New York City to provide language translation services to residents
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has just signed an order to offer language translation and interpretation services to city residents who speak Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian and French Creole.
"Mayor Michael Bloomberg's order that city agencies provide translations for the six most spoken languages means immigrants won't have to rely on English-speaking children to translate complex government forms, supporters said yesterday...
After Bloomberg signed the order yesterday, it became the city's first uniform policy requiring agencies to provide translation or interpretations for Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian and French Creole.
According to 2006 census figures, more than 3.6 million, or 45 percent of New Yorkers claimed a first language other than English. About 1.8 million have limited English proficiency, city officials said."
(Extract from "City to offer translation services to immigrants" by Michael Frazier for Newsday.com)
Reaching out to local residents in the language they speak makes good administrative sense – and good business sense too. Studies have proven that consumers prefer to make purchases when they have documentation and websites available in their own language. Contact a qualified language service provider such as Language Translation, Inc. for all of your translation, interpreting and localization needs.
Betty Carlson
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Language Translation Inc., a San Diego-based company has been serving the U.S. and countries abroad since 1989 with professional document translation, certified conference interpreting, and software / website localization services.