A report released by Language Line Services, the global leader in interpretation and translation services, shows that while Spanish remains the most popular language nationwide behind English, demand for Arabic and Vietnamese grew strong across 20 major U.S. cities between Q2 2010 and Q2 2011, according to PRNewswire.
The report, titled the Language Line® LanguageTrak "Interpreter Demand Index(SM)" (IDI), uses proprietary data to rank the top 10 languages in each city by number of over-the-phone interpreter requests in the government and healthcare sectors. The LanguageTrak IDI(SM) also shows percentage growth in each language between Q2 2010 and Q2 2011.
Interpreter requests in Arabic are rapidly growing, however, with increases in 13 of the 20 cities. The highest increases are in Houston (45.8 percent), San Antonio (39.7 percent) and Philadelphia (37.4 percent). Arabic also is among the top-five most requested languages in 11 of the 20 cities.
Requests for Vietnamese also increased in 13 of the 20 cities. The highest increases are in New York City (66.2 percent), Houston (45.9 percent) and Dallas (25.5 percent). Vietnamese is also among the top-five most requested languages in 14 of the 20 cities.
In addition to the report signaling Arabic and Vietnamese as rapidly emerging languages, Provenzano pointed to other surprising findings:
Armenian was the third-most requested language in Los Angeles, where Armenian interpreter requests increased 13.7 percent.
Chicago saw interpreter requests increase in Gujarati (146.2 percent) and Russian (38.5 percent). San Antonio saw major surges in requests for Cantonese (423 percent) and Spanish (141.3 percent). Cantonese was its fourth-most requested language.
