated material in languages used by terrorists remained unreviewed in July, and that the FBI is having trouble organizing its workload to focus on the agency’s highest priority cases. The agency has reacted to media reports on an audit with denials and objections, often sidestepping the primary criticisms.

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See Federico García Lorca’s Yerma performed (in the original Spanish) tonight at 8:00 p.m. at the University of Houston’s José Quintero Lab Theatre. Admittance is free.

I was in attendance at the Houston WordPress Meetup Group Monthly Meetup this afternoon. Matthew Mullenweg, lead developer of WordPress and the organizer of the group was absent. In his abscence, Dennis Williamson used the Linguistic Solutions Blog to give attendees John Beck, Jonathan Abad, Lee Wilkins and Marcus Major a look at version 1.3 of WordPress.

I was in attendance at the Houston Interpreters and Translators Association quarterly meeting this morning. Presentations were given on improving one’s memory and on the ethics of interpretation.

As the fastest growing minority group in the US, the Hispanic market is capturing the attention of marketers, advertisers and companies representing all sectors of the business community. Hispanic buying power is expected to explode to $926.1 billion by 2007, making it larger than Canada’s gross domestic product and representing 9.4% of America’s total buying power.

To help businesses understand the “Hispanic” market, Chain Store Guide presents the “Top 50 Hispanic Markets Report: Your Retail & Foodservice Guide to Hispanic Marketing.” This report establishes the link between the market demographics of the Top 50 Hispanic Markets and retailers serving those markets.

Findings of the report include:

— Average per capita income for Hispanics living in the profiled markets
is $11,949.

— Washington-Baltimore, with the majority of its Hispanic population
describing itself as Central American, has the highest per capita
income for Hispanics at $16,673. With a Cuban population at almost
45% of its total Hispanic population, Miami-Fort Lauderdale Hispanics
represents the second highest per capita income at $16,483.

— Among retailers, Wal-Mart and Walgreens are the leaders in serving the Hispanic community, having stores in 48 and 46 of the 50 markets,
respectively. Wal-Mart’s average market share is 37.3% among discount
stores in those markets while Walgreens’ average is 40.3% on the drug
side.

— Grocery market share is not quite so cut and dried. The H.E.B.
Grocery Company is number one in the eight markets in which it appears
with 55% average market share. Publix leads in the five profiled
markets in which it has stores with 44% average market share. Safeway
and Kroger serve approximately 20 markets each with an average market
share of 21.4% and 18.8%, respectively. Safeway takes the top spot
in eight markets, while Kroger leads in six. Albertsons never leads
in market share, but serves 32 of the profiled markets.

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Covina, CA–(HISPANIC PR WIRE – BUSINESS WIRE)–October 6, 2004–Today, IKEA, the world’s leading home furnishings retailer, officially launched a multi-media, U.S. Hispanic marketing initiative. The effort, which includes Spanish-language TV spots and the company’s first U.S. Spanish-language catalog, was kicked off at a series of home solutions workshops led by TV celebrity Lesley Ann Machado at the IKEA Covina store.

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The Hispanic population boom in the US has sent companies scrambling to win a piece of the lucrative pie.

According to the The Selig Center for Economic Growth, Hispanic buying power for 2002 totaled $580 billion, with a predicted compound annual growth rate of 8.7%. (The standard rate for non-Hispanics is 4.8%.)

The center’s study predicts that by 2007 the dollar power of Hispanics will rise to $926.1 billion. The Hispanic community clearly holds a great deal of economic clout, which certainly explains why marketers are vying for its attention.

Unfortunately, many marketing campaigns are ineffective. Here are the top three reasons.

1. Advertising for Service-Related Products, But Not Educating

2. Translating Accurately—but Not in a Culturally Appropriate Way

3. Marketing Without Bilingual or Bicultural Staff

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