Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper, on behalf of the director of the Division of Consumer Affairs, filed three settlements and two lawsuits this week involving companies allegedly using misleading advertisements promoting themselves as a “notario publico” in the state.

Attorney General Cooper said, “The Spanish translation of ‘notary public’ is ‘notario publico,’ or in the plural ‘notarios publicos.’ In many Spanish-speaking countries, a notario publico is a civil-law notary, or an attorney who has been specially appointed to grant public faith to certain common, everyday transactions. As a result, consumers often believe these individuals and the related transactions involve a higher level of trust and accuracy.

“My office is concerned about any businesses misleading consumers. We will continue to enforce the Notaries Public law to ensure that all consumers understand what they are purchasing.” The state’s lawsuits allege violations of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act for advertising as a “notario publico” without the required disclaimer. 
 

The University of Iowa reports its language departments are growing as students realize employers are seeking bilingual applicants. In light of the increased interest, the UI Spanish/Portuguese department is offering a new course — Spanish-English translation — said Tom Lewis, the department’s head. While the class will not deal with interpretation in courts and hospitals due to their strict qualifications and requirements, he said, it will provide an introduction to some vocabulary, issues, and life situations that could come up in similar contexts.

“The Spanish-English translation course is designed really for translation from written texts,” Lewis said. “These wouldn’t necessarily be literary texts. They could be technical manuals, they could be scientific articles, but it’s sort of a lot of practice and a lot of building linguistics skills.” Though the course won’t be for strict interpreting, Lewis said, it will prepare students for a variety of other professions.

According to Lewis many large companies publish some form of in-house communication in both English and Spanish, creating a need for students with good linguistics skills in the business world. Lewis said the department is also working with the medical school to develop a medical Spanish course, and he would also like to eventually create a law Spanish course. But the law project is on hold until the UI is able to hire faculty members with the necessary skills to teach the course. Roughly 350 UI undergraduates major in Spanish and Portuguese, and around half have a second major in a different area, Lewis said.

It was reported that the Los Angeles MTA Board of Directors voted Thursday to use a Spanish translation as the name of the Gold Line’s Eastside rail extension, marking a first for the transportation agency.

The entire light rail line, which stretches from Pasadena to the eastern edge of East Los Angeles, will still be called the Gold Line. But the segment that opens this summer, traversing Boyle Heights and East L.A., will also be named “la Linea de Oro”. In her motion, County Supervisor Gloria Molina said that community members had asked that the rail line be referred to in Spanish, which she called a “cornerstone of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles.”

Art Herrera, 72, a lifelong Boyle Heights resident and a member of the Review Advisory Committee for the Eastside extension of the Gold Line, criticized the motion. “My kids aren’t going to say, ‘Dad, let’s take la Linea Roja to Hollywood,’ either. They’re going to say, ‘Let’s take the Red Line,’” Herrera said. “If we go to Mexico, they’re not going to change names to English. This is ludicrous.”

Pictured is a gold line train of the Los Angeles area MTA. Initially believed to be named for a particular reason, the gold line is now considered to be arbitrarily labeled and subsequently translated.

We came across this story that was published in early April in Oregon’s the Washington County News. It seems that the Oregon Department of Justice filed a settlement that prevents a woman who owned a Beaverton (Oregon) based business from offering fraudulent translation and legal services.

State officials say the woman, who operated Access to the System LLC, advertised translation services in a Spanish business directory and accepted money to complete divorce legal forms. Although having no legal certification, Spanish speakers who paid the company believed it had the authority to represent them in their legal matters, according to the Department of Justice.

The business no longer operates. The settlement also requires the company to pay a total of $2,000 in restitution to two victims. Earlier this year, a Washington County judge entered a judgment against the business owner involving similar allegations that it victimized a Spanish speaker by misrepresenting translation services as legal services in connection with a divorce filing, according to the Justice Department.

Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernard Madoff recently announced plans for starting a translation business upon his release from prison in 2045. Madoff is currently evaluating the relative merits of single- versus multi-language business models.

Here’s a story from the Miami Herald. It seems that recently when one Miami-area customer went to check out Comcast’s rates for internet service on their site in English and then in Spanish he was presented with two different deals. English-speaking costumers could get 12 Mbps (megabits per second) service for $42.95 per month or 16 Mbps for $52.95, while Spanish-speaking customers were presented with an offer of $42.95 for 6 Mbps, or $52.95 for 8 Mbps.

Comcast promised to get to the bottom of it, but when contacted, they were still waiting to hear back on an official explanation from higher-ups.

Webmaster Harvey P. Pedigrew III expressed shock at all the hullabaloo. “I mean jeez come on guys … it’s just a few keystrokes we’re talking about here. What’s an Mbps anyway? Do people really want more of them?”

The English translation of the book Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave to President Obama on Saturday has become a sensational seller on the Internet, jumping to No. 2 on Amazon’s sales list by noon Sunday, after being No. 54,295 just a day earlier.

“Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina,” or “Open Veins of Latin America,” by Eduardo Galeano describes centuries of invasions and other attempts to influence Latin American affairs by outside powers, including the United States.

“I think it was a nice gesture. It gave me a book. I’m a reader,” Mr. Obama said Sunday when asked about it.

On Saturday the White House said Mr. Obama was not likely to read the book since it was in Spanish.

Hugo Chavez subsequently explained that he’s not read the book either but was hoping President Obama would and send him a review. Looking on in the background, a trusted Chavez aide smiles as he patiently awaits his turn to overthrow the government.

As a service to independent freelance translators, the tips listed below represent proven strategies for getting noticed and hired by top translation agencies:

10. Email your resume at five minute intervals for a full 24 hour period. If no response in 3 days repeat for maximum effectiveness.

9. Cite top celebrities’ names as references. No one checks.

8. In tough economic times offer to actually pay agencies for assignments you complete. For rush assignments, pay them more.

7. Create separate versions of your resume under thousands of assumed names. Send them all.

6. Hire a pricey New York PR firm to promote you.

5. Discreetly slip the agency’s hiring manager a twenty.

4. Claim you’re a native speaking translator in over 100 languages in every area of specialization!

3. When the hiring manager asks what your rates are, casually respond “how much money do you have?”

2. Offer to take a brief translation test and a motor vehicle driving test.

1. And the #1 way freelance translators get agencies to notice and hire them, ”Google Translate Certified!”

One of the best near realtime (i.e., one month delay) indicators of translation services demand lies in monitoring search engine traffic on relevant keywords and phrases. Using the Google keyword tool we find that February 2009 searches on the phrase “translation services” was approximately 201,000, while the preceding 12-month average was around 301,000 searches per month.

The percentage reduction on some language specific searches is even greater. February 2009 Google searches on the phrase “spanish translation services” totals around 49,500 while the 12-month average is just less than twice that at 90,500.

For these numbers we needn’t rely on speculation about the market. Internet searches, in particular Google since it receives just over 60% of US originating searches (more in Europe) is a pretty darned good measurement of what’s on people minds … and when. The trend will be interesting to watch as monthly totals begin (hopefully) to creep back up toward the trailing averages as economic conditions improve as a result of (or despite … depending on your view) the government’s economic recovery measures.