Language Line Services Helps Local Portland and Seattle-Tacoma Companies Enter Multicultural Markets with First of Its Kind Interpreter Phone Service

New Service Complements Suite of Language Access Tools from Face-to-Face Interpretation to Language Tracking Available to Area Businesses through Company’s New Portland Offices

Monterey, CA – (June 23, 2008) Local businesses have a new option for reaching growing multilingual markets thanks to Your World. Your Language.^SM, which launches in Portland, OR and Seattle-Tacoma, WA this week. 

Your World. Your Language. is a toll-free phone service by Language Line Services that lets limited-English speaking callers access a free interpreter who helps them carry out a call to a host of business and consumer services.  

Portland and Seattle-Tacoma area companies that want to be included in the Your World. Your Language. company index can join the Language Line Services’ WorldPartner^SM network.

In addition to helping limited-English speaking consumers access the services they need, Your World. Your Language. also helps businesses enter tight-knit, multilingual communities and reach growing numbers of ethnic customers who prefer to do business with companies that speak their languages.  Preliminary analysis by AT&T shows 57 percent of calls through Your World. Your Language. lead to a sale.

"Given a choice, foreign-born U.S. residents are more likely to buy a product or service if it is offered in their preferred language," said Louis Provenzano, President and COO of Language Line Services.  “Applying for business financing can be challenging for someone speaking in their first language, so it’s easy to see how this process could be intimidating for a new Chinese immigrant hoping to capitalize on the American dream of business ownership.”

Your World. Your Language,, created by Language Line Services and using a network powered by AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), can be accessed by calling 1-888-855-0811.  When limited-English speakers call Your World. Your Language. they will select their preferred language and a particular business category.  A specially trained Language Line Services interpreter then comes on the line and remains on the call to facilitate communication between the consumer and the business’s English speaking customer representative. 

Your World. Your Language. is available to customers in Cantonese (Chinese), Japanese, Korean, Mandarin (Chinese), Polish, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese. Additional languages will be added as needed. More information about Your World. Your Language. is available in eight languages at www.YourWorldYourLanguage.com.

In addition to Your World. Your Language, Language Line Services provides corporations, health care institutions and government organizations a variety of language solutions to help them meet the needs of their growing limited-English speaking customers, patients and constituents.

Language Line Services, with interpreters in more than 170 languages, was founded in 1982 as an over-the-phone interpretation company. Over the last 26 years with offices in  Monterey, CA, Portland, OR, Glendale, CA and around the globe, Language Line Services has expanded its offerings to help businesses speak their customer’s language using innovative solutions including:

• Language Line® On-Site Interpretation - scheduled, in-person interpreters
• Language Line® LanguageTrak - provides timely alerts on emerging language trends in specific market areas
• Language Line® Direct Response - allows businesses’ limited-English speaking customers to be greeted in their preferred languages, and explain why they are calling, before they are connected with a customer service or sales representative into a 3-way interpreter conversation that is easy for the customer and agent
• Over-the-phone interpretation - for instant interpretation anytime, from any phone
• Personal Interpreter Service - for smaller companies and entrepreneurs who want instant access to telephone interpreters, but don’t want to set up a contract account
• Language Line® Phone - a dual-handset telephone for face-to-face communication
• Document Translation and Localization - Translating documents, software, content management solutions, websites, on-line help, multimedia applications, training materials, and other applications
• Language Line® Video Interpreter Service - for instant interpretation with a video component for  communication with deaf clients; also adds another level of accuracy and understanding for conversations with limited-English speaking clients in some languages
• Language Line® University - to train and test staff interpreters
• Language Line® HealthPort - a software-based medical interpretation solution that delivers easy to use, interactive processes designed to manage patient communication from admission to diagnosis to discharge, in the patient’s preferred language

Growing Language-Support Needs

• 176 languages are spoken in the U.S.
• 15% of the total U.S. buying power is owned by the Hispanic and Asian populations
• 75% of limited-English speakers prefer to speak in their native languages

• 68,976 foreign-born residents in Portland
• 105.3% increase in the Portland immigrant population since 1990
• 53.4% foreign-born residents in Portland speak limited-English
• 16.9% of Portland residents speak a language other than English at home

• 94,952 foreign-born residents in Seattle
• 49,754 Seattle residents admit to speaking English less than “very well”
• 40.2% increase in the Seattle immigrant population since 1990
• 45.9% foreign-born Seattle residents who admit to speaking limited-English

About Language Line Services

Language Line Services, the world’s leading provider of language-based services, is a trusted partner to thousands of organizations whose focus is to effectively serve the rapidly expanding market of limited-English speakers. The company delivers a dynamic suite of solutions spanning translation, transcription, phone and video interpreting, interpreter certification, localization and localized software and devices, enabling clients to communicate with customers in their preferred language. Through its leading-edge technology infrastructure, Language Line Services provides support for more than 170 spoken languages and American Sign Language to its industry-leading portfolio of clients across markets including healthcare, financial services, government, telecom, manufacturing, insurance, entertainment, travel, and more. For information on how Language Line Services is helping clients achieve their strategic multi-cultural marketing and regulatory compliance objectives, please call 1-800-752-6096 option 4, or visit http://www.languageLine.com.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. Among their offerings are the world's most advanced IP-based business communications services and the nation's leading wireless, high speed Internet access and voice services. In domestic markets, AT&T is known for the directory publishing and advertising sales leadership of its Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations, and the AT&T brand is licensed to innovators in such fields as communications equipment. As part of its three-screen integration strategy, AT&T is expanding its TV entertainment offerings. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com.

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