ULG’s Language Solutions Blog

The Big Leagues: Interpretation In Major League Baseball and Beyond

Interpretation, translation and localization changes are happening at a rapid pace in the world of sports. Athletes have international teammates and loyal fans from around the world. To keep up, sport...

4 Tools to Improve the CX at Your Multilingual Outbound Call Center

Did you know more than 350 languages are spoken in the U.S. and nearly a quarter of the American population primarily speaks a language other than English at home? If you want your multilingual outbou...

Workforce Diversification Gives Manufacturers a Competitive Advantage

The manufacturing industry is facing a serious labor shortage that will likely worsen. But, recruiting and retaining talent from diverse populations can fill available positions and give manufacturers...

Multicultural Communication in Clinical Trials: How to Prepare for Your Participants’ Language Needs

Diverse pools of participants in clinical trials are not only important for producing the best set of data, but they also help advance health equity. To reach both goals, you need multicultural commun...

3 Keys to Success for Interpreting at Sports Events: Takeaways From our Partnership with USGA at the US Women’s Open

Every year, top golf players from around the world gather to compete in the United States Golf Association’s (USGA) US Women’s Open tournament. Many of these players don’t speak English and require th...

Accessibility in Healthcare: Language Access & Alternative Formats

Is the information your healthcare plan provides truly accessible to all of your members? A number of barriers can stand in the way of understanding needed information, including language and disabili...

Language Solutions Drive your FDA-required Diversity Plan

In April 2022, the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released guidance requiring sponsors to create diversity plans to improve enrollment of underrepresented populations in clinical trials. Altho...

Telephone Interpretation Process: Call Center Quality Issues to Avoid

Looking for better ways to support your customers over the phone? Telephone interpretation offers a path forward. With the help of over-the-phone interpretation (OPI), you can connect your multilingua...

Our Uniques: What Makes ULG's Translation and Interpretation Services Different

When it comes to serving the needs of multilingual customers, many companies settle for transactional translation and interpretation services. What if there was a better way that could help you expand...

Understanding the Value of a Translation and Interpretation Partner in Your Procurement Plan

How can teams implement language solutions without going over budget? What’s considered “quality” translation and interpretation to begin with? And what’s the long-term return on investment? These are...

How Language Access Fits into Your Digital Transformation Plan

Times are changing—and changing fast—in the world of digital technology. Businesses are trading outdated legacy processes for innovative digital transformation technology as their companies grow. Acco...

7 Key Advantages of Interpreting Services for Utility Companies (and How to Maximize Them)

As of 2022, more than 25 million U.S. residents spoke a language other than English at home, according to the US Census Bureau. Utility companies provide essential services, and it’s vital to ensure t...

5 Steps to Developing a Language Access Plan for Your Healthcare Organization

In the United States today, 46 million people speak a primary language other than English. In order for medical staff to effectively communicate with all of their patients from linguistically diverse ...

4 Red Flags to Look Out for in Interpretation Services

Interpretation services vary in scope and audience. However, the ultimate objective remains the same: to bridge any linguistic gaps in verbal communication so that all customers receive the same level...

Providers, Are You Ready for the No Surprises Act?

Healthcare providers, take note: effective January 1, 2022, your office must comply with the No Surprises Act. That means it’s your responsibility to make sure that your patients know if they will be ...

5 Tips for Effectively Communicating with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Communication is essential to many aspects of everyday life, including personal interactions as well as accessing medical treatment and legal assistance. To learn how to more effectively communicate w...

How to Offer Language Solutions to Nonverbal Patients

Effective communication is a vital part of many aspects of modern life. When a patient's health and well-being—and maybe even survival—is on the line, effective communication can be the key to a succe...

Remote Medical Interpreting: What Does This Look like?

Throughout the numerous lockdowns that the COVID-19 crisis induced upon us all, remote personal interaction became the new normal. It's what reduced potential exposure for everyone around the world, b...

WHEN SHOULD I USE OSI, OPI, VRI OR RSI FOR HEALTHCARE?

We are lucky to live in a world where we have multiple options for interpretation, but how do you know when to use the different options? With the prominence of telehealth today, we should be asking t...

Translation vs Interpretation: What's the Difference?

With 67.3 million U.S. residents speaking a language other than English at home, the question isn’t whether language access or meeting the multicultural healthcare requirements of patients and members...

How Video Remote Interpreting Services Help Overcome Language Barriers

We are repeatedly told that communication is key, yet many businesses overlook a common communication barrier: language. Language barriers are challenging for everyone involved because they cause misu...

6 Ways to Ensure patients with LEP have a seamless COVID-19 vaccine experience

The COVID-19 pandemic has shed a spotlight on the systemic inequalities and lack of access to health care for patients and members with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). Across the care continuum you...

Telehealth: Maintaining Care & Communication in a Virtual Setting

Telehealth has proven to be an incredibly effective response to the stay-at-home orders incited by the COVID-19 pandemic. The telehealth services industry is expected to grow nearly 65% in 2020 as dem...

What Is the International Phonetic Alphabet?

There are approximately 6,500 languages in the world, each with pronunciations that vary depending on accents, dialects, and more. With the large majority of these languages, there are alphabets that ...

The Super Bowl Unites by Bringing Culture and Entertainment to Your Living Room

How sports and language bring people together around the world American football is full of tradition and history. People are loyal to their hometown team, or simply enjoy the idea of a consistent Mon...

Why Emotional Intelligence Matters in Interpreting

Interpreters play an essential role in helping people who speak different languages communicate in a wide range of scenarios, such as business meetings, emergency medical calls, and legal support. In ...

Why Do LSPs Contract Linguists?

Spurred by globalization, international expansion within organizations, and increased migration patterns, growth in the language solutions industry has been accelerating at a rapid pace. According to ...

What Role Does Language Access Play in The Manufacturing Industry?

Manufacturing is an industry that is constantly changing in terms of the technology used, the industrial and consumer products created, and the countries where the factories are managed. A recent stud...

Video Remote Interpreting: Enhancing Patient Care And Cutting Costs

According to the Center for Disease Control, in the U.S. alone there are 990.8 million physicians’ visits and 267.1 million emergency room visits or hospital outpatient visits in a year. The patients ...

Looking For An Interpreting Provider? Here's What To Consider

Strong communication is foundational to your relationships with customers. With more than 25 million people in the United States who are limited English proficient (LEP), most companies have at least ...

Improving HCAHPS Scores Through Language Services

What makes quality healthcare? The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, or HCAHPS, looks to answer that very question, and has been used since 2006 to gauge patients’ pers...

How To Foster Better Patient Understanding

Medical professionals are increasingly noting the correlation between patient health and health literacy. The more people are able to comprehend and understand about their healthcare, the more effecti...

Three Ways Language Access Helps Government Agencies

Government agencies – specializing in anything from education to international diplomacy – often encounter many of the world’s 7,000 languages, making access to translation and interpreting services i...

Piraha: Brazil's Extraordinary Language

A tiny tribe living deep in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has some of the world’s top researchers questioning the fundamentals of human language. The Piraha tribe speaks a rare and mysterious language of...

CSA Research’s Don DePalma on Industry Trends & Keeping LSPs Relevant

Common Sense Advisory (CSA Research) has made a name for itself as one of the big players in language industry news and research. The Massachusetts-based company produces research and blogs relating t...

Thinking About A Multilingual Call Center? It’s Probably A Good Idea

You’ve purchased a new product online, and you can’t wait to get your hands on it. Once it arrives in the mail, you use your car key as a de facto box cutter, remove the packaging and get rid of the p...

Stories From A 911 Call Center: Interpreting In Moments Of Crisis

Editor’s Note: Claudio Federico is ULG’s Managing Director of OPI Services and has worked in the interpreting industry for several years. Here he details some experiences he’s had in the industry with...

Why Language Access Matters At The Dentist

A visit to the dentist isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time. In fact, dental checkups cause some people so much anxiety, it stops a number of them from obtaining care. A 2012 study found that UK resid...

VRI At The Doctor’s Office: How To Get The Most Out Of Your Session

Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) has risen in popularity as the technology becomes more readily available in the courtroom, hospitals and during international conferences. According to a recent reader ...

The Connection Between Language Services and Patient Safety

Here at United Language Group, we often emphasize the importance of language translation and interpreting in the medical field. For us, there’s a clear-cut rationale behind language access in healthca...

Legally Speaking: Do I really need that contract in two types of Spanish?

Spoiler alert – the answer is likely yes. What might be more interesting, however, is the “why”. Spanish is a vibrant and growing language that spread through Spanish Colonization to become the world’...

The Many, Many Languages Of the European Union

July 14, 2017 The European Union continues to be a strong proponent of multilingualism, prioritizing and promoting language diversity. That emphasis on multilingualism has permeated many parts of life...

Language Services: The Biggest Industry You’ve Never Heard Of

When people think of up-and-coming industries, they likely conjure up images of tech companies in Silicon Valley. What probably doesn’t come to mind is language services. But it should. According to C...

A Language Unlike Any Other: What is Nicaraguan Sign Language?

June 08, 2017 When new languages emerge, they’re usually categorized as pidgins. These languages are simplistic and basic, created from combining basic elements of two or more languages. Over time, ma...

Immersive Language Learning At Concordia Language Villages

There are a diverse range of strategies available to people interested in learning another language. There are computer programs, a number of mobile apps as well as more traditional classroom options ...

Bilingual Speakers Able to Perceive Time Differently, Study Says

How much time has passed since you clicked on this article and began reading? Depending on how many languages you speak, your answer may vary. That’s according to a new study published late last month...

A Horror Movie Entirely In Esperanto? The 1966 Film Incubus

Black and white shots of quiet, country scenes dissolve over one another while soft music plays. A narrator describes a group of life-sucking demons who lure travelers to bring them to their “God of D...

3 Linguistics Podcasts Every Language Lover Should Listen To

Podcasts offer people the opportunity to learn, be entertained, or catch up on news while plodding through everyday tasks. While suffering an arduous commute, running on a treadmill or scrubbing the t...

Telehealth 2.0: What We Learned

May 02, 2017 United Language Group gained new insights into the needs of telehealth clients at this year’s American Telemedicine Association Telehealth 2.0 conference in Orlando, Florida. In particula...

The Affordable Care Act and Language Access

There’s been a lot of talk about healthcare lately. With a new administration in the White House and “Obamacare” tenuously hanging in the balance, the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is uncert...

How to decide if you need an interpreter or a translator

While interpretation and translation are often used interchangeably, they are quite different and few people can do both successfully on a professional level. Despite sharing a foundation in linguisti...

The Hinglish Phenomenon

History has proven that language is not a static form of expression. Over time, vernaculars change as different words and expressions pop in and out of vogue. A “smartphone” would mean nothing to some...

Humans Defeat Machine Translation In Korean Competition

In a recent battle of man vs. computer, human translators proved they still outperform Machine Translation (MT) systems notwithstanding great progress in artificial intelligence technology. In a compe...

Then and Now: The Brazilian Portuguese Spelling Reform

This week we scrolled far back into our archives to reach ULG’s very first blog post. This search through our archives got us thinking about what has changed with the “new” Brazilian Portuguese spelli...

Study Shows LEP Patients Less Likely to Stick With Diabetes Medication

A study published last week found that Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Latino patients are less likely to adhere to medication regimens for type 2 diabetes than white and English-speaking Latino pat...

5 Qualities Every Interpreter Should Have

Speaking more than one language is impressive. But being able to professionally interpret for someone who speaks a different language? That’s an even bigger feat. Language interpreters transmit ideas ...

A Review of the Top Language Learning Apps

Traveling to another country can be a daunting, yet exciting opportunity. The language, culture, currency, and more can all be challenging. Luckily, with technology at our fingertips, anyone can find ...

Gaelic vs. Irish: What’s the Difference?

St. Patrick’s Day, cable-knit wool sweaters, and lush, green rolling landscapes are what people often associate with the country of Ireland. What people don’t generally know, though, is that while the...

The Importance of Qualified Medical Interpreters

In 1980 Willie Ramirez was taken to a Florida hospital in a coma. His family members explained to doctors that the 18-year-old was “intoxicado,” in Spanish, meaning poisoned. An interpreter misunderst...

Has Technology Made Language Learning Obsolete?

There are a myriad of predictions, encouraging and terrifying, about what technological innovations the future holds. Will the robots take over? Do we need to prepare for a world in which privacy is a...

Preserving Language: Icelandic Language Day

When you think about the country of Iceland, the image of Vikings and the natural spa, the Blue Lagoon, immediately come to mind. But the most interesting thing about the sparsely populated island is ...

How it Works: Simultaneous Interpretation of the Presidential Debates

Millions of people have been tuning in to watch the 2016 US presidential debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. And Americans aren’t the only ones watching. People in places like Israel, Ge...

Do We Speak a Universal Language?

A study published by the Los Angeles Times suggests that there may be a lot more in common between global languages than we think. Research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...

Communicating in the Somali Language

The Somali language is spoken by approximately 16 million people in Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Yemen and Kenya, as well as by the Somali diaspora. Many Somalis fled to countries in the Middle East, ...