FoundLocally says Bilingualism is dead in Canada!
June 19, 2012 Calgary, AB. FoundLocally.com Media Inc, which has long been asked about making its site bi-lingual, is excited to announce that it has added omni-lingual translation to all its websites. Statistics Canada says there are almost as many non-official language speakers as there are French speakers Now, FoundLocally’s websites are available in not only French, but a total of 57 languages, adding innovative programming to integrate with Google’s Translation capabilities.
These languages are now supported on all FoundLocally websites: Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Basque, Bengali, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Maltese, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh, and Yiddish. It not only translates, but displays the content in the correct foreign keyboard/fonts.
About FoundLocally
The FoundLocally.com web site [http://FoundLocally.com], founded in 1999, creates community information sites providing local info, photos, maps, about local shopping, business, travel, sports, including a business directory, events calendar, jobs board, coupons, and news announcements. FoundLocally has focused on creating high quality community information for 30 communities across English Canada, and last year added mobile versions for all its websites. These sites are an excellent resource for both local residents and business & leisure travelers. The sites are designed to provide important information with as few mouse-clicks as possible, filtered to the user’s specific needs. Says Mark Ruthenberg, FoundLocally’s General Manager and Editor-in-Chief,“That’s why we say, ‘It’s the web site for people who have a life, and want to get on with it.’ It’s the perfect tool for those with busy lives.”
Thirty communities are now covered: Victoria, Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Okanagan, the Rockies, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste Marie, Sudbury, Barrie-Muskoka, Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton, Niagara Falls, Oakville-Burlington, Mississauga-Brampton, Etobicoke, Toronto, Scarborough, North York, York Region, Oshawa-Durham, Ottawa-Gatineau, Fredericton, Halifax, Charlottetown, and St John’s.
Today, FoundLocally.com, the popular TransCanada Highway.com [http://TransCanadaHighway.com] travel site, and the MovingInCanada.com [http://MovingInCanada.com] real estate & relocation website attract one million visitors a month. The TransCanadaHighway website provides itineraries detailing over 10,000 natural & man-made features along Canada’s national highway. FoundLocally.com Media also publishes a SEO and web marketing blog [http://blog.FoundLocally.com].
Languages Spoken by Visitors to Canada
These are the top countries with visitors to Canada (and the languages spoken, if not English): United States, United Kingdom, France (French), Germany (German), Australia, Japan (Japanese), Mexico(Spanish), China (Cantonese, Mandarin), South Korea (Korean), India (Punjabi).
Source: Statistics Canada, Canada at a Glance 2011, 2009 data
[http://www.canadafacts.org/top-10-countries-for-visitors-to-canada/]
Languages Spoken by Residents
These are the top languages spoken by residents of Canada: English, French, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Hakka), Italian, German, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Ukrainian, Arabic, Dutch, Tagalog (Philipino), Greek, Vietnamese, Cree, Inuktitut (Eskimo). In 2006 there were almost as many non-official language speakers as there were French speakers.
Source: Population by mother tongue – Statistics Canada (no 2011 stats available yet)
[http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo11a-eng.htm]
Languages Spoken, update from 2011 Census
According to the 2011 Census, published June 2012, the First Language/Mother tongue typically spoken in the home, Canada has 19,424,000 English speakers, 7,298,000 French speakers. The top languages in Canada–with over 100,000 speakers–are: Panjabi (Punjabi) 459,990, Chinese, n.o.s. 441,265, Spanish 439,110, Italian 437,725, German 430,055, Cantonese 388,935, Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino) 384,055, Arabic 374,410, Mandarin 255,155, Portuguese 225,530, Polish 201,235, Urdu 194,100, Persian (Farsi) 177,015, Russian 169,950, Vietnamese 153,355, Tamil 143,395, Korean 142,880, Ukrainian 120,270, Greek 117,890, Dutch 116,285, Hindi 106,305, Gujarati 101,310.
This total 5,580,000 speakers, and the next 166 languages encompass another 1,482,400 speakers for a total of 7,063,000 spekers, just slightly less than the number of French speakers.