Joshua Leventhal
Did you know that Letter To An Elder Day is celebrated on February 26? The holiday provides an
opportunity to show our appreciation for the dedication, accomplishments, and service that our elders
have provided throughout their lives. According to the 2017 census, 47 million seniors (65 and older) live
in the United States. By 2060, that number will nearly double. Their wealth of knowledge, skill, and
experience provides an invaluable resource to the generations that follow.
If you are an elder, you deserve to celebrate yourself this year. If you are from a younger generation, you should celebrate all of the elders that have impacted your life. Interestingly, millions of elders do not speak English. In fact, nearly 20% of elders across the country do not fully understand English. Thus,
they need to have someone else translate letters and other important documents that arrive in the mail.
Because many elders live on their own and don’t always have someone around to translate for them, they can miss important communications. If you own or operate an organization that sends documents in the mail and your customers include elders, likely 2 out of every 10 will not understand the document
because they do not speak English. You should have the bills translated into the languages they speak and include a copy of the translated document when mailing them out.
Businesses should also utilize a professional translation service that provides translation over the phone
for elders who don’t read in any language. It will certainly go a long way in avoiding confusion, which will lead to increased appreciation by your non-English-speaking elder correspondents. Also, any nursing
home or long-term care facility should always utilize a professional translation service to accommodate non-English speaking residents. It is an important step to preventing elder abuse to ensure that a
resident can fully communicate with staff members.
Unida Translation is a leader in the translation industry. We are proud to offer translation services over
the phone. We can now provide our valued clients with an English-to-Spanish translation over the phone
by connecting you with a Spanish interpreter within 15-20 seconds.
