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Each week, LanguageLine selects five stories about language and culture that we think readers will find intriguing. Here is this week’s “Liner Notes”:

The language classroom is the only classroom where we teach our students how to communicate. It is the only place where they are assessed on their ability to communicate inter-personally with another human being.

If your organization has decided to undertake a localization project, you’ve already taken an important step toward expanding your reach to a global audience.

But, as we all know, the best-laid plans can come undone in the execution. Taking a few steps ahead of time to prepare your content to be translated and localized can help you avoid frustrating delays or costly oversights.

Arriving at a website that wasn’t intended for you can feel a lot like traveling to a foreign country you hadn’t planned to visit.

You don’t recognize the currency or know the exchange rate. You struggle to read the signs. You scan the landscape for something familiar, but nothing seems to be where you expect it to be.

Each week, LanguageLine selects five stories about language and culture that we think readers will find intriguing. Here is this week’s “Liner Notes”:

Time was, if you were creating a fantasy or sci-fi world in film or TV, you could simply make up some lines using sounds that English speakers didn’t hear much and get away with few people noticing or caring.

The internet has opened the door to any company that wants to go global.

With one click, a consumer can now buy shoes from Paris while lying in bed in Beijing or sitting in a Buenos Aires coffee shop. 

The world is digitally enabled and buying online. Almost 70 percent of European internet users made at least one purchase in 2018, with 36 percent of those users buying goods and services from countries besides their own. Meanwhile, the Asian e-commerce market is set to reach $1.4 trillion in the near future.  

One in five U.S. residents speaks a language other than English at home. Working with a language services provider offers an easy-to-implement opportunity to expand an addressable market.

Considering that one in five Americans speaks a language other than English at home, it is inevitable that your call center will have customers who would like to converse in their preferred language.

Representatives from three of the country’s leading pediatric hospitals gathered to discuss their insights into successfully implementing VRI

Communication in a medical setting can be a challenge when both patient and provider speak the same language – but it's even tougher when they don’t.

Bargains are often deceptive and can have significant consequences when it comes to getting limited English speakers the access they need.

You buy a friend’s used car that seems perfect for your 16-year-old daughter, only to spend twice the list price on repairs in the first two months.

Buyer’s remorse can also happen when it comes to shopping for affordable language services—and sometimes, the results have significant consequences.

Here are three costly effects of choosing the lowest-cost language service provider without regard for quality.

Canada's ambitious immigration plan is creating linguistic changes that are impossible (and irresponsible) to ignore.

A new report says that Canada has experienced its largest inflow of immigrants in more than 100 years.

The country added 71,131 immigrants in October, November, and December 2018. Canada’s full-year immigration increase was 321,065, according to Statistics Canada. The jump is the largest Canada has experienced since 1913 when more than 400,000 immigrants came to the country.

The shift is part of Canada’s goal to admit more than a million new permanent residents by the end of 2021. Under the plan, total immigration is expected to reach 350,000 new permanent residents over the next three years. This would represent an immigration level of nearly 1 percent of Canada’s population, which the nation’s government says must be reached by 2030 to ensure economic growth.