The Localisation Research Centre (LRC) and MultiLingual Computing, Inc., have produced Localization Reader 2004-2005 for the International Third-level Localisation Teaching, Training and Research Network (LttN).

The reader is available in PDF form at http://www.localisation.ie/publications/reader/2004/index.htm and at http://www.tilponline.org/LttN/annual_localisation_reader.shtml

The reader consists of articles published in the magazines MultiLingual Computing & Technology and Localisation Focus from October 2003 through September 2004. It is intended for use by teachers and students of localization and translation.

Localisation Focus is published quarterly by the LRC at the University of Limerick, Ireland. LRC director Reinhard Schäler is its editor.

Localisation Research Centre, University of Limerick, CSIS, Castletroy, Limerick, Ireland, Tel: 208-263-8178, Fax: 353-61-20881, E-mail: LRC@ul.ie, Web: http://www.localisation.ie

MultiLingual Computing, Inc., 319 North First Avenue, Suite 2, Sandpoint, ID 83864-1495 USA, Tel: 208-263-8178, Fax: 208-263-6310, E-mail: info@multilingual.com, Web: http://www.multilingual.com

Blogger web-logging service, which was acquired by Google Inc. last year when it bought the service’s creator, Pyra Labs Inc., has broken away from its English-only status. Blogger is now available in nine other languages: Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Brazilian Portuguese. This first phase of the service’s internationalization involves key Blogger sections, such as its sign-in and account pages. Translation of the Blogger posting interface is to follow.

Google, Inc., 2400 Bayshore Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, Tel: 650-623-4000, Fax: 650-618-1499, E-mail: press@google.com, Web: http://www.google.com

Tegic’s T9 Text Input version 7.2 offers enhanced multi-lingual support, which makes it easier for users to alternate between languages when texting. It is not uncommon for users to switch back and forth between languages when speaking or writing to friends and family. Yet mobile users currently have to manually select or change the language in which they want to text in order to do so. The new multi-lingual enhancement changes this by recognising the language a user is typing in and automatically predicting the word in the language the user is most likely to want.

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One in five babies born in the United States is Hispanic. Hispanics are 33 percent more likely to buy toys than non-Hispanics. Growth in the population of Hispanic kids younger than 9 is expected to outpace non-Hispanics by 23 percent by 2010.

Adding it all up, Hispanic families are a natural market for toys.

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“Marketing to US Hispanics: From Mass Marketing to ‘Más’ Marketing” — December 1, 7:30-10:00 A.M. at the William V. Phillips YMCA Training Center, 2122 East Governor Circle, Houston, Texas 77092

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In the globalization, internationalization, translation and localization (GILT) industry, where responsiveness and timeliness are a must, mobile customer relationship management (CRM) and project managment (PM) become a must also (unless, of course, you like being chained to your desk). This attention deficit disorder (ADD) GILT industry CEO must be free to roam. The answer: Gadgets. Lot’s of ’em! That and GSM, GPRS, Bluetooth, WiFi, smoke signals, etc. Whatever it takes to stay connected with customers. I call it “High Tech/High Touch: Using Technology to Stay Connected with People” (High Tech/High Touch is a term I borrowed from Megatrends author Naisbitt). My customers call it customer service. They don’t know where I am when I answer their phone calls and e-mails and they dont’ care either. All they know is: They call or write, I answer. This morning, I wrote the following succinct reviews: My 3 newest gadgets.

An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whisky, followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles; treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines.

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A report from Chain Store Guide finds that Hispanic buying power is expected to reach $926.1 billion by 2007. This represents 9.4% of America’s total buying power.

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Wharton Marketing Conference panel of speakers addresses Hispanic marketing segmentation by national origin and level of acculturation, strategic marketing initiatives, Latin American competition, ‘unbanked’ Hispanics, assimilation, shopping habits and other challenges.

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And speaking of ketchup, have you heard the contagious tune “The Ketchup Song (Hey Hah)” by Spain’s “Las Ketchup.”

Strategic Research Institute’s blockbuster forum 11th Annual
Marketing to U.S. Hispanics & Latin America, scheduled for January 24-27, 2005
at the Wyndham Miami Beach Resort in Miami

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They are four people who signed confessions to murders written in a language they said they don’t understand…

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NEW YORK — Hispanic households across America will sharply increase both their numbers and economic clout over the next ten years, The Conference Board reports [November 11, 2004] in a comprehensive new study.

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Great article on Hispanic Marketing: Latinos and Lucre by Malcolm Beith, Newsweek International.

Hispanics will substantially boost their U.S. economic clout over the next several years, according to a study by The Conference Board released Thursday.

The number of Hispanic households is expected to grow at a faster pace than that of any other group in the United States, continuing a demographic explosion that began several decades ago, according to the study.

The number of Hispanic households in the country will climb from 10 million-plus today to 13.5 million by 2010, up from less than 6 million in 1990. These households will control $670 billion in personal income six years from now, according to the study.

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“Translation is an enterprise demanding a heart that could abide loneliness.” This is a refrain constantly heard in the Fifth Session of the Council Meeting of Translators’ Association of China (TAC), held in Beijing from November 4 to 7.

“The nature of a translator’s work requires us to render a message and disappear,” said Betty Cohen, president of the International Federation of Translators who honoured the conference with her participation. “We are so accustomed to disappear that we forget how indispensable we are.”

It is estimated that since the 1990s about 30 per cent of the books published each year in China are introduced from abroad. But while the translated books are jostling with each other on bookstores’ shelves, their translators appear to be increasingly remote from the public focus.

As a result, the TAC’s decision to hold a ceremony to pay homage to 41 translators with long and outstanding literary translation career during the council meeting, held once every five years, is considered as one of the much-needed steps to hopefully secure the profession from public indifference.

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