Language Line Services' - Cross-Cultural Update for October 14 to October 27, 2008

Useful Cultural News, Tips and Timely Information

**LanguageTrak Alert:  Swahili language on the rise**

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Keeping Count of the Multilingual Vote: 

With November 4th around the corner local election officials are busy dotting all i’s and crossing all t's to ensure all votes will be properly tabulated. Part of this cross-check will include engaging resources to provide language access to those limited-English speaking voters that need it.

Language Line Services works with local voter registration and election departments throughout the country and traditionally sees a spike in the request for their interpretation/translation services in the last several weeks leading up to an election. 

A representative of Language Line Services is available to discuss these spikes, the specific languages interpretations are most commonly requested for and the importance of providing language assistance to ensure every vote counts. For more information contact Jeanine Karp at Jeanine.karp@rbbpr.com or 305-785-0424.

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Improving the Health of Immigrants:

The recently launched New Routes to Community Health is a program by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Benton Foundation designed to improve the health of immigrants in the United States. The program has awarded eight immigrant-led community organizations with three-year, $225,000 grants to help create locally-focused media and outreach campaigns that speak directly to immigrants' health concerns at the community level.

Grants were given to collaborations in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St Paul, Oakland, Philadelphia and San Francisco. Immigrant groups, media makers and prominent community institutions will work together to produce original content in English as well as in immigrants' first languages, including Amharic, Chinese, Creole, French, Lao, Somali, Spanish, Swahili and Vietnamese.

A representative of Language Line Services is available to talk about language and cultural barriers in health care settings and the important role of medical interpreting for improving health outcomes in immigrant communities. Language statistics for these eight communities are also available via LanguageTrak. For more information, contact Shawn Yanan at shawn.yanan@rbbpr.com or at (305) 962-1768.
 

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New Podcast on “Patient Safety in Any Language”: 

Tune in to “Patient Safety in Any Language,” a roundtable discussion on language access in healthcare settings now available via podcast at www.languageline.com/patientsafety.

The educational forum is a collaboration of The Joint Commission, the International Medical Interpreters Association, Grady Health System of Atlanta, Ga., and Language Line® University, a globally recognized interpreter training and certification division of Language Line Services.

To talk with panelists about the issue of patient safety as seen through the lens of language and culture, please contact Shawn Yanan at shawn.yanan@rbbpr.com or at (305) 962-1768.

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LanguageTrak

The information below is provided by LanguageTrak™, a demographics tracking service provided by Language Line Services. The data reflects the languages most requested by emergency services, government agencies, health care facilities and businesses.

**Swahili:

• Nationally, in the past year there has been a 139% increase in the need for Swahili interpreters.
  
• Swahili is an African language spoken in Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, and the Comoro Islands.

Areas that have seen the largest increase in the demand for Swahili:

Areas with the largest demand for Swahili:

    

ABOUT LANGUAGE LINE SERVICES

Language Line Services, the world’s leading provider of language-based services, is a trusted partner to thousands of organizations whose focus is to effectively serve the rapidly expanding market of limited English speakers.

The company delivers a dynamic suite of solutions spanning translation, transcription, phone and video interpretation, interpreter certification, localization and localized software and devices, enabling clients to communicate with customers in their preferred language.

Through its leading-edge technology infrastructure, Language Line Services provides support for more than 170 languages to its industry-leading portfolio of clients across markets including health care, financial services, government, telecom, manufacturing, insurance, entertainment, travel, and more.

For information on how Language Line Services is helping clients achieve their strategic multi-cultural marketing and regulatory compliance objectives, please call 1-800-752-6096.