Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Lost in Translation?

GM: Stand up: I'm at the Mission heart of the Latino community in San Francisco and //I really can notice that because// I can see all the Hispanic shops Hispanic restaurants selling popusas burritos and then cars passing by with reggeton playing salsa bachata banda and also is
the home of at least seven Spanish language newspapers
(ambiance)

GM: INSIDE A BEAUTY SALON A WOMAN WHO GIVES HER NAME ONLY AS SANDRA IS WATCHING A BEAUTICIAN STRAIGHTEN HER DAUGHTER?S HAIR. SHE'S AN AVID READER OF THE LOCAL SPANISH PRESS....AND EVEN THOUGH SHE'S A NATIVE SPEAKER...BORN IN EL SALVADOR...THERE ARE TIMES WHEN THE WORDS IN THE PAPERS LEAVE HER WONDERING? LIKE WHEN SHE CAME ACROSS THE WORD BANQUETA IN AN ARTICLE.

SANDRA: Banqueta......
(TRANSLATION HERE FOR ADRIANA)
GM: THAT'S BECAUSE NOT ALL SPANISH-SPEAKERS SPEAK THE SAME WAY. AND AS MORE NEWSPAPERS SHIP THEIR COPY TO LATIN AMERICA FOR TRANSLATION SOME READERS LIKE SANDRA ARE FEELING..WELL... LOST IN TRANSLATION...
Sound: (phone ring)

Marvin : reporter ?

GM: MARVIN RAMIREZ RUNS EL REPORTERO, A WEEKLY BILINGUAL PAPER BASED IN THE MISSION.

MARVIN: yeah, I don't have anyone who speaks Spanish.

GM: SO RAMIREZ HIRES ENGLISH-SPEAKERS TO WRITE THE STORIES AND EMAILS THEM AWAY FOR TRANSLATION.

MARVIN: I have three translators, one in Chile, one in Mexico and one in San Francisco. But I rely mostly on the one in Chile.

GM: THE TRANSLATOR IN CHILE THEN EMAILS HER TRANSLATION BACK TO RAMIREZ IN SAN FRANCISCO AND HE LAYS OUT THE STORY IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH, SIDE-BY-SIDE ON THE PAGE. BOTH STORIES CARRY THE BYLINE OF THE WRITER IN SAN FRANCISCO.
MARVIN SAYS OUTSOURCING IS CHEAPER. A TRANSLATOR IN THE US WOULD CHARGE 100 DOLLARS PER PAGE. BUT HE CAN PAY HIS CHILEAN TRANSLATOR 8 DOLLARS FOR THE SAME AMOUNT OF WORK.....

OUTSOURCING IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE COMMON ...IN SMALL PRESSES?.

LAST YEAR, A MEXICAN COMPANY BOUGHT EL MUNDO, A SPANISH-LANGUAGE PAPER IN THE BAY AREA, AND IS PRODUCING THE COPY AND EVERYTHING ELSE FROM MEXICO.

OVER AT EL OBSERVADOR...A BILINGUAL WEEKLY IN SAN JOSE...HILBERT MORALES CONSIDERS OUTSOURCING
BAD FOR JOURNALISM.

Hilbert Morales: they're misrepresenting themselves....
GM: BUT REGARDLESS OF CIRCULATION SIZE, SPANISH-LANGUAGE PAPERS CAN?T DEMAND THE SAME AD PRICES AS THEIR ENGLISH-LANGUAGE COUNTERPARTS. ETHNIC MEDIA EXPERT ROBERTO LOVATO SAYS SPANISH-LANGUAGE MEDIA OUTSOURCES TO COPE WITH THEIR
ECONOMIC DISADVANTAGE.

ROBERTO: advertisers don't value Latino readers....
GM: STILL, THAT LEAVES JULIANA BIRNBAUM IN A TRICKY SITUATION. SHE'S A NEW YORKER STUDYING ANTHROPOLOGY AT BERKELEY. SHE STARTED WRITING FOR EL REPORTERO THREE YEARS AGO AFTER ANSWERING AN AD ON CRAIGSLIST.
Juliana: she tells us about outsourcing (a part get cut)

GM: WHEN CHILEAN TRANSLATOR CARLA SELMAN GETS THE STORY FROM MARVIN, AND SAYS SHE TRANSLATES IT AS BEST AS SHE CAN. AND WHAT ENDS UP IN THE PAPER IS BEYOND HER RESPONSIBILITY.

Carla: Carla says I try to do it in a neutral Spanish.

GM: EVEN THOUGH THERE ARE TRANSLATORS AND EDITORS, UNFAMILIAR WORDS CAN STILL EXIST AT THE SPANISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPERS.

FOR NEXT GENERATION RADIO, I'M GUADALUPE MARTINEZ.