The recent news items below underscore the importance localization will take for companies wanting to carry their business globally. As the internet continues to break down the barriers between cultures, the ensuing response will be demands from state officials like these for increased preservation of their native tongues.

MONTREAL -- The French foreign minister praised Quebec's determination to defend the French language in North America, saying Friday that the region has set an example for all Francophones.

"The more globalization is present, the more the Internet makes the world a village, the more we want to belong to a strong identity," he said.

Meanwhile...

Bandar Seri Begawan – A senior government officer has urged the Language Council of Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia (MABBIM) to vigorously develop the Malay language to be the lingua franca of the region in all aspects - including science and technology.

Tags: French | Malay | Language | globalization | localization

This article from the Washington Post on a highly successful bilingual car salesman is a must read for anyone who wishes to market to Hispanics in the U.S. German Vidal is deft and nimble with the two cultures he's selling to, knowing not only when to speak their language, but how to reach them at the emotional level where their dreams and aspirations lie.

He's an American archetype, permanently imagined in a plaid jacket, not to be trusted 100 percent, with a million-dollar smile and a gold-plated pitch: Tell me what I can do to put you in this car today!

But when this archetype speaks Spanish? The meaning of the transaction shifts. He extends a promise to immigrants working hard to get off buses, out of junkers, away from the deadly and sidewalkless thoroughfares of their sprawling new frontier: This new machine, he tells them, will help you merge right into the mainstream.

Tags: Hispanic | Spanish | Bilingual | Language

The Association of Language Companies has posted an excellent brief containing some very fundamental reasons why you would want to use a language services vendor, rather than a translation freelancer. Although it is obviously quite clear to those of us at McElroy why this is a good idea, we sometimes forget that those who are new to the available service offerings in our industry might not be as familiar with concepts of terminology accuracy, quality assurance and dedicated project management.

The primary reason is to ensure accuracy, especially with industry-specific or technical information, or projects where multiple languages may be involved. Just as any organization creates a brochure, publishes a website or prepares an advertisement with the support of several editors and reviewers, translation projects also benefit from the skills and experience of multiple individuals. Accuracy in translation is the result of hiring the appropriate experts as well as providing the project management and quality assurance only a full service company can offer.

Tags: vendor | company | translation | project

This article from the Washington Post illustrates just a small part of the growing number of tourists from Asia and Europe headed to the U.S. The need for adequate communication with these guests will no doubt continue to skyrocket. "Each of the past three years, we've seen an increasing number of Japanese visitors come into the Cherry Blossom Festival Public Information Trailer who speak little to no English," Line said. "We'd like to be able to help them, to have them enjoy a better experience while here." The National Park Service has about 20 Japanese speakers signed up to help, but it needs dozens more.

Tags: Japanese | Translators | Interpreters | Tourists

An Internet developed connection brought Fred Kerr to Kuala Lumpur for the first time in his active business life. As he got off the Malaysia Airlines overnight flight from Los Angeles into the 21st century Kuala Lumpur International Airport, his first reaction was amazement. This was certainly the largest, most futuristic, most comfortable air terminal he had ever experienced. During the high-speed train journey enroute to his scheduled meeting in nearby Putrajaya, he compared his first impressions with those of someone arriving in LAX for the first time.

Texas based KerrTechnologies was following in the wake of Microsoft, Dell, Apple, Intel, and over 250 other US companies with manufacturing facilities in Malaysia seeking well educated, high work ethic labor at competitive rates.

This is a very brief article, but it clearly highlighted the importance of previous language learning to assist one with a new language and cultural task. In this case, it was a battalion of Iraqi soldiers learning Arabic, but it could just as well apply to someone learning a new language like Chinese to do business in that country.

Speaking Dutch has taught de Bruin that one language may lack an exact translation into English. The grammar between the two languages is not the same, either, he said. That has helped him get an educational leg up in Iraqi Arabic.

"In Arabic, there is no present tense," said de Bruin, 1st platoon squad leader. "That's hard for some who speak English to grasp in Arabic."

Google was recently given the highest rating in a government test (National Institute of Standards and Technology) of machine translation tools online.

Google describes its "automatic translation" as being "...produced automatically by state-of-the-art technology without the intervention of human translators." This seems like a strange word choice, almost as if 'intervention' is being used pejoratively.

The Translation Summit in Salt Lake City on March 20 looks like it will be a great event. I was invited to be on a panel but unfortunately am unable to attend. I look forward to hearing the outcomes and perhaps participating in future similar events.

I recently saw a promotion for the History International channel that used an interview with a young man from Dubai to define the term Globalization. Premise was “Globalization: What Does It Mean To You?”. The final graphic included the History channel logo and the term “Globalize Yourself”.

In case you haven't discovered it already, the BBC has created a handsome site for learning conversational phrases in several different languages. The usual suspects, French, German, Italian and Spanish are covered in a series of well-developed course materials of the caliber that used to only be available inside pricey software. Clicking on the "Other" button next to the FIGS buttons yields a variety of informational pieces and mp3 files on various languages from around the world.