Language interpreters, especially those who interpret less-spoken languages, often have fascinating life histories.Local newspapers have been publishing plenty of articles the past few years about medical interpreters and how they started their careers…

According to a language professor based in Seoul, the country has not yet professionalized its language service industry.Korea has an up-and-coming economy, as well as a large body of students studying English and other foreign languages. So why is th…

It may not be necessary for American presidents to speak a foreign language – but a surprising number of the early presidents did.An entertaining blog post from the Foreign Policy magazine website suggests that foreign language ability isn’t re…

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters will soon be developing its exam in Arabic and Mandarin.“The Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI) recently received a $308,750 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foun…

Could the increasing quality of machine translation discourage learners from tackling Asian languages?An interesting and eye-opening debate is taking place online at the Australian-based Lowy Institute for International Policy blog. Although the blog i…

Of course, companies increasingly need multi-lingual employees. But look for « multicultural » to be the recruitment buzzword of the coming decade.According to recruitment expert Kyung H. Yoon, Founder & CEO of Talent Age Associates, multicultura…

A new initiative aims to encourage “direct translation” of Hindu or Tamil literature into the world’s major languages – without going through the English translation.Due to a scarcity of translators for certain “language pairs,” esp…

Providing language interpretation services can be a key to getting injured workers back on the job.Language interpretation services in medical settings are clearly desirable for L.E.P. (Limited English Proficiency) patients, as we have discussed many t…

…or the one where I create a plan to catch up with some of the interesting language-related stories that I wasn’t able to get to over the past month.I’ve been blogging for nearly 7 years now, and I would say that actually writing a blog post …

Over the past 50 years or so, translation has been pushed aside as a language-learning method. This could change.For many years, before the time when there was a cassette player in every classroom, translation played a key role in language teaching. B…