Is Language Translation of Services a New Banking Trend?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is ordering GE Capital Retail Bank (GE Capital), known as Synchrony Bank, to “cough up” $225 million to consumers who were victims of illegal and discriminatory credit card practices. GE Capital must refund $56 million to approximately 638,000 customers who were subject to these deceptive marketing practices.

In light of these developments many banks and financial institutions are taking steps to protect themselves against increasing regulations initiated by the CFPB for not providing services and disclosures in the target language of their customers. One way would be to translate such items in the specific, native language of its customers. This could likely become a trend and a best practices standard for the banking and financial markets. Outside of the risk of potential fines for unintentionally misleading customers, taking this action will better ensure a more positive customer experience for consumers who speak any language.

Click here to read the full article on CFPB’s fine to GE Capital Water Slide Sea Tema.

Using Language To Land The Job

As the economy continues to slowly improve and unemployment levels drop, more and more jobseekers are finding the task of getting hired less daunting. Unemployment rates in the United States decreased to 5.40 percent in April of 2015 from 5.50 percent a month earlier. This trend signals a slow yet steadily growing confidence in the economy and a positive future outlook from many companies. Now that doesn’t mean a new job will fall into your lap. You’ll still need to get noticed and recruiters, like Michael Ziegelbaum, of Infinity Consulting Solutions in Manhattan says, “Employers are always looking for that extra something in a candidate, even if it’s not required for the role”. That “extra something” could be anything from being proficient in graphic design to even speaking a second language. “These are all things most candidates will leave off a resume, especially if the role doesn’t specifically call for it and that’s a big mistake”, according to Ziegelbaum.
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A Second Language Can Be Your Hidden Asset

Outside of looking for a job, you’ll find that many current jobseekers won’t have the same educational backgrounds, industry experience or job descriptions. However, approximately two-thirds of them do have one thing in common.

Over 31% of jobseekers speak two languages, according to a poll of over 12,000 visitors to the Korn/Ferry International website. An additional 20% speak three languages, 9% speak four languages and 4% speak more than four. Whether companies are conducting business overseas or trying to obtain a larger market share locally, employers are increasingly seeking out bilingual employees, or people with the ability to speak and communicate in more than one language. In fact, a recent CareerBuilder.com keyword search turned up more than 6,000 job postings seeking bilingual applicants.
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Connecting With The Hispanic Market Through Language & Culture

Corporate America has awakened to the monumental importance of the Hispanic consumer and their growing purchasing power, which by end of this year is estimated to reach between $1-$1.5 trillion dollars. Companies are realizing this is a market that can’t be ignored and that if they don’t act now the chance to capture it may be lost. Those who’ve succeeded, went well beyond simply translating English copy into their native language on their website and marketing collateral. These companies expanded their strategy from merely targeting the Hispanic consumer to exploring the cultural characteristics and values that would drive them to trust their brand.
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Reading and Writing Test

If you are looking for a reading and writing test for any kind of foreign language, look no further than LTI’s variety of options across a multitude of languages. As the primary developer of secondary language texts for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language, you can trust to the credibility and competency of the test makers for any kind of secondary of tertiary language. This can be useful for many types of companies, such as those who want to offer second language services or who need to correspond and communicate with other countries in the course of their business.
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Real World Perspective on Language Proficiency

With the number of non-English speaking households in the United States continuing to grow exponentially, schools throughout the nation have witnessed a commensurate increase in the number of students attending English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. Many school districts nationwide have struggled to accommodate the needs of children who often enter the educational system with limited or non-existent English.

While we have existing means to measure progress in school, primarily grades, there is ample evidence that exists to support the notion that grades alone do not necessarily indicate proficiency (or lack thereof) in a subject, and language learning is no exception. Standardized testing is yet another existing method to evaluate student learning and readiness for subsequent grade levels, but this to has been widely criticized as inadequate and inaccurate as a true measure of ability. In both cases, grades and standardized testing only provide a very small glimpse into what students can do, and they are not an effective means of getting a comprehensive view of overall proficiency.
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The Growing Demand for a Multilingual Workforce

With the growing demand for multilingual in today’s increasingly globalizing world, listing “fluency” in several languages on one’s resume has become a significant advantage for job seekers. What does it actually mean when someone says that they are fluent, though? How can companies be sure that the people they are hiring actually have the requisite language skills to fulfill their job functions successfully?

Being able to speak multiple languages, and, more importantly, being able to function in multiple languages in a professional setting, is a highly specialized skill set. As such, it is surprising and disappointing that many companies do not exercise due diligence to ascertain whether the language skills proclaimed on a candidate’s resume actually match up to his or her real world abilities.
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Seal of Biliteracy Guidelines Released

ACTFL, the National Association of Bilingual Education (NABE), the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages (NCSSFL), and TESOL International Association, have officially drafted recommendations for the implementation of the Seal of Biliteracy. The Seal of Biliteracy is an award made by a state department of education or local district to recognize a student who has attained proficiency in English and one or more other world languages by high school graduation. The recognition of attaining biliteracy becomes part of the high school transcript and diploma for these students.

View the full press release here

ACTFL Conducts Key Study on Listening & Reading

ACTFL is currently is undertaking an important study to determine the listening and reading proficiency levels that may be attained after several years of college language study. With the 2012 revision of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and the development of ACTFL Listening and Reading Proficiency Tests (LPTs and RPTs) in a number of languages, measurement of listening and reading proficiency levels of U.S. college students has now become possible. Approximately 20 colleges have participated in the study so far, from large state universities, private universities, and colleges to regional universities and colleges. Close to 4,000 tests have been administered in both modalities.
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LTI Unveils New Website

Earlier this year LTI unveiled its newly re-designed website aimed to better serve the thousands of individuals and clients, in more than 40 countries who rely on ACTFL-developed and rated tests.

“The site has been completely revamped to better communicate and illustrate the valuable information our clients, proctors, and test candidates rely on”, says CEO, Robert Katz. “Since the beginning, our goal was to become the leader in language testing and our strong partnership with ACTFL, as their exclusive licensee, has certainly made that possible”. The website will cater to those who most frequent the site while offering value to even the casual visitor seeking language testing information. The new site categorizes separate industries that are services by LTI for corporate visitors and allows current clients and test candidates access to a customized sign in web portal to easily access tests and set up testing programs.
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