Proposal to Make Arabic Official at WTO Expensive

But if it goes ahead we may have some more work to do :-)

Reuters reported on 26/01/10 that Arab members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are pushing for Arabic to be made a fourth official language of the global trade body. But the heavy cost of translation, interpreting and extra printing involved in adding Arabic to the three current official languages -- English, French and Spanish -- means the proposal is running up against resistance (...) Any move to add Arabic as an official language would probably prompt a request for Chinese, and maybe even Russian -- aligning WTO language policy with the United Nations (...) Adding three languages would cost about 45 million Swiss francs ($43 million) a year, the ambassador said -- no small amount given a total WTO budget in 2009 of 189 million francs. As a result the Arab group will need to lobby hard to convince other members of the virtues of the proposal

The WTO's 153 members include a dozen Arab countries, and another six are applying to join, including Iraq, Algeria and Libya.

For all your English to Arabic and vice versa translations that will help you expand your business into the Middle East visit Arabic Language Experts at http://www.arabic.com.au/.

It's bad, but not very - but is it good?

The Common Sense Advisory again - they promise registered users access to reports and then the link keeps taking you back to the darn registration page even though you are logged in.. Very frustrating. I hope their research is more solid than their site.

Anyway, here we have some more stats (remember, I said you can do anything with numbers).

They surveyed 277 freelancers "from around the world" (which countries?) to find out that

• 49.8% of them said Q4 of 2008 was satisfactory, 27.8% said it was good and 22.4% said it was bad. Without country, language and specialization data these percentages are telling me bugger all. What is "satisfactory"? You made more money, but not as much as you wanted? You made less, but not as little as you feared?
• 67.5% of those surveyed said rates stayed the same, 18.8% said the rates dropped and 13.7% raised them. Again, a whole lot of questions. How low were the fares of those who raised them? Were those who dropped them overpriced in the first place? By how much did they raise them or drop them?
• Large numbers of interpreters and translators reported requests from agencies to decrease their rates, but the overwhelming majority (76.9%) said that they did not intend to charge any less in the next three months. Hmmm.. I didn't get any, and heard about it from only two colleagues as anecdotes they heard. Wouldn't that have made vibes on major translation websites such as proz, etc.?
• Many freelancers explained that when they saw decreases in demand in a given industry or setting, they witnessed spikes in other areas. Which areas? Which countries?

Any answers?

For all your English to Arabic and vice versa translations that will help you expand your business into the Middle East visit Arabic Language Experts at http://www.arabic.com.au/.