Karen, the language spoken by 1.3 million people in Myanmar (formerly Burma) is the fastest-growing language in Jacksonville, Fla., according to the Jacksonville Business Journal.
The articles cites data from Language Line Services’ LanguageTrak Interpreter Demand Index (see infographic), which tracked language trends in the country between the second quarter of 2010 and 2011. The Interpreter Demand Index includes phone calls in the healthcare and government sectors in more than 170 languages.
Requests for Karen increased 122.58 percent in Jacksonville (see slideshow).
“This real-time information addresses the ever-changing language needs of cities years before similar data is unveiled from the next U.S. Census,” said Louis F. Provenzano Jr., president and CEO of Language Line Services, which fields millions of interpreter-request calls each year. “This allows local governments, court systems, health care agencies and emergency services to better anticipate critical needs in their communities and ensure access to essential services.”