Translation agencies across the U.S. have received an increasing number of requests for Hmong translation and interpretation services. Over 200,000 Hmong immigrants have come to this country since 1976, with the largest populations settling in Minnesota, Wisconsin and California.
Prior to 1975, the Hmong language did not have a written form, leading many Hmong to be classified as “preliterate”. A 1986 study of 20 refugee families in the U.S. showed that 70% could not read or write Hmong. Although the study is over 20 years old, translating from English to Hmong still presents numerous challenges for school district across the country.
The Hmong language is made up of many dialects spoken by Hmong people across China, Northern Vietnam, Thailand and Laos. The two most common dialects are White Hmong (Hmong Der) and Green/Blue Hmong (Mong Leng). White Hmong is spoken by the majority of Hmong immigrants in the United States. Of course, one must specify which dialect of Hmong will be used when requesting translation services, so that the translation is understood and accepted by the local population.
Knowing the most commonly accepted version of Hmong spoken by your ELL audience, moves you in the right direction to provide accurate education translations for your district’s Hmong population.
Keep Learning!
Maggie
K12Translate
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Archive for August, 2009
Part I: Tips for Hmong Education Translations
Monday, August 31st, 2009Tips on Reusing Written Education Translations
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
Every year school districts across the country spend millions of dollars on education translation services. Obviously, considering the state of the economy and tight education translation budgets we are all looking for ways to cut costs. I have found that one very effective way to reduce written translation costs is to reuse previously translated documents.
There are several ways to reuse education translations but one that stands out is ‘genericizing’ materials so that they can be used repeatedly over several years. To explain, when you create documents for translation into multiple languages, by removing personalized information and replacing it with generic form fields, you are able to simply plug in personalized information such as dates, schools and personal names as appropriate. This ‘genericized’ style of writing minimizes or even removes the need to retranslate the content every year when the personalized information inevitably changes.
For instance, in a parent letter, instead of writing:
—————————–
Dear Mrs. Lopez,
I am writing to let you know that on September 1st, Jose will begin Academically Gifted classes.
—————————–
You could phrase the sentence:
—————————–
Dear Parent,
I am writing to let you know that on DD/MM/YYYY, your child will begin classes through the XXXX Program.
—————————–
In this way, the template of the letter can be translated into many languages and all of the personalized information can simply be plugged into the slots by school district staff. After the initial translation, this letter can be reused over and over again thereby saving your school district translation money!
Keep Learning!
Maggie
K12Translate
The best education translation comes from native speakers
Monday, August 10th, 2009
As the English Language Learning (ELL) population continues to grow in the U.S., and as talk continues to circle around the idea of federal stimulus money being allocated to Title I and Title VI programs, the ever-expanding need for education translation is only going to grow more acute.
It’s too early to tell how many schools will utilize federal stimulus money, but what we do know is that many of the communities they serve will need K12 education translation services. Those school districts that fail to meet this need are likely to find themselves unable to provide an adequate education for their ELL students.
As you review the skills and capabilities of your current education translation partner, or begin the process of securing one, there are a few things to keep in mind. Uppermost in these considerations is this: Does your translation partner use translators that are native speakers in the languages you need?
Native speakers bring a linguistic intuition that helps ensure that you are clearly and effectively communicating with your audience. That translator should also be as fluent in English as in his or her native language. Their background should also include experience living and working in the U.S. Good luck!
Keep Learning!
Maggie
K12Translate
Word Expansion and its Ramifications in Education Language Translation
Monday, August 3rd, 2009
When translating education materials for school districts, a common expectation is that the translation will match the formatting of the original English version. Obviously, we all know that Korean looks different than English and anticipate that the characters will be unique. But, the actual layout itself, meaning the placement of text, graphics and attributes such as form fields should stay approximately the same as the English.
At first rub, this expectation seems reasonable enough. It would make perfect sense that the language translator could simply swap out the English text with the corresponding language translation and the layouts will be mirror images of each other. But, in reality, this is much more difficult than simply swapping out languages due, in part, to ‘word expansion’.
Word expansion is an increase in the amount of words that it takes to communicate a concept from one language to another. When English is translated into another language, the translated version is often longer as is the case with Spanish in that the word counts can expand approximately 25% and English to Vietnamese increases almost 35%!
When word counts increase so significantly from one language into another, it can be incredibly challenging to format the language translation in the exact same manner as the English. Often, a translation may have a longer page count than the English or it can be near impossible to squeeze a translation into a set form field. For example, the English phrase “Proficiency in English Program” can be translated in Spanish as “Programa para Lograr la Competencia en el Inglés”. The English version is four words whereas the Spanish version is eight words – that is a 50% increase in the amount of words!
As you can see, applying that type of word expansion could make your 20 page parent/teacher handbook start to resemble War and Peace. Ultimately, knowing what to expect will minimize any last minute surprises.
Keep Learning!
Maggie
K12Translate
