Elroy Ness, a resident at Sage Towers in Billings, kindled a friendship with a French woman while stationed near Paris during World War II. After he was discharged, they lost contact and he married and raised six children.

Then, after his wife’s death several years ago, the pair reignited their correspondence with the help of translators from West High’s French classes

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Having published 10,000 translations a year for nine consecutive years and offering a more diversified translation market fueled by increased international communications, China can now claim to be a translation giant.

Many translation experts, however, recently expressed concern over the unsatisfactory level of literary and day-to-day practical translations, and said China’s translation industry is “big but not strong.”

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Bettina Byrd-Giles, program director for the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Office of Diversity… defined globalization as “networks of interdependence at worldwide distances,” noting McDonald’s Corp.’s reach around the world, Mercedes’ arrival in Alabama and the outsourcing of customer call centers to India and elsewhere as examples of those networks.

With globalization will come increasing diversity, Giles said. According to research, the U.S. population should hit about 325 million by 2020, including 70 million immigrants, Giles said. The percentage of white non-Hispanics in the population will shrink to about 64.3 percent, while the percentage of blacks, Asians and Hispanics will all rise to 12.9 percent, 6.5 percent and 16 percent, respectively.

That means a changing work force and customer base and with it, the need for a better understanding of cultural differences, Giles said. For example, Americans tend to be individualistic, while many other cultures are collective. Societies that behave more collectively tend to make decisions as a group and to take longer doing it. They also tend to rely more on relationships.

While individualistic thinkers tend to be direct communicators, people who live collectively use less direct means of making a point in order to maintain the harmony of the group, she said.

Awareness of such differences can help you better understand how people behave and react to one another — and do business, she said.

“It’s a lot more than just being polite to each other.”

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Many Hispanics worry that as it grows more popular, Spanglish will erode American Hispanics’ knowledge of, and respect for, the Spanish language and culture.

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Hispanics contribute about 10 percent, or $55.5 billion, of the New York DMA’s total aggregate household income.

Another key characteristic that differentiates the area’s Hispanic community is its high concentration of wealth. Nearly one tenth of New York Hispanic households have yearly incomes of $100,000 or more, while only 7.6 percent of Hispanic households across the country earn above that income threshold. At the same time, no other DMA in the country has a higher percentage of Hispanic households earning less than $35,000 (51 percent).

Source: HispanicBusiness.com

China’s translation industry aspires for more standardized translation service and more efficient translator management, as the country’s fast economic growth and increased international communication have fueled a billion-US-dollar market for translation.

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Foreign language translation software producers have made headway into China in a bid to cash in on its growing translation market, which has been fueled by the country’s recent acceptance into the World Trade Organization and the opening up of its markets to foreign competition.

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This morning I gave a presentation on Global Culture at Marathon Oil in Houston, Texas. See the Linguistic Solutions Web site Resources page and the Linguistic Solutions Blog Global Culture category for resources.

In looking ahead to what will stand out in Hispanic marketing in 2005, Garcia360 highlights grassroots marketing as being the “big thing” most of the firm’s clients are looking for. This trend continues to be dominant, which is good news for radio stations, which have a tried and true method of grassroots marketing in ‘radio remotes’ (live location visits). A push from advertising agencies is expected for increased use of the radio remote, especially in conjunction with community events, as marketers continue to look for ways to have one-on-one interactions with consumers. This article is copyright 2004 TheWiseMarketer.com.

One of the newer local one-to-one tools is the mobile marketing unit. Some financial institutions have already tried this tactic by creating mobile banks that enter Latino neighbourhoods and try to educate potential customers on the benefits of banking – and the benefits of their brand. Some companies, such as AOL Latino, have also used this idea for product demonstration. Some brands have been using it for years, such as Nike – you can see the mobile units at the Inner-City Games, showcasing sports products and co-branding efforts with sports celebrities.

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BBC Wales has developed a computer programme that enables English translations for users of Welsh language websites.

The programme, Vocab, is available free of charge to Welsh-language websites. When users hold the cursor over a word, its translation appears.

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America is making up its collective mind about globalization. New data says most of us like globalization and want it to continue

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Localization World — a conference devoted to localization — will be held on November 15 – 17, 2004, at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco. The three-day event consists of one day of preconference workshops and two days of conference sessions, exhibitions and networking.

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“Hispanic is by far the preferred term nationally but especially in New Mexico,” F. Chris Garcia said.

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A conference in London last month organized by the Economist and the Wharton/INSEAD Alliance, entitled “Delivering Profits in the Global Economy,” focused on such issues as growing a global business, leadership in the global organization, branding, and decentralized vs. centralized management structures.

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Who needs a pocket translator? Just send an SMS to the TOMP (Translation On Mobile Phones) service from A3UK at 88800 stating the word TOMP followed by the languages to translate from and to (choose among English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch) and then any word or phrase, e.g. TOMP ENGLISH SPANISH TWO PAELLAS PLEASE, and within seconds you’ll receive a reply. e.g. DOS PAELLA POR FAVOR. Hat tip: Smart Mobs.