Illinois Village Debates Official Language - Part 2

by Lauren Nemec

Last night, the Carpentersville village board of trustees voted on and passed a resolution declaring English as the village's official language.

The resolution that was passed is much weaker than the originally proposed ordinance. An ordinance would have been enforceable, meaning that- by law- officials would not be able to distribute foreign language materials or offer multilingual services.

Instead, the trustees opted to pass a resolution, which is no more than an official declaration that English is the official language of Carpentersville. Though it lacks teeth (it does not bar village officials from offering foreign language services and materials), opponents of the resolution believe it will divide the community by sending the message that Carpentersville is not tolerant of diversity. Supporters of the resolution hope it will encourage residents to learn English.

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the board meeting and bring back a first-hand account (alas, Chicago White Sox baseball tickets proved to be too much of a temptation). According to reports, the meeting was quite a spectacle, with over 100 people voicing their opinions through boos, catcalls, applause and cheers.

Over 100 people attended the Carpentersville village board meeting on Tuesday night. Photo credit: WBBM 780 News Radio.

As the immigration debate heats up here in the United States, we will continue to see more and more towns, villages and cities proposing and passing English-only resolutions and ordinances. However, I believe that the majority of these towns will find that they achieve very little, while causing division in their communities and flirting with unconstitutionality and lawsuits.

A good example is the town of Pahrump, Nevada, which passed an English-only ordinance last November, only to overturn the decision months later after finding that the ordinance only succeeded in creating controversy and discontent.

Further reading:
Nonbinding English-only goes before C'ville board: Chicago Sun Times
Carpentersville Passes English-only Resolution: Northwest Herald

Czech Translation Market Growing

by Lauren Nemec

I apologize for the shortage of posts this month. I've been vacationing in my hometown of San Antonio, Texas for the past few days (...and I have to say it.... GO SPURS GO!). But, it's back to work for the moment, and I am writing from our beautiful office in Chicago on Michigan Avenue.

We saw in the Common Sense Advisory's Ranking of Top 20 Translation Companies 2006 report that the demand for translation services is expected to grow at a rate of 15-20% over the next year. The Czech Republic seems to be right on target with that figure, if not surpassing it. According to the Prague Daily Monitor, the market for language services in the Czech Republic is growing- and some Czech translation service companies have even reported growth in excess of 20% over the past year.

Translatus, though incorporated in the United States, has its main operations office located in Prague. Like other translation companies based in the non-Euro region of Eastern Europe, Translatus benefits from reduced labor and overhead costs and experiences growth right along with the Czech economy.

Perhaps Central and Eastern Europe is the place to be for translation companies these days...

Beijing Making Progress in Effort to Clean-up Bad Translations

by Lauren Nemec

It amazes me how interested people are in Beijing's goal to clean up bad translations before the 2008 Olympic Games. Articles on this topic come through my feed reader almost every week. My post, "Beijing Prepares for the 2008 Olympics by Correcting Bad Translations" remains one of the most frequently viewed articles on the Translatus blog.

Okay. I'm sure that most people are not so interested in Beijing's efforts to rid their city of embarassing translations, but are interested in finding examples of 'Chinglish' for a good laugh. But Beijing does not want to be laughed at anymore.

Still, I couldn't help but chuckle this morning as I read about the latest development. Feeling it is outdated and impolite, officials have decided to flush the potty term 'WC' and adopt 'toilet' for all public restrooms in Beijing.

As I mentioned in my previous posts on this subject, a number of groups have undertaken the enormous effort of correcting and standardizing translations across Beijing. So far, they seem to be making progress. For example, linguists are preparing a list of common menu items with their accurate translations. The list will be distributed to Beijing restaurants, and all establishments rated three stars and higher are expected to implement the pre-approved translations into their menus.

No more 'the temple explodes the chicken cube' for you!

Bringing Up Bilingual Baby

by Lauren Nemec

If you’re thinking about raising your child to be bilingual, one of the keys to success is to start as soon as possible. Studies have long shown that a child's brain is primed for learning languages from infancy until about three years of age. However, recent studies from the University of British Columbia imply that an even smaller window of time is ideal for introducing bilingualism to your child.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have made a new discovery regarding the way babies learn languages. According to the study, babies use facial clues (such as rhythm and movement of the mouth, muscle movements, and facial expressions) to distinguish between languages being spoken to them.

Babies from bilingual (French-English) homes and babies from monolingual (English) homes were shown a silent video of a person speaking in English, then in French. After a few moments, babies from 4-6 months old would lose interest in the video until the languages were switched, signifying that they can distinguish between different languages solely based on visual clues. (See the study in action! This is from UBC's Psych Department).

However, babies exposed to only one language tend to lose this ability by the age of 8 months. In the study, 8-month old babies with no multilingual experience were not able to make the distinction. As the saying goes, “use it or lose it”.

If you would like to read more about the study, here are some interesting articles:
Babies can tell if parents are bilingual
Secrets of babies' language skills
How Babies Decode Faces

If your child is older than 8 months, it's not too late to try to raise your child to be bilingual. (In fact, you're never too old to learn a foreign language).

Here are some articles giving advice about raising a multilingual child:

Ten Steps to Raising a Multilingual Child

Raising Bilingual Children: The First Five Steps to Success