Language Line Services' Report Reveals Spike in Mandarin, Arabic, Vietnamese and Russian Interpreter Requests Nationwide

MONTEREY, Calif., Oct. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Spanish continues to be the most requested language for over-the-phone interpretations nationwide, while requests for Mandarin, Arabic, Vietnamese and Russian increased significantly across 20 major U.S. cities in the last year, according to a report released today by Language Line Services, the global leader in interpretation and translation services.

Infographic of Language Trends Across the U.S.: http://bit.ly/LangTrak_Q3_2011

Language Line Services uses proprietary data -- from millions of interpreter-request calls the company fields each year -- to rank the top 10 languages in each city by number of over-the-phone interpreter requests in the government and healthcare sectors. The ensuing quarterly report, titled the Language Line® LanguageTrak "Interpreter Demand Index(SM)" (IDI), also shows percentage growth in each language between Q3 2010 and Q3 2011.

"Many of the languages now being spoken in the U.S. are completely new to the country, and many organizations are simply not ready for them," said Louis F. Provenzano, Jr., president & CEO of Language Line Services. "These new populations have to fend for themselves without the benefit of pre-existing generations with the same background and common language. There are critical needs in local governments, the court systems, healthcare agencies and emergency services that the language access industry can help overcome, but we're not there yet."

The LanguageTrak IDI(SM) reveals that Spanish continues to be the most requested language in all 20 cities, supporting 2011 Pew Hispanic Center and 2010 U.S. Census data. The largest increases in requests for Spanish were in San Antonio (46 percent) and El Paso (22 percent).

Interpreter requests for Mandarin, however, increased in more cities than any other language -- in 14 out of the 20 cities. The highest increases were in Memphis (58 percent), Austin (44 percent) and San Antonio (43 percent). Mandarin was also among the top-five most requested languages in 17 of the 20 cities.

Arabic and Vietnamese both were among the top-five most requested languages in 12 of the 20 cities. Interpretation requests for both languages grew in 11 of the 20 cities. The highest increases for Arabic were all in Texas -- in El Paso (314 percent), San Antonio (91 percent) and Houston (78 percent). The highest increases for Vietnamese were in El Paso (100 percent), New York City (62 percent) and Houston (48 percent).

Russian saw some noteworthy increases as well. Interpreter requests for the language increased in 10 of the 20 cities, with the highest jumps in San Diego (90 percent), Memphis (57 percent) and San Francisco (24 percent). Russian also was among the top-five most requested languages in 10 of the 20 cities.

In addition to the report pointing to Mandarin, Arabic, Vietnamese and Russian as rapidly emerging languages, Provenzano noted other unexpected findings:

• Burmese was among the top-five languages requested in seven of the 20 cities. The highest increases in Burmese interpreter requests were all in Texas -- in El Paso (800 percent), San Antonio (70 percent) and Austin (33 percent).
• Los Angeles saw interpreter requests grow for only two languages -- Japanese (15 percent) and Armenian (13 percent).
• Somali was the second-most requested language (trailing Spanish) in Columbus and Memphis.
• San Antonio had triple-digit growth in requests for interpreters in Italian (654 percent) and Cantonese (300 percent).
• Interpreter requests for Karen -- spoken by 1.3 million people in Myanmar, formerly Burma -- jumped 90 percent in Indianapolis and 63 percent in Dallas.
• El Paso had triple-digit interpreter request growth for seven languages, including Burmese (800 percent), French (550 percent) and Swahili (220 percent).

Infographic of Language Trends Across the U.S.: http://bit.ly/LangTrak_Q3_2011

For a copy of the complete report, contact [email protected] and type "LanguageTrak" in the subject field of your email.

About Language Line Services

Language Line Services, the global leader in telephone interpreting and language solutions, serves clients in government, healthcare, telecommunications, financial services, utilities, insurance and many other industries by quickly connecting them to their customers, patients and sales prospects in more than 170 spoken languages as well as American Sign Language (ASL) and Mexican Sign Language (LSM). Language Line Services is recognized as a trusted partner to thousands of public and private organizations throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, providing easy access to the industry's fastest language interpreting service at highly competitive rates.

For more information about Language Line Services' suite of telephone, on-site and video interpreting, document translation, interpreter assessment and training programs, please call (800) 752-6096 or visit http://www.languageline.com.

Contact:
Carla Collado
Olmstead Williams Communications
310.824.9000
[email protected]
http://www.olmsteadwilliams.com

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SOURCE Language Line Services