Translators, Interpreters In Demand

[Jangle]

"I think if we have more qualified people, we could attract more international conferences. Currently, if there are three conferences running concurrently, we do not have enough people to service those conferences," Hamilton continued.

Vice-president Marjorie Robotham echoed similar sentiments, noting that there were many opportunities for young people to thrive and develop themselves. She advised persons, however, to be prepared for rigorous training if they were to compete globally.

"We have to dispel the misunderstanding that having done languages [at the tertiary level] automatically qualifies you to be an interpreter. That is not it [at] all," she declared.

The vice-president added, "As far as possibilities for young people, there are many avenues for translating. You can work for international companies and organisations which are stationed abroad. A lot of international translators are outsourcing their work to translators via the Internet. More and more as technology advances, there are many avenues being opened to young graduates."
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/l...preters-demand



As I’ve said many times before, Jamaica doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel, we just need to improve on and add to what we have regarding tourism. We , as a people, need to change our concept and perceptions of tourism and why people travel and visit a place. There is a myriad of job opportunities in the tourism field that is more than just being trinket sellers and taxi drivers. I’ve also said here that our school curriculum needs to change to capitalize on Jamaica’s unique geographical location. Our schools need to teach conversational Spanish and now with the influx of Chinese investments, at least a working knowledge of Mandarin Chinese. I’ve traveled to many none English speaking countries and I’ve still been able to communicate with the locals because they speak basic English.

[Willi]

Wait, Sandra move back to Jamaica?

[Sir X]

Put an application in panama or C. Rica for spanish translators ,please get the black ones that have west indian roots,problem solved.

[Willi]

Agreed.

[Assasin]

How long me a preach it? Tourism should be taught in School.

Man a talk bout low paying job.....

The training standard is going up in Jamaica and it means that workers will get higher paying jobs if they take advantage.

[Assasin]

long term we have to train our people.

[Don1]

As I’ve said many times before, Jamaica doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel, we just need to improve on and add to what we have regarding tourism. We , as a people, need to change our concept and perceptions of tourism and why people travel and visit a place. There is a myriad of job opportunities in the tourism field that is more than just being trinket sellers and taxi drivers. I’ve also said here that our school curriculum needs to change to capitalize on Jamaica’s unique geographical location. Our schools need to teach conversational Spanish and now with the influx of Chinese investments, at least a working knowledge of Mandarin Chinese. I’ve traveled to many none English speaking countries and I’ve still been able to communicate with the locals because they speak basic English.

All very noice and true...at the micro level

At the macro level JA has many decades of experience with tourism. There is zero mystery regarding this important industry. The industry should continue, improve and expand to its full potential. Jamaica is extremely dependent on this industry so its continuation is an imperative.

Again at the macro level....tourism PRIMARILY offers low skill jobs. Listing the RELATIVELY few high skill/high income jobs available via the tourist trade doesn't change that FACT. Doing so in the expectation of challenging that FACT only establishes that particular advocate as a DUMMY depending on a logical fallacy to prove a point

As long as Jamaica is tourism-dependent...and tourism is far & away Jamaica's LEADING INDUSTRY - Jamaica will remain poor and unable to see real progress in this 21st century.

WHY IS THIS TRUE??

Obviously this is true because progress in the 21st century is KNOWLEDGE-DRIVEN. Mastery of some aspect(s) of technology and translating that mastery to creating desirable PRODUCTS & SERVICES for a global market are REQUIREMENTS for real progress in this century.

If this is true then STEM education & entrepreneurship & attracting capital to support 21st century-ready businesses are critical inputs for our long term path to real progress. This is called DEVELOPING OUR HUMAN CAPITAL

It is only dummies who don't know this. Unfortunately Jamaica overflows with dummies - who create & reinforce poverty without an inkling of how to beat the poverty trap

[Sir X]

New York and Florida is one of the premier tourist destination, that is a billion dollar industry to both states.

I don't see no one advocating for it to be on the curriculum in high schools.

Kissteeth,Sass Mad ! Wha Fi teach in,how can I help you sir/ mam ?

[Don1]

Foreign Language Education

Our schools need to teach conversational Spanish and now with the influx of Chinese investments, at least a working knowledge of Mandarin Chinese. I’ve traveled to many none English speaking countries and I’ve still been able to communicate with the locals because they speak basic English.

Nothing wrong with this per se. However the importance of this PALES in comparison to the reality of 21st century languages

Software coding is the language that engineers write for machine instruction...and that machines use to communicate with one another. Then the computational outcomes are displayed in a form comprehensible to humans.

It's now well known that the world is in the Age of Automation & Robotics...all of which depends on coding

Consequently it's crystal clear that the most VALUABLE & CRITICAL "foreign languages" folks in backward places like JA should master are popular software languages

But being backward results in folks (not saying you necessarily ) not knowing this but continuing with extensive yapping about themes more appropriate for the 1970s or 1980s

If some entity were to propose a national drive for our students to master one or two software languages... no one would pay it any mind.

Critical thinking and a progressive approach to development are in extremely short supply in DummyLand...But we're on it anyway

[Willi]

Actually, I was told that this is not the issue. What they want is to creating a Interpretation TRAINING infrastructure in Jamaica so that people don't have to go overseas for training. Thus we can have locals doing International conferences with the numbers we need.

This I got over the weekend from retired high level UN interpreters.

[Jangle]

Tourism language training kicks off

Bartlett further stated that with Jamaica's geographical location and importance of Spanish companies in the tourism sector, Spanish as a second language has become a necessity, adding that the island is around Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Haiti which speaks creole and French.

“This programme with the Cervantes Institute is part of a wider programme of collaboration we are seeking in building human capital which will also include language training in French, Chinese and German as these are the big markets that we have to respond to.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/lates...f?profile=1228

[Jangle]

24 Cuban teachers recruited


“The Language Policy speaks to our objective of having Jamaicans being bilingual and multilingual. Most critical among all the languages is Spanish, because our neighbours are Spanish-speaking countries and for cooperation, economic development and advancement, we must join our neighbours, so this [the teaching of Spanish] is critical,” he said.

“The teachers have been employed to teach Spanish, mathematics, physical education, agricultural science, chemistry, physics, biology and integrated science. [They] were initially contracted to teach in Jamaican schools for two years, but this was later increased to three years following the revision of the Agreement in 2011,” Kennedy said.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/lates...d?profile=1228

[Jangle]

Tourism Earns US$2b Up To July


Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett said preliminary data indicate that gross foreign exchange earnings for January to July have risen by 6.3 per cent, compared to the same period last year, to more than US$1.9 billion. This increase has been driven by the 2,955,007 visitor arrivals between January and August this year, which represents a 4.7 per cent hike over last year's performance.

"Estimated gross foreign exchange earnings for the period, and this is the exciting part, January to July 2018 were US$1.93 billion, up 6.3 per cent over the same period last year, with stopover arrivals earning US$1.82 billion and cruise earning US$110 million," said Bartlett, as he addressed a press briefing at the Ministry of Tourism yesterday.

The Gleaner asked Bartlett for the percentage of the tourist dollar that is being retained in the local economy, based on his calls for a higher rate.

He explained: "We don't have the figure to give you yet because we're just doing the research now. PricewaterhouseCoopers is working on that as we speak so that we can get a new sense of where the retention is. But at 30 cents, this is the highest retention of any industry in the country. There is no industry that retains 30 cents of the dollar at the moment."

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/l...arns-us2b-july

[Jangle]

Multilingualism key to move country forward – Morris - UN youth ambassador renews call for J’cans to learn more languages

“The Chinese are booming economically and because of that, many countries can attest to the benefits being gained from a relationship with the Chinese.”

The idea of Mandarin becoming an official language in Jamaica has found favour with counsellor at the Chinese Embassy, Fan Jianghong.

“China is growing rapidly, economically and socially. We have a very unique culture. It is important for more people outside China to effectively communicate with the Chinese to understand our culture,” Fan told The Gleaner. “They will learn what we have been doing to make China a prosperous society, like the discipline, punctuality, and very good work ethics. Being able to speak our language effectively is important to understand why China is growing so fast.”

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/n...assador-renews