Communicating In Multiple Languages
Today there is a growing population of English language learners in public education. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, “The number of school-age children (children ages 5 -17) who spoke a language other than English at home rose from 4.7 to 11.2 million between 1980 and 2009, or from 10 to 21 percent of the population in this age range.” Of that 11.2 million population 72% spoke Spanish; 13% spoke other Indo-European languages such as French, Italian or German; 11% spoke Asian or Pacific Islander languages and the remaining 4% spoke another language.
These statistics present challenges to school PR professionals as well as campus administrators. On one hand we need to reach out to these audiences of parents and family members, because engagement is an important ingredient in formulating successful student outcomes. On the other hand, with ever tightening central office and school budgets delivering all information and communications in multiple languages can be expensive and sometimes fraught with inaccuracies.
The primary methods applied to translation for non-English audiences seem to fall into two areas. Manual translation, by language translation professionals, provides the most accurate results, but can often add substantial cost to each message. Additionally, when composing and publishing time critical news or information a manual approach can result in substantial delays for both English and non-English audiences. Auto-translation provides a faster (almost immediate) translation, but can introduce problems related to context, word usage and transliteration.
I am hoping you will share with us how your district and schools are dealing with translation of online news and information by answering a quick poll.
http://relatrix.ezcommunicator.net/edu/relatrix/TakePoll.asp?App=0&iPollId=5
We will share the results of this poll and how Relatrix’ Online Contact Center solutions can provide practical and flexible methods of handling translation for your school district.
Regards,
Mark
