💸💪🏾Moneda Moves (04): The poder of language
Hola, hallo, nĭ hăo! Thinking about learning a new language? Plenty of others are too. Just earlier this month, popular language learning service Duolingo announced it hit 300 million users worldwide, a 100 million increase in the last year and growing revenue. But if you have Spanish-speaking parents living in the U.S., chances are you've heard of the importance of knowing more than one language for a long time. At some point, they've probably told you this:
In English, it roughly translates to "Someone who knows two languages is worth as much as two people." As a kid, I didn't quite understand what it could mean to be bilingual, except that I could communicate with my family as well as my schoolmates. I also had some vague notion it was an investment on my future (cue America Ferrera moneda GIF):
Turns out, that investment is more than a vision. (It was also a privilege.) In the U.S., Spanish is one of the leading languages employers look for on resumes. Other key languages increasingly in demand are Chinese and Arabic, according to the New American Economy's “Not Lost in Translation: The Growing Importance of Foreign Language Skills in the U.S. Job Market" report. From 2010 to 2015, job postings aimed at bilingual workers more than doubled.
While the ROI on an individual paycheck has been contested, talking about the importance of other languages is unavoidable in today's economy, from the tech to healthcare space. Tens of millions of people living in the U.S. speak languages other than English. Second most popular is Spanish, but Chinese, French and Tagalog are also huge. Today, we'll cover a few headlines that stood out this week that speak to the power of language, incluyendo el español.
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Con poder,
Lyanne
We're keeping tabs/cuentas on what happened last week in the world of Latinx in business. We review studies, features and news updates as they relate to our community and underrepresented communities at large.
A language gap is hurting Spanish-speakers trying to access healthcare⚕: We've heard about having trouble finding a health care provider due to cultural differences. But at another fundamental level, more than half of Latinx adults are having trouble communicating with a practitioner due to a language barrier, the Associated Press reports. Patients experiencing cultural barriers end up turning to a family member, other practitioners, or non-profits for help. Language barrier issues are not new, but the numbers help provide context. Per the article, the Obama administration was criticized in 2014 when its federal healthcare website rolled out in Spanish with several glaring grammar and translation issues. This is especially problematic as older Americans typically rely on government programs such as Medicare and Social Security.
Your assistant AI comes with some bias🎵: Wondered why your Alexa can't play your summer reggaeton anthem? So did Ximena Larkin, so she wrote an awesome first-person piece for The New Yorker, where she explained difficulties she experienced when trying to communicate with her Google Home. Beyond the fact that saying "Despacito" with a heavy American accent for the song to register on a device is just wrong, it also can feel like an "erasure of language," Ximena writes. Between navigating algorithms, code switching and a large variety of accents, making AI multilingual is no easy task. However, this piece does a great job at illuminating the importance of making this technology accessible to people who speak more than just English. Also, "This sheds some light on who these companies think are important, and to whom they are marketing," says Carolina Barrera-Tobon, an assistant professor on modern languages at DePaul University in Chicago.
Get to know the powerful/potentes Latinx and up-and-comers in business.
August 5-8: Immigrant Arts & Women's Empowerment Summit🗽: Last week, I moderated a panel with community leaders who were very knowledgeable on the the importance of immigrant art in the economy at the #ImmigrantArtsSummit. We tackled tough questions, including how to change the perception that art is a nicety versus a must have and how we could better integrate artists into existing jobs and see art as part of American culture. There's a few takeaways I wanted to share:
The arts contribute more than $760 BILLION to the country's economy, according to U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the National Endowment of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. That's more than agriculture, transportation or warehousing.
Artificial intelligence may create redundancies in jobs, but it could also create demand for what is traditionally called "soft skills" like communication and the arts (Lili Gil Valletta). It's clear, however, that the transition to AI will have it's fair share of challenges. A report from U.K. charity Sutton Trust found that it could lead to greater income inequality.
Companies across the board could benefit from having employees with an arts background integrated into teams (Christopher Carroll).
Here's more information on the panel if you'd like to search any of the panelists:
No Art? No Innovation Economy: Economic Development Brought by Immigrant Artists
Panelists:
Christopher Carroll: Chief of Staff and Political Director, AFM Local 802
Lili Gil Valletta: Journalist, CEO Cien Plus and Dreamers Ventures
Vaibhav Saini: Author; Licensing Director (Life Sciences), University of Connecticut
Moderator: Lyanne Alfaro
Put your money/monedita where your mouth is! These are Latinx entrepreneurs, business owners and thought leaders to consider backing.
All our earlier talk about the ways AI needs to shape up when it comes to language and culture leads me to the next highlight of the week...
Google is dropping monedas to try to correct AI's racial bias issues📱: An Oakland based non-profit, AI4All, is the recipient of Google.com's $1 million dollar grant. The two-week summer camp program focuses on bringing in high school students -- particularly those who are women, people of color and interested in AI. The story comes from Ashley Wong at USA Today.
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