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eLearning narration

Two Sides to “Bilingual”

September 14, 2023 by Brian Amador

 

Amador Bilingual Voiceovers Las Dos Caras

Updated from a previously published post.

The growth of the Hispanic population in the U.S. (around 18% of the population in 2023) has led to increased demand for audio content targeted to that demographic. All genres of voiceover work, from commercials and explainer videos to e-learning, corporate narration, promos and more, are incorporating Spanish and bilingual content. And the increased demand has brought an expansion of VO talent offering their services in Spanish, from fluent native speakers to those who learned a little Spanish in high school.

I think anyone seriously involved in Spanish or English-Spanish bilingual voiceover work would agree that it’s not a good idea to sell yourself as a Spanish-speaking talent if you are not able to speak the language fluently, expressively and with an impeccable accent. In this regard, there are obvious advantages to hiring talent born and educated in a Spanish-speaking country.

But it’s not an absolute necessity. There are U.S.-born Spanish speakers who are completely bilingual – native speakers who can speak both English and Spanish and switch effortlessly between the two languages.

Full Bilingualism = Value Added

In my career as an English/Spanish bilingual voice actor, my standards are exactly the same for both languages: perfect, native pronunciation and expression. Surprisingly, I’ve found that sometimes being a native English speaker is just as important as being a native Spanish speaker. Being fully bilingual has advantages:

  • It’s important to recognize errors in translation and be able to make suggestions to correct them. Sometimes English expressions are translated directly into Spanish; if you are familiar with the colloquial expressions in English, it may be easier to find the best Spanish equivalent.
  • Some translation problems are due to grammatical errors or ambiguities in the source text. If you have a complete command of written English, you can more easily identify and correct these errors.
  • In overdubs, errors in translation may be due to the translator misunderstanding spoken English words because of the speaker’s accent or dialect. As a native English speaker, I am able to understand many different accents (although I admit I still watch “Masterpiece Theatre” with the subtitles on!)
  • For recordings of a specified duration, mastery of both languages makes it easier to adapt translations to fit in in a given time without sacrificing the meaning of the source copy.
  • It’s an extra perk for the client to be able to use the same voice talent in English and Spanish and have both languages sound natural and conversational.

Quality is What Matters

Given the growing importance of the Spanish language in the United States, and just as a matter of principle, the standards for Spanish and bilingual voiceover should always be as high as they are for English. It is as important for creators of content in Spanish, as it is for English-language creators, to find speakers who have a perfect command of the language, whether they are “native” or ”imported” speakers. There are two sides to “bilingual”. In some cases, mastery of English may be just as important as mastery of Spanish.

Amador Bilingual Voiceovers Brian Demos

Filed Under: English Blog, Information, Voiceover Tagged With: bilingual voiceover, Brian Amador, educational voiceover, eLearning narration, English Narration, English voiceover, Hispanic literature, Spanish Narration, spanish translation, spanish voice actor, spanish voice over, spanish voiceover, Voiceover narration

The Amadors On Boston Voyager Magazine

March 7, 2018 by Rosi Amador

Meet Rosi and Brian Amador of Amador Bilingual Voiceovers and Sol y Canto in Cambridge

Rosi and Brian Amador recording voiceovers in the studio.
Rosi and Brian Amador recording voiceovers in the studio.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rosi Amador.

Rosi, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
We began our music career together in 1984 as co-founders of the popular Latin Band Flor de Caña, a group that met during a cultural exchange tour to Central America and returned with a commitment to singing for social change. When that group dissolved in 1994, we formed our own band, Sol y Canto, which we describe as “Latin roots music to change the world; passionate, poetic, playful and honest.” Over the years, we were honored to win several awards including three Boston Music Award for “Outstanding Latin Act,” have toured internationally and have established a reputation for quirky original compositions that address matters of the heart, social and global aspiration, combined with our unique and driving interpretations of contemporary Latin music. When our twin daughters were four years old, we brought them into the family business. They recorded on our CD of music for kids and their families, and performed with us when school permitted. Our daughter Alisa Amador is now a singer-songwriter in her own right.

In the 1980’s, while touring and recording, we began to be called upon for educational voiceover recordings for kids. Recording at studios in the Boston area into the 90’s, we learned on the job, and we loved it! Developing this passion for recording voiceovers led to the official establishment of our company, Amador Bilingual VoiceOvers 2010. Eventually voiceovers replaced music as our full-time career, in an organic way. ABVO is a family business. Rosi, Brian and our 21-year old daughter Alisa record bilingual voiceover regularly for a global list of clients. We use our voices to build cross-cultural bridges, and to bring compelling messages to life. We serve both North American and Hispanic/Latin American markets, recording from our private studio in Cambridge. Our success is built upon our ability to provide evocative voice acting in flawless native English and neutral Latin American Spanish or English with a Hispanic accent. We are bilingual and bicultural, and we navigate both worlds seamlessly. We are now one of the foremost providers of bilingual English and Spanish voiceovers in the United States.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As for any entrepreneurs, it took time to establish ourselves both as musicians and as voiceover actors, locally, regionally, nationally and then internationally. The journeys have been similar for both careers in that succeeding as a business that fills any need has everything to do with understanding what the needs are in the market and meeting that need with the utmost care and dedication, so that your clients feel they’ve found a great resource they can rely on again and again.

As musicians, there were continuous struggles as levels of funding for our cultural presenters ebbed and flowed. The ups and downs during the 80’s and 90’s were frequent, yet we persevered by continually believing in our music and its message and by marketing ourselves, communicating with our fan base, which at one time numbered 11,000, by snail mail (!). Fortunately we can do this online now. We still do around 30 concerts a year, primarily in the Boston area with occasional tours to places we love such as California, New Mexico, and parts of New England. Making a living as a musician was and still is a sacrifice unless you do commercial music, and you really have to love it since musicians aren’t compensated as well as they should be.

As bilingual voiceover actors we worked hard to establish ourselves locally and be seen as a resource for local production companies, very quickly getting connected with regional and national companies, recording studios and then agents, by training with voiceover coaches and acting coaches and by researching which important industry events to attend that could best help us improve our skills and grow our network. All of this took time and due diligence. The challenge at first was to figure out where the resources were to help us become as professional and skilled as possible. Finding local mentors was a critical step that led to launching our business officially once we felt confident about presenting ourselves in the marketplace.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Amador Bilingual Voiceovers, Sol y Canto – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Amador Bilingual Voiceovers’ global clients frequently remark on our excellent customer service and our ability to provide male, female or adolescent female voiceovers in flawless native English, Spanish, or Hispanic-accented English. We’re seasoned talents. Together we voice for a wide variety of applications, specializing in commercials, museum audio tours, corporate videos, overdubbing from English to Spanish, on-hold and IVR telephone messages, industrial training videos, eLearning modules, children’s bilingual audiobooks, documentaries, audio tours, and explainer videos. We specialize in the areas of health/medical, children’s educational, and social change-related issues. We truly value being part of our clients’ team. We care as much as they do about the final product and delight in leaving our vocal imprint on each and every project and in developing personal relationships with them. We also pride ourselves on providing top quality translations and original music for our clients’ projects. Learn more about us: www.amadorbilingualvoiceovers.com

Sol y Canto is led by my wife, Puerto Rican/Argentine singer and bongo player Rosi Amador, and me. I’m originally from New Mexico. I’m a guitarist, composer and Sol y Canto’s musical director. Featuring Rosi’s crystalline voice, and my Spanish guitar, we occasionally expand to a trio, quartet, quintet or sextet, including virtuoso musicians from all over Latin America and the U.S. on piano, winds, bass, and percussion. We have recorded seven commercial CD’s featuring Latin music for adults and bilingual music for children. We’re particularly proud of the fact that our music is often used as a bridge to help bring North and Latin Americans together. We often perform for mostly non-Spanish speaking audiences, for whom our music is a way of learning more about Latin America. The Boston Globe called us “Boston’s pan-Latin ambassadors”. We are particularly dedicated to raising awareness of social issues through our music, which we use as an expression of our values and hope for a better world. Learn more about us at: www.solycanto.com

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Sol y Canto has a very exciting new project that’s about to be revealed. This fall we will release “Sabor y Memoria: A Musical Feast in Seven Courses,” a CD and DVD of original Latin music all about food! It’s a suite in seven movements for the Sol y Canto sextet and a string quartet, accompanied by stunning food-themed photos, recipes and a mini-documentary about the creation of what we feel is our best work yet! From the appetizer to dessert, it’s a Latino musico-culinary, multi-sensory mix of music, images and flavors in Latin rhythms from Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Panama and Puerto Rico, where each movement is a “dish” in an imaginary meal. Recorded live with the Boston Public Quartet in a performance presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston, this DVD is guaranteed to make you hungry! The DVD was crowdfunded by our fans, and all sales revenue will go to a wonderful non-profit in Boston called the Haley House, which “uses food and the power of community to break down barriers between people, transfer new skills, and revitalize neighborhoods. We believe in radical solutions: solving problems at their root by challenging attitudes that perpetuate suffering and by building alternative models.” Learn more about it here: http://solycanto.com/saborymemoria/

Amador Bilingual Voiceovers plans to continue building its local and international clientele, providing top quality bilingual voiceovers for clients including the Smithsonian’s African American Museum of History and Culture, MIT, Biogen, Discovery Education, Expedia Travel, Mattress Firm, PBS, Bilingual children’s audiobook publishers Live Oak Media and Barefoot Books, Royal Caribbean Cruises and the National Fire Protection Association, to name a few. Rosi and Brian also teach an introductory voiceover skill class at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education a couple of times a year.

Rosi Amador was cast in a major role in Boston of the Broadway hit musical IN THE HEIGHTS by Lin Manuel Miranda (HAMILTON). She will play the role of Camila, the strong Puerto Rican mom that keeps the family together in this fantastic musical about the Latino neighborhood of Washington Heights in NYC, which will make you cry, laugh and want to dance in your seats! The storyline, choreography and music are simply extraordinary. The play runs from October 27- November 19th at the Wheelock Family Theater. For tickets and group sales contact: wheelockfamilytheatre.org/current-season/feature-performance/  Feel free to use Rosi’s discount code for tickets: HEIGHTS17

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE →

Filed Under: English Blog, Interviews, Music, News, Sol y Canto, Voiceover Tagged With: bilingual voiceover, Brian Amador, educational voiceover, eLearning, eLearning narration, English Narration, entrepreneurs, Hispanic, latin, latino, music, Neutral Latin American, neutral spanish, News, Rosi Amador, Spanish Narration, spanish translation, spanish voice actor, spanish voice over, spanish voiceover, voiceover, Voiceover narration, voiceovers

Guest Blogger – Allison Schneider of StudySync

November 4, 2016 by Brian Amador

allison schneider guest bloggerIt’s our great pleasure this month to feature a guest blog by one of our favorite clients, Allison Schneider of StudySync, developers of digital Language Arts curriculum. The entire ABVO family (Rosi, Brian, Sonia and Alisa Amador, plus our honorary Amador, engineer Camilo) have had the pleasure of recording a LOT of wonderful literature for Allison and her team in English and Spanish.

About StudySync

PrintAllison here with StudySync. It’s a joy to share a bit about the work that StudySync and the Amadors do together. As a digital English Language Arts/English Language Development curriculum, StudySync engages students with media and technology. One of the foundations of our product is a growing library of over 1,200 text selections, many of which include voiceover readings to help students better access and understand the text. That’s where the Amadors fit into the StudySync picture, and it’s where they’ve made a lasting impact on students across the country. I’d like to share a couple of particulars about what makes our collaboration with them so rewarding.

Engaging Students Through Literature

In their work with StudySync, the Amadors engage and inspire students through great works of literature in English and in Spanish, exposing them to the works of prominent multicultural authors including Sandra Cisneros and others. The voiceovers provided by the Amadors help bring Spanish-speaking students along on Tom Sawyer’s adventures by voicing a Spanish translation of Mark Twain’s beloved work. They’ve contributed several dozen voiceovers to StudySync, and with each one, they strengthen our ability to inspire students of diverse backgrounds.

A Shared Passion

StudySync’s work with the Amadors is especially strong because they share our passion for education. That shared commitment shows in every voiceover that they create for StudySync. It makes every project that we work on together meaningful.

A Family Affair

When you work with the Amadors, you’re working with family. Working with the Amadors and their team is a true family experience. First, you don’t get just one talented voiceover artist—you get five! Second—and most importantly—they make you feel like you’re a part of the family. The Amadors don’t just bring talent to the table. They bring friendship and a collaborative spirit.

As StudySync’s curriculum continues to grow, we look forward to having the Amadors along for the journey. Gracias, Amadors, for sharing your talents with us!

Filed Under: English Blog, Voiceover Tagged With: Alisa Amador, bilingual, bilingual voiceover, Brian Amador, Demos, diversity, E-Learning Narration, eLearning narration, English Narration, english voice actor, English voiceover, Family, literature, reading & comprehension, review, Rosi Amador, Sonia Amador, Spanish Narration, spanish voice actor, spanish voiceover, voiceover

Two Sides to “Bilingual”

May 18, 2016 by Brian Amador

bilingualThe growth of the Hispanic population in the U.S. (17.4% of the population in 2014) has brought with it an increased demand for Spanish and bilingual content in all genres of voiceover, from commercials and explainer videos to Elearning, corporate narration, promos and more. And the increase in demand has brought an expansion of VO talent offering services in Spanish, from eloquent native speakers to people who took a little Spanish in high school.

I think anyone serious about doing Spanish or English-Spanish bilingual voiceover work would agree that a person shouldn’t sell themselves as Spanish-speaking talent if they’re not able to speak the language fluently, expressively and with an impeccable accent. In this regard, there are obvious advantages to hiring talent who were born and educated in a Spanish-speaking country.

But it’s not an absolute necessity. There are U.S. born Spanish speakers who are completely bilingual – native speakers of both English and Spanish, and able to switch effortlessly between the two.

Fully Bilingual = Value Added

In my career as a bilingual voice actor, my standard when voicing in Spanish is exactly the same as in English: perfect, native pronunciation and expression. I find that sometimes being a native English speaker is as important as being a native Spanish speaker. Being fully bilingual has its advantages.

  • It’s important to recognize a bad translation and to be able to make suggestions for correcting it. Sometimes English expressions are translated directly into Spanish; being familiar with the colloquialisms in English can make it easier to find the best way to express them in Spanish.
  • Some translation problems are due to grammatical errors or ambiguities in the source text. Having a complete command of written English makes these errors easy to recognize and correct.
  • In overdubs, translation errors can be due to the translator having misunderstood spoken English words due to the speaker’s accent or dialect. Being a native speaker of English enables me to understand many different accents (although I still watch “Masterpiece Theatre” with the subtitles on!)
  • For projects that need to fit into a specified duration, having a full command of both languages makes it easier to adjust translations to fit in time and still retain the meaning of the source copy.
  • It’s an extra perk for the client to be able to use the same voice in English and Spanish, and for both to sound natural and conversational.

Quality is What Matters

Given the number of Spanish-speakers in the United States, and as a matter of principle, the standards for Spanish and bilingual voiceover should be every bit as high as they are for English. For producers of content in Spanish, as in English, it’s important to find voice talent that speaks the language perfectly, whether that talent is “domestic” or ”imported”. There are two sides to “bilingual”. In some projects, mastery of English may be just as important as mastery of Spanish.

Filed Under: English Blog, Information, Voiceover Tagged With: bilingual voiceover, Brian Amador, educational voiceover, eLearning narration, English Narration, English voiceover, Hispanic literature, Spanish Narration, spanish translation, spanish voice actor, spanish voice over, spanish voiceover, Voiceover narration

Narrating Inspiring Hispanic Literature for Teenagers

February 25, 2015 by Rosi Amador

Real life stories about Latino immigrants, inspiring first person accounts, the story of César Chávez, and poems authored by iconic Hispanic writers, poets and thinkers.

That’s what BookheadEd Learning approached Brian and me about recently. The company creates an award-winning web-delivered product (called StudySync), to improve reading, writing, and critical thinking with award-winning lessons aligned to the Common Core Standards for grades 4-12 in the U.S.

This is precisely the kind of project that inspired us choose voiceovers as a career in the first place! Using our voices to make a difference is our passion. Thank you to content coordinator Allison Schneider, whose testimonial I included below!

Brian and I had the privilege of voicing stories for high school learners by these extraordinary Hispanic authors/poets:

Pablo Neruda  |   Sandra Cisneros  |  Sonia Nazario  |   Judith Cofer Ortiz
   |   Rudolfo Anaya    |     Luis Omar Salinas


Excerpt from Elegy on the Death of César Chávez – Poem by Rudolfo Anaya
Narration: Brian Amador

From her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario
Narration: Rosi Amador


“Rosi and Brian are voice over dynamos. Their creativity, friendliness and talent simply can’t be beat.  I cannot recommend them highly enough—they are true gems in the voice over industry! Thanks!” 

– Allison Schneider, Content Coordinator BookheadEd Learning, LLC

I echo Brian’s sentiment: “This is material you can really sink your teeth into to give a dramatic read, plus it gives you the satisfaction of knowing that it’s being used to expose students to the literature of Hispanic America and beyond.” It was particularly poignant for Brian to read fellow New Mexican Rudolfo Anaya’s poem. For me, focusing on themes of social justice and human rights has always been a part of my life since my activist days in the Central American solidarity movement in the 80’s.

I hope you enjoy these samples of some of our work for BookheadEd as much as we enjoyed narrating them! We welcome your feedback always.

Gracias mil,

Rosi

Filed Under: English Blog, Voiceover Tagged With: BookheadEd, César Chávez, eLearning, eLearning narration, English Narration, Enrique's Journey, High School narration, Hispanic literature, Judith Cofer Ortiz, Pablo Neruda, Projects We Love, Rudolfo Anaya, Sonia Nazario, StudySync, Voiceover narration, voiceovers

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