to think that people that have been in the UK for a while DONT need translaters?

[porcamiseria]

I am NOT referring to people that have recently moved here, or have come as aylum seekers.

I also reserve similar vitriol when I see programmes about people who haved moved to Spain and it all goes tits up with their house, and they are there SPEAKING ENGLISH, gah

However yesterday I saw a woman in the maternity waiting room, and she arrived and got immediately greeted by her translater, which obviously the NHS are providing

She had a toddler with her, and I overheard the translater say this was her second birth at the hospital in question

so why the fuck has she not learnt English since then? she was nicely dressed etc, so in no way was she destitute

I told DP and he told me to "stop being so English" but I think that people whoever they are should learn the bloody language if they want to make a life and family here

anyway I am going to get flamed now....

YABU for reasons already pointed out.

Learning a language also relates to issues of gender, the relative isolation of a SAHM, for example.

I wouldn't for one second begrudge anyone a translator in a hospital situation.

YANBU
I speak from my own experience. Have been living here 6 years and never needed a translator. IMO when one moves to another country they should adapt to their new home, and learning the language is the least one can do.
I was horrified to see the amount of money spent in translation at the hospital DS was born. Why can't people be bothered to learn English?

estya - The British established their own health care system "when abroad".

I would definitely agree that some effort should be made to learn the language if you're planning to live in a country for any length of time, but also agree with some other posters that pregnancy/medical terminology can be scary/confusing enough even if you speak the language!
From personal experience, I used to live in rural France, working for a children's activity company, and so spent a lot of time in 'Urgences' (A&E) accompanying injured guests. So much so that the staff often asked me to interpret for British tourists who'd been brought in, as they certainly wouldn't even think about providing such a thing.

When did the NHS insist on professional interpreters? I only ask because when I worked in a hospital, a message went round on the intranet asking for anyone who could speak a certain foreign language, one my Dad is proficient in. So he came in to interpret for the patient. Can't remember if they paid him more than petrol costs, tbh.

ive worked in a call centre (in scotland) and been asked by the caller to "speak english"!

I may be in the minority here but in the "mother tongue" in the UK is english and every effort should be made to have a basic understanding.

Translators should not imo be mandatory.

It is silly to say, 'I never needed a translator, she shouldn't either'. You can't predict what language you will have difficulty with, before you have the need to learn it. It's like toccata says about Shona, I think.

I always found French, German, Italian easy at school and though I've never studied Spanish, I can read academic articles without too much trouble; I'm fine with Greek and Latin and OE. But sadly, I was misguided enough to fall in love with a Russian man, and can't seem to learn Russian with any ease at all. I am completely tongue-tied and unable to pass beyond the absolute, one-word basics. This woman may have been the same, and how could she predict that she would struggle to learn English, before she had to try it?

OP, YABU. And judgy.

ooohhh typos....off to bed with slapped wrist

"and every effort should be made to have a basic understanding."

I think the key word there is basic

since when did medical terminology become everyday conversational language???

It can take up to ten years to become fluent in a language.

I think if you're visiting a hospital it's pretty important that you understand what the doctors are saying.

Of course I don't grudge them it, and I can't believe anyone would.

LRD - the way you describe your one word basics was definitely me with Shona. At school I did marginally better at French (I can still remember to say what my name is, and to order a hot chocolate ). German I faired slightly better, but although I got a B in Higher German it never stuck with me (despite spending my entire last year at school doing "conversational German" as one of my subjects...........which involved sitting with the teacher eating German cakes and biscuits, drinking coffee and chatting in German.).

I've always struggled with langauges........

although how people can't manage to learn to read music is beyond me - piece of p*ss .

Well, I am practically tone-deaf and could never follow music for long, so there we go!

But I know exactly how you feel - you can try and try but in the end, effort alone isn't going to make miracles happen.

I can easily imagine a woman thinking she's good at languages, or she's willing to try hard, and she will learn English - only to find that it's actually much harder than she thought at first, and she never gets far beyond the basics she started out with.

Not saying that's necessarily the case here - I agree medical jargon is obscure - but it could be, and why blame her?

(Forgive my ignorance - what part of the world is it where they speak Shona? )

indeed - it was my lovely exSIL who finally told me to stop trying as she could tell it was just never going to happen.

And I'm literate, I can read and write in my mother tongue.

How much harder must it be for people (women in particular who in many countries don't have the same educational opportunities as the men) who are only able to speak their mother tongue not read or write......so illterate, to them come and try to learn a foreign language!

Shona is from Zimbabwe

Ah, good to know. I've never been outside Europe but one day I hope I'll travel - and I expect I won't pick up languages just like that, either.

It must be incredibly hard to learn a language if you're illiterate in a literate world. Apparently, illiterate people don't have a natural way of understanding the concept of splitting words into smaller units (eg. letters), so it must be so much harder to think about the building-blocks of another language.

Not being able to read a language (whether you can read at all or not)does make it a lot harder, because you dont have that osmosis factor from seeing words written in context on (eg) bill boards or packaging.

I live overseas, and speak very little of the local language which I have found very hard due to it being a tonal language (same word means 9 different things depending on tones, and a non-Roman script. However, I appreciate that if I come across someone who speaks no English, then it's my problem, not theirs and it's my tough if I miss out or encounter issues because of it.

That said, I've travelled to places like India/ Nepal where illiterate children have pretty good English which they say they learned from TV and tourists, so I guess a lot of it is how much of an incentive you have, necessity being the mother of invention and all that.

We use translators in my industry (legal) a lot. Usually the claimants can speak English quite well; certainly well enough to get directions, make small talk, and I would imagine go about their daily lives. But when you're talking about something as important as their legal rights, you don't want to leave it to chance.

It's much safer to have someone translate the exact word "commutation" (eg) than to have the rest of us laboriously explain that "it's sort of like turning all your future money into now money". It's as much to protect our backs professionally as anything else. I imagine that doctors feel the same and don't want to leave it to chance that their patients don't really understand what 'side effect' means.

I imagine Woman With Toddler is probably perfectly capable of shopping for nappies, getting buses and chatting to playgroup mums, but probably has difficulty with 'high probability of induction due to gestational diabetes'.

There's speaking another language, and then there's explaining "pre-ecplamsia" "high blood pressure" "induction" or "have you experianced any of these tell tale signs of a possibly fatal complication" in another language...I had my babies overseas, I spoke the language reasonably, but was very happy that the medical staff explained my condition to me in english.

YABU to moan about people's English and then misspell the thread title.

I have read all feedback (must check my spelling!) and I remain adamant that there are better uses for NHS money than providing translaters for people that have been in the country for some time

There is a finite amount of cash, and people should be persuaded to learn the language/pay for their own/use a fluent collegue

there are always exceptions, of course....

Other EU countries dont seem to provide it, so why should we?

I agree - and I say that as the granddaughter of immigrants who came over 60 years ago and made a huge effort to learn English.

The other day I was in the GUM clinic getting my pill. There was a foreign woman in the waiting room and the receptionist couldn't work out what the woman needed. She couldn't even understand English well enough to say whether she had a coil in or not.

One scenario that I chuckled at (in disbelief!) was when my hubby and I went to write our Englishness test... as a pre-requisite to permanent residency... one has to study for this test... and English is a given. It has to be.

So in walked this lady.. with a translator!!! She couldn't use her at the test (obviously). I don't know if she passed but seeing as she needed the translator friend to even register for the test, it would have been impossible for her to have passed the test I would have thought...?

Just had to add this in.. thought it quite ironic to take a translator to an Englishness test

I do agree that anyone moving to another country needs to learn the new language - it is a basic courtesy to that country, apart from the fact it makes your life a lot easier! And as it's expected of immigrants in England, it should be expected for the Brits that move abroad too. Fairness goes both ways.

• been in the country a while. So you could pick up a 2nd language to a fluent standard in 18 months or so, could you? To discuss the ins and outs of your pregnancy?

• 'obviously the NHS was paying'. Um, why obviously? The woman may have paid herself. If she was 'well-dressed' as you say then perhaps she could afford to pay a private interpreter. Or the interpreter could have been a friend? You have made a huge leap here.

YABU. And perhaps, OP, as one who can't spell translator, and doesn't know the difference between a translator and an interpreter, you are the one that needs the assistance.

Sorry, Porca, but if you say you've read the thread over, why do you still think anyone who hasn't learnt a language simply hasn't bothered/ needs to be 'persuaded' to learn it? Isn't it clear that it's not that simple?

Think that's a bit of a nasty and personal comment at the end there chiccadee

LOL I can take it! I knew this would inspire some venom, fuck it

most of the vitroil has been around my mispelling!

sometimes I do post on here and see compelling feedback to make me think differently, quite a few times. But nhot on this issue

I also have seen many women have medical procedures sucessfully done when English is their second language. So I dont buy the "better safe than sorry argument"

I would not dream of demanding a translater when abroad, pay up or dont travel.