Talking to police officers can make even the most law-abiding citizen feel just a wee bit nervous. Can you imagine if the officer didn’t speak your language? In Sri Lanka, a devastating civil war that lasted for decades is finally over.  However, a lack of Tamil speakers on the country’s  police force  is slowing the healing process in Tamil-speaking regions.

Tamil is the primary language spoken in Sri Lanka’s Northern province. However, most of the rest of the country speaks Sinhalese, as does the majority of the country’s police force. In fact, according to  Irinnews.org, less than 15 percent of the police officers working in the Northern province are able to speak Tamil.

The civil war was waged by the Tamil Tigers against the Sinhalese-speaking government. Now that the war is over, the two sides need to learn to trust each other again, but the language barrier between ordinary citizens and the police makes that more difficult.

For example, the article quotes Suranga Weerasekara, an aid worker from the Northern Province’s Jaffna District:

“The lack of Tamil-speaking police officers in the northeast will be a long-term obstacle to the development of the Northern Province. People are reluctant to go meet with law-enforcement officials due to a lack of Tamil-speaking police officers in the north.”

Why are there so few Tamil-speaking officers? According to IRIN, the Tamil Tigers saw local Tamil-speaking citizens joining the police force as a betrayal, and often used violence to punish them and to scare other Tamils out of joining.

Fortunately, the Sri Lankan government recognizes the importance of having police officers who can speak the local language, and they are offering incentives for Tamil-speaking officers to sign up and for Sinhalese-speaking officers to learn Tamil. Hopefully, their efforts pay off and they are able to develop a police department capable of communicating effectively with the community it is supposed to police and protect.

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Lack of Tamil-Speaking Police Handicaps Sri Lankan Civil War Recovery

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The NHS just announced that it will be hiring Welsh language champions to ensure that Welsh-speaking patients have access to services in their own language, according to Wales Online.

Each health board will hire its own Welsh champion, who will work to support Welsh language officers  to make sure patients have access to the language services they need to be comfortable.  Wales Online notes that this is expected to become increasingly important over the next several years, as doctors and nurses care for more and more elderly patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia.  These patients may have spoken English fluently for decades, but they will often retain the ability to communicate in their first language for much longer than they retain their English ability.

The article quotes the Welsh in the Health Service report to explain the importance of providing patients with service in their native tongue:

“The longer any course of treatment continues and the more talking and counselling the treatment involves, the more important language choice becomes in the minds of Welsh-speaking patients. Also, the more serious the condition and more intensive the care, the more important language becomes.”

A Welsh Assembly government spokeswoman elaborated further:

“Patient safety and clinical assessment and treatment often depend upon patients being able to communicate in their own language. The quality of care and a patient’s experience of care is also greatly improved if they are able to communicate in the language they are most at ease in.”

Health care workers note that native Welsh speakers often have a slightly harder time when they receive health care services in English, no matter impeccable their English skills are. For example, a poor diagnosis is a stressful event, and the last thing people want to have to do at such a time is to switch back and forth between Welsh and English. When is English is your second language, you often need a moment to collect your thoughts and translate them, which can also be misconstrued by health care workers.

It’s no wonder, then, that the  Welsh Assembly says:

“It is extremely important that health and social care services in the NHS in Wales are available through the medium of Welsh.”

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | NHS Hires Welsh Language Champions To Support Welsh Speaking Patients

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Hospitals naturally encounter patients who speak a cornucopia of different languages-far too many for them to have an interpreter on staff for each one. However, language barriers make it extremely difficult to treat patients, preventing doctors from accurately understanding the patient’s symptoms and preventing the patient from fully understanding their condition and treatments.

So, some US hospitals have turned to medical interpreter hotlines to help medical personnel communicate with patients who don’t speak English. Medical interpreter lines and video interpreting services not only make the staff’s job easier,  patient outcomes improve as a result.

For example, the Houston Chronicle describes the story of one elderly Korean man with an aggressive form of cancer who had a reputation for being a “bad,” uncooperative patient. When the team at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, New Jersey used a medical interpreting service to talk to him, they soon figured out that he wasn’t cooperative because he had no idea what was wrong with him. Once his condition was explained, the staff easily persuaded him to agree to treatment.

Unfortunately, cost constraints keep many hospitals from offering similar services. The Chronicle notes that Parkland Memorial Hospital in Houston spends $160,000 per month on medical interpreting services. While hospitals receiving federal funding must provide access to interpreters for patients who don’t speak English, only 13 states offer funding to reimburse the cost of translation services for patients.

Unfortunately, medical mistakes caused by language barriers can be expensive, too-costing the hospital money due to litigation, costing patients and insurance companies for additional treatment and even more important, costing patient lives.

For example, the Houston Chronicle notes that in 1980, a Spanish-speaking ER patient  became paralyzed for life  when one of his relatives stated he had been “intoxicado” before he collapsed. Since “intoxicado” is a cognate for the English “intoxicated”, the ER team assumed that mean he had overdosed on drugs, but in Spanish it can simply mean “nauseous.” He actually had a brain injury. The resulting lawsuit cost the hospital $70 million.

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Medical Interpreting Services Help Bridge Language Gaps In Some US Hospitals

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8 years after 9/11, the FBI is still behind when it comes to translating intelligence information.

According to a report issued by the US Justice Department’s inspector general, the FBI has lost approximately 3 percent of its linguists since 2005. Plus, they are taking longer than ever to hire new contract linguists.

There is a lot of work to be done. According to Reuters, between 2006 and 2008, the FBI collected 4.8 million foreign language documents and intercepts in terrorism and criminal cases and 46 million electronic files. To date, 31 percent of the electronic files have not been examined. Between 2003 and 2005, the FBI collected 4.8 million audio hours worth of material via surveillance campaigns-25% of that material hasn’t been reviewed, either.

Part of the problem seems to stem from the length of time it takes to do the necessary background checks and other reconnaissance on potential translators. Apparently, it takes 14 months to do the necessary reviews and investigations to make sure that the applicants aren’t terrorists themselves.

According to Reuters’ Front Row Washington blog, some of that un-translated material was pertinent to a case against two Chicago men who planned to attack a newspaper in Denmark. Affidavits in the case state that:

“While translators have attempted to transcribe the foreign language conversations accurately, to the extent that quotations from these communications are included, these are preliminary, not final translations.”

So, what would it take to get the FBI caught up? 100 linguists working 40 hours a week for seven years, according to the inspector general’s report.

So, if you’re looking for a recession-proof job and you think you can pass an extremely detailed background check, here is my suggestion: Start learning Arabic!

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | FBI Behind on Translating Intelligence

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The Chicago Tribune reported on Tuesday that 29 “airport customer service representatives” may lose their jobs as part of the City of Chicago’s effort to reduce its spending.

The problem is that these airport employees are more than just “greeters” or “customer service representatives.” They are also translators for the many visitors from other countries that go through the Chicago O’Hare Airport each year.

The employees are known as “red jackets” because of their eye-catching uniforms, and they have been part of the scenery in Chicago O’Hare Airport for the past four decades. From the article, it appears that each employee speaks at least 3 languages.

Why would the city of Chicago consider throwing away employees with these valuable skills? It all comes down to money. The city is facing a $469 million financial shortfall this year. However, upper level management in the same division as the greeters gets to stay… and they actually get raises.

If you’ve ever travelled abroad in a country where most people don’t speak your language, you know what a wonderful service it is that these greeters provide. When something goes wrong with your travel plans, it’s an incredible relief to be able to find someone who can understand you and who is willing to help.

So, who is going to provide this service now? Stephanie Burzawa, one of the employees quoted in the article, asks:

“How is Chicago going to be there to help travellers, or welcome people to the Olympics here [in 2016], if they are rolling up the welcome mat for people getting off the planes?”

Apparently, Chicago’s Olympic visitors will be warmly greeted by…a phone booth. According to the Tribune article, “the city has placed “translation phones” at five locations at the airports.”

“Translation phones” instead of real people?

Hopefully, the city will reconsider. Even the U.S. Transportation Security Administration chief in the airport is quoted saying that:

“It would be a great loss to the airport . . . to lose this valuable resource.”

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Chicago Red Jackets

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