Language Line Services’ "Cross-Cultural" Update for Tues, August 5 to Mon, August 18, 2008

Useful Cultural News, Tips and Timely Information

For a list of June 2008's top language requests for all states, visit http://languageline.com/page/topten

---

Olympic Fever, Immigrant Fervor: 

Very soon “flags will fly” as the Olympic Games in Beijing kick off on August 8. With more than 32 foreign-born athletes on the U.S. roster, immigrant communities across the country will be supporting their compatriots, as well as teams from their countries of origin.

Russian-born gymnast Nastia Liukin, Kenya native Bernard Lagat, and Lopez Lomong of Sudan are just a few of the U.S. athletes that may generate Olympic viewing parties in immigrant enclaves. Journalists looking to identify these communities can contact Language Line Services for up-to-date demographic data via its LanguageTrak service.

For example, outside of New York City, some of the largest Russian communities can be found in Bridgeport, Conn., Bellevue, Wash., and Philadelphia, Penn. To request LanguageTrak demographic data, please contact Shawn Yanan at (305) 962-1768 or shawn.yanan@rbbpr.com

---

American Hotel Owners Will Soon See an Increase in Chinese Visitors to the United States:

A recently implemented agreement between the United States and China will open a new market for the U.S. travel and tourism industry. The agreement allows the facilitation of group leisure travel from China to the United States and permits United States destinations to market themselves in China.

The U.S. Department of Commerce is forecasting that 579,000 Chinese travelers will visit the U.S. by 2011, an 81 percent increase from 2006.

Language Line Services representative can discuss the language access programs American hotel, travel/tourism and general entertainment companies can use to attract this new market of customers. For more information contact Tracy Belcher at 305-445-7043, or Tracy.belcher@rbbpr.com

---

Bush Signs Housing Legislation, but will it help Limited-English Speakers Keep their Homes?

President Bush signed a huge package of housing legislation into law to safeguard the nation’s leading housing lenders. 

But a survey by the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC), reports that more could be done to keep families in their homes, citing abuse of immigrants as substantial concerns.

Nearly 60% of responding groups reported that non-English speakers were sold loans in their native language, but provided English-only documents.

A Language Line Services representative is available to speak about language discrimination, discuss the innovative language programs available to bridge the language divide and pending relevant legislation. For more information contact Tracy Belcher at 305-445-7043 or Tracy.belcher@rbbpr.com

---

Top Ten Foreign Languages Spoken In… Missouri, Mississippi and Montana

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 in June 2008.

For a list of this month’s top language requests for all states visit http://languageline.com/page/topten

Quick Facts

• Missouri has the second highest number of requests for French Canadian behind Illinois.
  

• Missouri is one of two states with a request for Pampangan, a language of the Philippines. The other is California.

• Mississippi is the only state with a request for Latvian in its top 10.

• Mississippi is one of three states with a request for Gujarati; the others are Arkansas and Delaware.  Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in India.

Top Ten Foreign Languages Spoken In… Missouri, Mississippi and Montana

Missouri  

1. Spanish
2. Vietnamese
3. Mandarin
4. Cantonese
5. Korean
6. Hmong
7. Russian
8. Polish
9. Haitian-Creole
10. Laotian

Mississippi  

1. Spanish
2. Mandarin
3. Vietnamese
4. Hindu
5. Dutch
6. Gujarati
7. Hmong
8. Korean
9. Laotian
10. Latvian

Montana*  

1. Spanish
2. Russian
3. Portuguese
4. Vietnamese
5. Hindu
6. Tagalog

* Only these 6 non-English languages were request in June 2008

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.