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The other day, I read a commentary from two members of a language study group in Yahoo, where they list the 10 main reasons why a foreigner should learn Portuguese.

I found it very interesting, as we are always paying attention to other languages and cultures, but forget that our own language also has its own value.

The following are the main reasons:

1. Brazil is a fascinating and exotic country with a rich history and incredible people
2. This century, North and South America will become an economic bloc
3. Music: To understand the poetry in the Portuguese lyrics
4. Travels: The majority of Brazilians do not speak English
5. Brazil is the country of the future
6. Because it is exactly what cool people like you should do
7. The sound: Portuguese pronunciation is beautiful
8. So you can impress your friends
9. So you can meet new people
10. Portugal is also not that bad…

I believe you also have other reasons to suggest. I will wait for your participation and comments, ok?

Translation and Localization have a direct effect on a company’s probability of increasing its revenue according to Renato Beninatto in his analysis of the article “The effects of linguistic skills on the export performance of French, German and Swedish SMEs” by Professor Ingela Bel Habib, a Swedish PhD and Independent researcher.

Renato explains that in relation to the connection between International trade and translation, language becomes an enabler and a multiplier. What he means by enabler is that language, or translating of a product into a multitude of languages, enables a company to make a product available to a much wider range of consumers. Language is a multiplier because it literally multiplies the company’s ability to continually multiply its international sales.  Once a company starts selling in various languages it is very rare that it would return to selling the product in just one language and thus naturally it continues multiplying.

The study goes on to prove this theory by demonstrating the correlation between multilingualism and economic competitiveness. Swedish, French and German small to medium enterprises all use multilingualism as an export strategy but use it to varying degrees.  For example, only 27% of Swedish SMEs have a multilingual export strategy and 20% of Swedish companies feel they have lost exportation contracts due to language barriers. While 63% of Danish SMEs have a multilingual export strategy in place and only 4% of Danish companies believe they lost contracts due to language barriers. France and Germany showed many similar correlations.

For more information, you can check out Renato’s blog at http://www.l10n411.com

Ethan Zuckerman, senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, says Americans need to rewire our world.

Rewire our media, our Internet, our education, the ways in which we communicate, our global understanding and our policies that affect how we relate to immigrants and freedom of expression.

Wow, that is a lot! So why do we need to change all of these things and where do we start? It is shown that Americans live in a very egocentric segregated world. We are not only segregated from the rest of the world, but we are also segregated among our cultural groups within our own country. Studies show that only 12% of Americans pay attention to International news in comparison to 35% in the 1970’s. So as the world becomes more global and world communication becomes easier, US news coverage becomes less and less globalized. Why is that?

Well, according to a speech by Alisa Miller, CEO of Public Radio International, American networks and Internet sites find it cheaper and easier to cover the death of Anna Nicole Smith (about 2,640,000 results on Google) than important international stories like Korea agreeing to dismantle nuclear facilities (about 581,000 results on Google). These major networks only cover about 12% of international news and have reduced the number of foreign news bureaus by half. With the exceptions of three one-person ABC news bureaus in Nairobi, New Delhi and Mumbai, there are no local news bureaus in all of Africa, Asia and South America. And most of this 12% of international news covers the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ethan Zuckerman says there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is an organization called Yeeyan, which is a news site dedicated to translating English news into Chinese. They have over 150,000 volunteer translators that look for relevant news everyday in English and translate it into Chinese so that the news can be shared with billions of Chinese readers.

Yeeyan uses translation as a bridge between cultures, letting Chinese and English speakers see the world from each other’s perspective. Zuckerman argues, if Yeeyan can do this, why can’t we? One organization trying is called Global Voices, which provides links to news from all over the world. “Global Voices is a community of more than 300 bloggers and translators around the world who work together to bring you reports from blogs and citizen media everywhere, with emphasis on voices that are not ordinarily heard in international mainstream media.”

The bottom line is that Americans, and perhaps people all over the world, need to put more pressure on media networks to cover stories that are relevant from a world perspective. News networks need to feel a sense of responsibility that what they are covering will educate people, make them more conscious and give them a sense that they belong to a larger global community.

In an increasing global world, bilingualism is becoming more than just a novelty, but a necessity. Increased immigration, travel and globalization have made the world a much smaller place and knowing one language is just no enough anymore.

I have already written several posts about the growing demand for translators, but we are also seeing an increase in demand for bilingual speakers in several areas. CNN published this list created by careerbuilder.com in 2009 and that is mostly related to demand in the United States, but many of these areas are in demand in various parts of the world.

Health care: With an increase in the number of foreign language speakers, there is a higher demand for bilingual staff to assist these patients. This area also happens to have a high demand for translators as well.

Hospitality: As traveling around the globe becomes easier and cheaper, there is an increased demand for staff that can understand and speak to a variety of guests to make them feel at home.

Education: In addition to ESL teachers, there is a high demand for bilingual teachers, counselors and principals that can help the students communicate with immigrant parents.

Law Enforcement: When solving crimes, questioning suspects, or shouting demands, it makes things a lot easier (and could even save lives) when if law can communicate effectively.

Customer Service: With an increase in the number of immigrant consumers, there is higher demand to service them in the best way possible. That starts with communicating properly.

Social Services: Like other service areas, social service is based on communication. Caseworkers, parents, and children all need to communicate well.

Finance: Business is increasingly global and therefore financial positions increasingly deal with foreign currency and the languages that come with them.

Communication: Well, this one is quite obvious, right? You get the picture…

Have you heard of the Gartner Magic Quadrant? Neither had I until I stumbled upon one of these on the Internet. It looks like a radar screen with all of the airplanes about to crash into each other. But it is in fact a proprietary tool created by Gartner, Inc. that is used to rate certain companies and products. Gartner is a technology research and advisory company based in Stamford, Connecticut. They have clients in over 85 countries and have been around since 1979.

The magic quadrant is a chart that displays the ratings of various competitors within a product group. It rates the product’s company based on its completeness of vision and its ability to execute. Then, based on these two criteria, they group businesses into one of four groups.

• Leaders
• Challengers
• Visionaries
• Niche players

Leaders are companies that scored high in both categories; in other words, they completed their vision and have an excellent ability to execute. Challengers score high on their ability to execute but lower on the completeness of their vision. Visionaries (you guessed it) score high on the completeness of their vision but low on their ability to execute. Lastly, niche players score low in both areas.

Ok, so let’s take a look at a sample Quadrant.

As you can see, companies in the upper right are scored the highest and companies in the lower left are scored the lowest.

These sample images came straight from the Gartner website where you can find more information and explanation about how the Quadrant works.

The Quadrant is updated every few years and the criteria are also updated based on market changes and demands. Companies can be included or excluded from the Quadrant based on their relevance in the market.

What’s the magic? Well, that’s just it. Gartner will not disclose its methodology to determine a company’s component scores and how it achieves its ranking in the Magic Quadrant. However, this lack of disclosure, in addition to the secrecy about the funding Gartner receives from the companies it rates, had led to public criticism about the accuracy of these quadrants.

Nevertheless, the Magic Quadrants are used by various media and consumers in order to rate companies, products and make buying decisions. A real sample of a Gartner Magic Quadrant can be seen below.