Pennsylvania is reaching out to limited English proficiency speakers about a very specific problem: gambling addiction.

Blogging about languages and language translation is a continual discovery. Just when you think you’ve covered it all, something new pops up.

I’ve written about many campaigns that have used translaiton: advertising, health awareness, educational information, safety…but I’ve never run into the question of getting through to people with a gambling problem.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health, though, is running a new media campaign about this addiction., and a third of the campaign’s budget has gone to communicating to Hispanic and Asian communities.

Members of the targeted cultures face linguistic and/or cultural barriers to dealing with the issue.

“Some might be afraid they'll get into trouble because of their immigration status, while language barriers could keep others from knowing help is available. Some might come from a culture that doesn't encourage therapy,” explains Sabrina Heller, a certified gambling counsellor, in an article from today’s Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

The Department of Health points out that its campaign is “multilingual” and “cross-media”: good key words for any type of communication in US society today.

Indeed, if you want to get your message through, whether to the general public or to a consumer niche, keep in mind that people no longer get all of their news and information via the traditional English-speaking media.

At Language Translation, Inc., we have over 20 years of experience reaching out to target audiences in over 40 languages. “Let us show you how good translation should be.”

Betty Carlson

See Also

• Language Translation, Inc.
  A leading language translation and interpretation service provider for more than 20 years.