No one reads your documents closer than your translator. As part of the translation process, it is frequently necessary to contact the originating office for clarifications, corrections, and information requests. When submitting documents for translation, keep in mind the following tips, which will help to minimize disruptions to your office and the time needed to respond to requests.

The term los países anglosajones occasionally pops up in Bank documents, but anyone tempted to use the English cognate “Anglo-Saxon” should beware: while it shares the same etymological roots as anglosajón, its usage varies considerably.

¿Quién quiere tener un falso amigo? En realidad, nadie; todos buscamos el apoyo de la amistad sincera. Y esto vale también en el lenguaje, donde los “falsos amigos” son palabras en dos idiomas que se escriben igual o de manera muy parecida, pero que tienen significados diferentes.

Before attending an annual conference of the American Translators Association, the most translators I had ever seen in one place was 25, and that was during an exam where we all sat hunched over our tests in complete silence.

Para una mayoría de ciudadanos en Estados Unidos, los términos hispanic y latino son equivalentes e intercambiables. Tanto da que este venga de México, esa de Guatemala o aquel de Bolivia.

Cuenta un amigo mío, de cuya buena fe no me cabe duda, que poco después de su incorporación al Banco decidió pedirle a su nueva colaboradora que le ayudara a preparar el borrador de un informe...

I was at a reception at the Bank recently where a small group had lingered until the very end. “Hey,” noticed a Bolivian coworker, glancing around at the rest of the stragglers, all of whom were Latin American, “you’re the only gringo left!” I knew that he wasn’t using the term “gringo”...

Addressing the recent Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Bank in Brazil, the Governor for Chile, María Olivia Recart, got your devoted columnist’s full attention when she mentioned how, as part of the government’s focus on human capital development...

Ilan Stavans, a Mexican-born writer and Amherst College professor, fielded questions from some 30 Hispanic American and Latin American students attending colleges throughout the United States.

¿Qué significa calentamiento del planeta?

What is global warming? 

Mi pobre madre pensaba estar curada de sustos cuando se inscribió en el aula de informática para la tercera edad. 

Don’t you hate it when you’re lugging your briefcase and your gym bag to the office while balancing a double latte in one hand and digging your ID badge out of your purse or your pocket with the other to get into the building...

Dicen los entendidos que los franceses tienen un queso diferente para cada día del año; los alemanes, una cerveza; los chinos, un proverbio; y los hispanohablantes, un refrán como anillo al dedo para cada situación imaginable.

According to the Virginia Tech website, back in 1896, the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College changed its name to Virginia Polytechnic Institute, known as “Virginia Tech.”

Nicolás Garfias nació sordo y aprendió, con la ayuda de sus padres, a “vivir a través de sus ojos y manos”, comunicando con ellos sus emociones y necesidades.

In recent interviews with Chasqui, both Vice President for Finance and Administration Carlos Hurtado and Vice President for Countries Otaviano Canuto referred to the Bank’s new “matrix organization” (organización matricial).

In his “On Language” column in the New York Times magazine, linguist William Safire recently noted that lexicographers are hustling to put the word “subprime” into the next editions of their dictionaries.