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Hispanic Marketing in Quotes
THE PREMISE: “America’s corporations can no longer ignore Hispanic marketing like Mitt Romney Did.”
THE RELUCTANCE: “Companies [have failed] to understand the importance of being culturally relevant because they first-and-foremost have their brand’s interests – rather than Hispanic consumer’s cultural values, preferences and passion points – at heart.” Armando Azarloza
THE CHALLENGE: “Companies are deprived of diversity in leadership, [thus] lack the imagination, creativity, authenticity and innovation to market to today’s fast growing demographic shift.”
AND THE GOOD NEWS: “Hispanic small businesses are growing at twice the rate of the national average – generating over $350B in annual revenues (that some estimate is closer to $650B).”
Quotes from Forbes’, November 12, 2012, article by Glenn Llopis
Mexicans: The More Segregation, the Less Assimilation.
The less segregation, the more assimilation. It is a give and take situation.
~Altar de Muertos~ (Photo credit: uteart)
The highest level of education a Latin American immigrant has, the more willing he/she is to assimilate. Yet, he/she gives up his cultural origins. In terms of their level of integration in the U.S., there are implications for both the Mexicans and the more assimilated Latin American groups in the U.S. While the later might enjoy greater economical benefits than Mexicans, Mexicans is the only ethnic group that has kept its cultural roots generation after generation at the expense of not enjoying such economical benefits.
While Mexicans have refused to assimilate, they have influenced the U.S. culture in every way. A couple hundred years from now, the only culture alive in the U.S. will be the Mexican (Dia de los Muertos, piñatas, mariachi, tacos, etc.). The rest will be passing technology, brands, and disposable things. Mexicans have the ability to layer several cultures without renouncing their own. I’m very proud of every single bilingual and bicultural Mexican-American in the U.S.
Translation Standards – FIT 2011 World Congress
Image via Wikipedia
By Mari D. González
I attended the International Federation of Translators – FIT 19th World Congress in San Francisco representing the International Medical Interpreters Association – IMIA and participated in two of the sessions on August 3 and the Key Note Session on August 4. Here are my notes from the two sessions.
I. “Quality Standards and the Translator’s Role” presented by Kristen Corridan, LUZ, Inc., Procurement and Quality Manager.
- Quality is in the eye of the beholder or defined by what the client wants.
- Standards are the requirements that ensure quality but do not delineate the “how” or “what” in a translation project.
- Standards define and measure the process, customer satisfaction, and the requirements.
- Basic translation job requirements are:
- Must done by a native speaker
- Who is a subject matter expert
- Has a number years of experience
- The translation process should include:
- Client-approved glossary agreed by translator
- Editing
- Proofing
- ISO(International Organization for Standardization) is the world’s largest developer and publisher of International Standards.
- GALA(Globalization & Localization Association) has developed new standards.
- Localization Standards are:
- EN15038 Europe
- ASTMF2575-06 International
- SAE-J2450 Automotive criteria (acknowledged because it taps into terminology and grammar)
In sum, the standards ensure a “process” that is uniform but not necessarily measure the “quality” of the content.
II. Translation Quality Standards presented by Jiri Stejskal, U.S; Beatriz A. Bonnet, U.S., Zhang Ciyun, China; and Reiner Heard, Germany.
EUROPE
- In Europe, translations are done by a team of professionals that include a:
- Translator
- Reviser
- Reviewer
- Proofreader
- Final Verificator
- Standards are overseen by the European Commission and focus on:
- Certifications
- Quality
UNITED STATES
- In the U.S., standards are more detailed and include:
- Terminology and tools
- Specifications based on job standards and client’s requests such as:
-Marketing
-Nonprofit
-Pro bono
- The editing and proofreading can be done by the translator.
- Standards are about meeting the expected requirements of the outcome.
CHINA
- Mr. Ciyun described the current challenges China faces since the demand for translations has grown beyond the capacity to establish a nation-wide uniform translation process.
- The biggest challenged is the conflict between the market share and ensuring quality with the goal on customer satisfaction while working on the urgent need for standardization.
- An important fact he shared was the earnings disparity between a translator and an interpreter. An interpreter can make $1,000 per day compared to $30 per day earned by a translator.
- He spoke of
- A fast growing industry
- Chaotic market orders
- Translations that began as in-house work for which there is no regulation
- 1 million people is involved with doing translations
- Translators are faced with new Chinglish (English and Chinese) terms.
Latinas Use of Social Media
By Mari D. González
Brazilian market research firm Sophia Mind reports some preliminary differences in social-network sites use between American and U.S. Latinas -women from Latin America including women of Brazilian descent.
Sophia Mind summarizes, “while American women use social networks mostly to connect with friends and family, [Latina women in the U.S., Brazil, Argentina and Mexico] use social nets to find information on products and services” (Malykhina, 2010, ¶ 4). The study notes the lack of culturally relevant content for Latina women in the U.S., and concludes that only 21% U.S. Latinas/Hispanic women feel social networks meet their needs.
Ethnifying Class Part II: A Personal Experience
By Mari D González
Intercultural Communication
Last summer, I presented at an international conference and one of the participants asked me at the end, “How do you feel about presenting when most of your fellow Mexicans are labor workers?”
I wishfully thought he had come across post-colonial studies given that he was a university professor abroad. I had overheard him talking about teaching a graduate course in Thailand. My assumptions resulted from a positive stereotype that is just as insidious.
I did not care to answer his question because it was not one I would have ever asked myself. Instead, I wondered if he, in the effort of protecting his ego, avoided asking: “How do I feel by listening to a Mexican given the unquestioned perception I have chosen to hold about her?”
My “Mexicaness” experience has been shaped by a series of life events. I did not grow up in the U.S. and thus was devoid of its color-classification through enculturation. Growing up in Mexico, I mingled and felt equally comfortable with my well-off relatives from Mexico City as with my father’s students at his materially-poor-but-dignifying-rich rural school where I attended first and second grades before entering the only private school in my hometown. I certainly could not have any sympathy for this professor’s views or feelings.
Yet, through his inquiry, he had informed me of his narrow individually-held perception and how he declined to challenge it by diffusing it toward me. He refused to expand his stereotype when he had the opportunity to. Unfortunately, he chose to see the little and tiny side of the broader whole despite of his long-traveled and -lived life.
