[Magdalen] 50 - 50

[Jay Weigel]

Hospitals need to stop this ridiculous business of requiring "interpreters"
rather than the patient's family (when they are available) to interpret for
the patient. First of all, who knows the patient better than family?
Second, when it comes down to dialect, frequently the interpreter does not
know the various dialects! No interpreter, no matter how good, can be
expected to know them all! I did a travel assignment in the DC area in a
hospital where all the signage was in 6 languages (not nearly enough!) and
the staff in the unit where I worked represented 14 different countries. We
managed *fairly* well with our patient base, although we got stuck often
enough. For instance, our Spanish-speaking nurses were sometimes confounded
by a dialect or accent they weren't familiar with, and you'd even hear them
pleading "Mas despacho, por favor!" ("Slower, please!) But usually it was
more like, "Don't worry if no one on this shift speaks your language,
someone on the next shift probably will." The only time we got totally
stuck was with a patient from a really isolated area of Afghanistan. Nobody
could understand her. Finally a niece came in and was able to untangle a
number of mysteries for us, including the fact that she was in so much pain
with her back that she could only sleep flat, but because she was being
tube fed, we had been keeping her at a 40 degree angle or more 24/7. She
happened to be my patient that night and I did the math and figured out
that we could let her lie flat and sleep 8 hours simply by increasing her
feeding rate 8 cc an hour. After the dr. and the dietitian agreed, we did
that and she started to get better much faster. If it hadn't been for the
niece we might never have learned why she was so miserable.

On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 6:32 PM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <
oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:

> I suspect that often the language spoken is not spoken in the best sense of
> the word too.
>
> I've heard that often when Spanish-speaking kids study Spanish, the
> formality of the language throws them, as the language they learned in the
> home is a bare-bones version of the best the parents know anyway.
>
> I was a linguist on call for my hospital, and was asked to help with a
> Russian-speaking person.
> I was a bit embarrassed when I could not make much sense of ANYTHING this
> older lady was saying.
> Then I finally heard what I could sort of understand.
> "Nye vyshla v shkolye."  ("I did not go to school.")
>
> We had a person at our hospital who was obviously Chinese, but nobody could
> communicate with him (remember that incredible installation of "Barney
> Miller"?). We got linguists to come in, and finally one guy said, "I can't
> understand him, but he SOUNDS like the people in a village sort of near us
> talk." So, they search for someone from that village. Finally the person
> came. At first, nothing, but then he opened up and they talked.
>
> We were able to find his elderly parents and they were brought up to visit
> him. He had a long history of mental illness and wandering off and living
> on the street, and they had assumed that he was dead.  We kept a closer
> than usual eye on him, knowing he would wander again.  He at least was
> being kept safe.
>
> In any case, or as some of the savvy would put it, "IAE", just putting
> material in to a known target language is not always all that useful.
>
> Best to place a very high priority on gaining English proficiency, reading,
> writing and speaking.
>
> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
> *“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
> except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy
>
> On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 5:42 PM, Roger Stokes <
> roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com>
> wrote:
>
> > On 07/06/2015 22:30, Cantor03--- via Magdalen wrote:
> >
> >> On the front page of the local (Hazleton, PA) Sunday paper there was  an
> >> article about the current state of languages dominating the school
> >> system.
> >>   Though the city primary schools had up and down percentages based
> >> on their location, the local high school is now 50 - 50 Spanish -
> >> English.
> >>   That is, 50% of students said their first language was Spanish, and
> >> 50% said English.  Those who spoke both languages were included  among
> >> the Spanish totals.
> >>   There are a lot of services available in English and Spanish, and the
> >> going
> >> rate for bilingual interpreters is $31/hour.
> >>   As I understand it, the teaching continues to be primarily in
> English.
> >>
> >
> > This is a very real problem here in England.  For a time there was an
> > attempt to offer hospitality by providing forms in numerous foreign
> > languages.  The problem is that the number of languages has nushroomed.
> In
> > this relatively small town it is estimated that there are over 100 native
> > alnguages.  Certainly I know in one small (roll 140) school there are 20
> > mother tongues.  In such a situation there has to be a single language
> for
> > teaching and English is the obvious one.
> >
> > Roger
> >
>