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As we close out another year, we are grateful for continued good health and growth.

We look forward to seeing what opportunities present in the next year and wish you all health, prosperity, and joy in 2022.

Out of the 103 Pilgrims who sailed from England to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620, only half of those survived the first year in America due to an unexpectedly harsh winter. It is now widely accepted that, without the generosity and mentorship of the Native Americans, no one would have survived that first year, at all.

Celebration

The Pilgrims met members of the Abenaki tribe who introduced them to Squanto, an English-speaking member of the Pawtuxet tribe, who in turn taught the settlers how to survive in their new environment. A year after arrival, they experienced their first successful corn harvest and had a huge feast to celebrate the achievement. The feast was attended by the colonists as well as dozens of members of the neighboring Native American tribes. Unlike the fare typically enjoyed on Thanksgiving today, they likely would have feasted on a bounty of seafood and vegetables that were seasoned and prepared using Native American traditions.

What language was spoken during that first Thanksgiving?

The American Northeast is home to many tribes, including the Pawtuxet, Wampanoag, and Abenaki. At the time of the first Thanksgiving in 1621, Wampanoag was the language spoken in that area of Massachusetts. Wampanoag is one of three dozen languages that make up the Algonquian language family, several of which are still spoken today.

Thanks to 17^th century missionaries, Wompanoag was the first native language to have a written alphabet. The missionaries ironically sought to convert the tribe and thought that a Bible written in their language would aid in their goal. Whether the tribe was converted or not, the new alphabet led to the Wompanoag becoming the most literate of the Native Americans. With the new alphabet, the tribe was able to draw up legal papers, deeds, and other written records. Sadly, a law passed in the 19^th century forbade the use of their native language and it soon died out as they were forced to assimilate and only speak English. That is, until revitalization efforts began in 1993.

Rebirth of a language

The Wompanoag Language Reclamation Project was begun in 1993 with the goal of re-introducing the extinct language to current tribal members who still reside in Massachusetts and surrounding areas. Once dead, however, it is extremely challenging to revive a language; but after decades of awareness and education-including a language immersion class for children ages 3 to ten- there are children who share a first language with that of their ancestors for the first time in over 150 years.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of people have found themselves working remotely for the first time. For some, this is only a temporary measure to ensure employee safety but for others, it will be the new normal. Studies have shown that productivity levels are highest with remote workers and the overall satisfaction of employees who work from home is higher than those who still work in a traditional setting. For some, not having to commute to work each day is the biggest reward of remote work, while others may prefer their home office because it has fewer distraction.

With remote work becoming more mainstream, companies are in a unique position to implement elearning strategies to help with onboarding processes and employee training.

With elearning, employees can access a library of information that allows them to work at their own pace, in their own preferred setting, with everything they need right at their fingertips. Whether it’s HR onboarding documents or continued corporate training, elearning allows the employee to access the information they need and then return to regular work tasks, enhancing productivity levels and cutting costs by allowing workers to access everything they need, remotely.

With the increased popularity of elearning, many corporations have made materials accessible through both mobile and PC internet browsers. For some, no internet connection is necessary.

World Translation Center has been assisting corporations and local governments for years with the localization of elearning tools such as training videos with multilingual subtitling or voiceover. Whether you have five minutes of video that requires Japanese voiceover or one hundred elearning modules to localize into a dozen languages, we are happy to help!

Technology has led to innovative advances in the localization field like auto-translation apps and artificial intelligence. Auto-translation apps are constantly improving, and artificial intelligence can now create voices that sound perfectly human.

“There’s an app for that” rings true for almost anything, but apps cannot replace personalized customer service provided by humans. We take pride in our exceptional customer service and demonstrate this through:

• Personal, hands-on management of projects from start to finish, ensuring the success of the final product
• Providing regular, clear communication throughout the project

While technology allows you to handle translation and localization on your own, the outcome may not be grammatically correct and voice transcription is only as good as the pronunciation of the speaker. We have all noticed transcription errors from phone voice mails or have asked Siri or Alexa a question and received an incorrect response because of a pronunciation barrier.

Dealing with apps can be frustrating which is why we offer consistently excellent communication with a solution-centered result during every interaction. From start to finish, we pride ourselves on owning the success of a project. Personalized customer service and empathy cannot be found simply by downloading an app on your phone and, unlike artificial intelligence, we speak your language.

Germans love to stay current with the times by creating new words; on average, 200 new words are added each year to their vocabulary, but 2020 was no average year. During the pandemic alone, 1,200 new words were created in the German language! As you can imagine, most pertain directly to Covid and living life during a pandemic.

Coronaangst – describes the angst and frustration we feel while living in rather uncertain times.

Abstandsbier – describes a happy outing to enjoy beers with friends-at a safe distance.

Schnutenpulli – translates directly to “mouth sweater” and have you ever heard anything more accurate?

Impfneid – is the vaccination envy people feel while waiting their turn, towards those already vaccinated.

The Covid pandemic is unlike anything we have experienced before, making it difficult at times to accurately express how we feel about it, or to put into words what, exactly, is going on. Many new words and phrases have become “the norm” out of a necessity to fill the vocabulary gaps. Words like ‘Covidiot’ to describe someone who does not adhere to restrictions or wear a mask, or ‘quarantini’ to describe the increased alcohol consumption as a coping mechanism while so many people were stuck at home during the lockdowns. And I think many of us can commiserate with being ‘overZoomed’ at this point.  Old words like ‘herd immunity’, ‘PPE’, and ‘Patient Zero’ have become buzz words, a part of our everyday speak.

Using humor as a coping mechanism during tough times is nothing new and though it may seem counterintuitive, it can actually be used as a way to feel connected with each other, even at a distance

At World Translation Center, translation is our passion; we love connecting the world through language. Recently, we asked a few of our linguists to describe what it is they love about translating:

“I would say that like most translators, I love building a bridge across different languages and cultures and I feel I am doing something creative. I really enjoy that. I also like learning lots of knowledge from translating. Every time I translate something, I learn something new.”- J., France

“We translators make it possible for other people to exercise their human rights of having access to information in their own language. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) states that the freedom of expression goes hand in hand with the freedom to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”, and we, the translators, contribute to make those frontiers (almost) invisible… So, how not to love something that takes so little from you, but gives you a lot in return?” – A., Guatemala

“Writing and translation gives me an immense opportunity to learn and explore different cultures, people & lifestyles. I am always passionate & fascinated to learn & interact with different languages, communities, ethnicities, people across the globe. Language has the power to bind everyone in one string, make unity in diversity. It bridges communication. I believe in one philosophy, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, (a Sanskrit phrase) – ‘The whole universe is one family.’ And language has the power to bring everyone under one roof and share love, harmony & prosperity.”  -N., India

What are you passionate about?

February 12 is the Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival, as some refer to it. It is the biggest holiday in China, celebrating the end of Winter and welcoming the beginning of Spring. Symbolically, it is the opportunity to usher in new beginnings and leave any negativity of the previous year in the past. After 2020, I think this is something we are all looking forward to in 2021!

On the eve of the new year, it is tradition to hold an annual family reunion, with family members gathering to enjoy a large meal together and celebrate. In the north of China, delicious dumplings are enjoyed and, in the south, a sticky new year’s cake is shared. After dining, some families go to the local temple to pray for a prosperous new year, though some choose to stay home and have a party, complete with firecrackers to scare off evil spirits. The Lantern Festival is held on the 15^th and last day of the celebration, with families walking down the street with lighted lanterns.

To prepare for the new year, homes and religious altars will be thoroughly cleaned, sweeping out bad luck and leaving room for good fortune in the coming year. Some will repaint their homes with red paint and hang paper cutouts with popular Chinese sayings or couplets written on them around the house.

2021 is the Year of the Ox, suggesting the need to work hard and stay focused to succeed in the coming year. This may resonate even more strongly considering the challenging events of 2020 but should be considered a positive opportunity to welcome a new start with fresh beginnings.

With COVID-19 cases increasing, especially around Beijing, Chinese authorities are urging the millions of people who usually travel to stay home and quarantine. Regardless of how you plan to celebrate, World Translation Center would like to wish all our Chinese friends a prosperous New Year full of peace and productivity!

Burmese is the official language of Burma and is spoken by approximately 40 million people across the globe. Adapted from a southern Indian script over one thousand years ago, the Burmese script has a notably round appearance and a fascinating origin.

The Burmese script is characterized by rounded letters with few sharp lines, lending a flowing appearance to the writing. Despite being aesthetically pleasing, the rounded script was born of necessity.

Because Burma has a rather damp, tropical climate, paper and leather deteriorates quickly and was not a viable option to use for writing. Instead, early scribes began using palm leaves to write on. It was common practice for Buddhist monks to plant trees specifically to have plenty of writing materials on hand. Once the trees reached maturity, the leaves would be boiled, dried, and flattened in preparation for the scribes to record their texts.

For ink, ashes would be mixed with a resin and sometimes fish gall to produce a sooty, black color. Sometimes the ink would be applied directly with a bamboo stylus, though it was also common to scratch the words onto the leaf and then rub the ink into the grooves.

The leaves were more delicate than paper, leather, or bark, so care had to be taken when transcribing texts. If pressed too hard, the stylus could go all the way through the leaf rather than merely piercing the fibers. Long, straight lines were too risky to use on the delicate leaves, so a rounded Burmese script was invented instead.

The lovely, rounded script can be seen here, in the official name for Burma, ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်, or the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.

Examples of palm leaf manuscripts can be found at https://www.brandeis.edu/library/archives/spotlights/special-collections/2016/burmese-texts.html.

What a whirlwind 2020 has been!

It would be easy to focus on all the bad that happened this year, the tragedy, the inconveniences, the departure from “the norm,” but I think it is more important than ever to instead focus on all the good that can occur in 2021.

New Years is a time of renewal, of new beginnings. We symbolically wipe the slate clean. Going forward, we can decide to face the new year with optimism, forging ahead with a vision of prosperity, togetherness, and kindness.  We can face new challenges knowing that we have already overcome so much.

As a small business, our ability to endure 2020 would not have been possible without the continued support of our clients and vendors, and we are truly thankful for you all. From our team to yours, we wish you prosperity and growth in the new year!

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language

And next year’s words await another voice.”- T.S. Eliot

While many people associate fried chicken with the southern United States, it also occupies a place of great cultural significance in Japan, especially around the holidays. How did the fried chicken make its way from Sunday church gatherings to the Christmas table in Japan? It may surprise you to know that the history of fried chicken goes back hundreds of years and spans continents.

The first recorded recipe for fried chicken was in a 1747 Scottish cookbook titled, “The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy.” Considering Scotland is well known for their love of deep-frying various foods like Oreo cookies and Mars candy bars, frying up chicken seems a natural starting point. Scores of Scots migrated to the southern United States during the 18^th and 19^th centuries, bringing their love for fried chicken with them and, it is thought, eventually passing it on to West African slaves who would have cooked it for their slave owners.

Because it was so labor intensive, fried chicken was considered a special occasion food, a dish served at a celebration, or social gathering; it was a dish that brought people together. In the 1950’s, American restaurant chain, Kentucky Fried Chicken, revolutionized the Gospel Bird by taking it mainstream, making it available to anyone at any time. Borrowing heavily from African American recipes, KFC began serving up fried chicken all over the world. This was met with great enthusiasm, especially in Asia.

The first KFC opened in Japan in 1970 and quickly gained popularity, in part because of a fascination with American culture. Capitalizing on this, KFC began offering a Christmas family meal in 1974, modeling it after the traditional American Christmas dinner, sans turkey. Today, the BBC estimates that a whopping 3.6 million families will sit down this year to enjoy their Christmas fried chicken. It is so popular, that you could spend hours waiting in line if you don’t reserve your meal in advance.

Fried chicken may be associated with the southern United States, but when it comes to Christmas dinner, it is a Japanese staple. Don’t forget to pick up your wine to go with your Kentucky Fried Chicken meal, while you’re at it.