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Surname Translation Can Challenge Cultural and Linguistic Competency

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Romanization of character language systems, such as Chinese, can pose cultural and linguistic challenges for communicators. Photo credit: Our Signature by 2493™ on Flickr

Have you noticed in the coverage about the protests in Libya that the name of the country’s leader is spelled differently depending on the news organization? I’ve seen his name reported as Muammar el-Qaddafi, [...]

Hostage Situation at Discovery Shows Words Still Make a Difference

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A scary afternoon in Washington, D.C. last week brought mental health back into the headlines. Earlier this year, I talked about the importance of using culturally and linguistically competent words, especially when talking about mental health. But in reviewing the coverage of the Discovery Channel hostage situation in Silver Spring, Maryland, it seems like [...]

New Research Reveals Characteristics of Millennial Generation

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This guest blog post is by Leah Holmes-Bonilla, a Senior Account Supervisor and the Multicultural Services Manager at Vanguard Communications.

Have you ever mused about wanting to live in a world with a generation of self-assured, enthusiastic, forward-thinking and culturally diverse young people? Think no more because they are here. Fifty million 18-to-29-year-olds make up [...]

Correct Word Choice and Phrasing Important for Competent Health Storytelling

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From coverage of Cornell University’s response to six students’ deaths by suicide to reports of entertainer Marie Osmond’s teenage son’s death by suicide, recently reporters are writing and talking a lot about suicide.

While it’s great that news coverage is driving public dialogue about this often taboo topic, the news coverage does not utilize linguistically [...]

Reports Offer Insights into Communicating with Refugees in the U.S.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/digitaldemocracy/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Understanding how best to communicate with and support refugee communities living in the United States can be a daunting challenge. In 2008, more than 60,000 refugees immigrated to the United States from all around the world. For refugee families, their arrival in America is not the end of their [...]