Newsnight item - Cost of translation services

[twelvedaysofchristmas]

Did anyone see the item on Newsnight last night about how much it costs the taxpayer to provide translation services?

I know having your rights explained to you in your own language is a legal right, should you be in trouble with the police. However, they managed to find a Turkish woman, who has lived in the UK for 3 years, who was having "how to stop smoking" explained to her in Turkish at her GPs office. At the cost of the taxpayer!

I makes me angry. I wouldn't expect to move to say, Japan and be provided with medical care or social services leaflets in English. Granted, I know English speakers have it easy in that many poeple's second language is English, but I don't expect anyone to be able to converse with me.

I can't help agreeing with some of the contributors, that by providing, for example, all government services to Bangladeshi women in Bengali; it's actually isolating them and causing them not to learn English at all.

Thoughts?

had to pay lots of money for a translator when I was working with a client, who it turned out could speak English, but didn't want to, as he was so anti british.
HIm and they male translator would not shake my hand, and I'm sure that they were having one conversation between themselves and another for my benefit
But this isn't really relevant to the OP, but it just reminded me of the situation

When ds was in yr 2 a little boy joined his class(bangladeshi family).He was one of 3 and they quickly learned english and could speak it.Their parents couldn't speak english and their ds missed out on a dressing up day and was really upset so when world book day came around I approached the council and they translated a note for me to let them know ehat book day was as I was worried he would be left out again.The mum had always smiled at me in the playground and I didn't think she would mind but her dh approached me in the platground the nest day and told me to F OFF That was 7 years ago and they still can't speak english and are quite young I just don't understand this attitude at all adn i don't read the sun or mail but do think there has to be some sort of give and take in order for a multi cultural siciety to work.

You hit the nail on the head there for me noddy. Give and take.

Unfortunately there are members of my family who read the Sun every day and treat it as Gospel. It really worries me. I firmly believe that the size of the Sun readership in this country plays a large part in the Great British Public's ignorance of politcal matters. It really shocked me when I moved here.

I know very few Irish people that aren't up to date on politics. Cultural differences. Gotta love em.

actually I'd just like to say that as a foreigner who does speak the language, I get annoyed by the fact that all the other parents at school assume I can't, and assume that dd can't either. some have been quite rude. I wouldn't have told anyone to f off, but if I was in a pissed off mood anyway, yet another person making assumptions about me because of the colour of my skin would possibly cause me to do so.

there are rather a lot of generalisations and assumptions on this thread.

ps spidermama - you may have missed my piost below. makes a change for you and me to be on the same (minority) side in a debate doesn't it?

I didn't assume I asked x why he was upset and he said he wanted to dress up but his mum didn't read the leaflet as she couldn't.I actually initially thought they could speak english as the kids could speak english and teh parents were so young I kind of assumed tehy had been born here.The boy really wanted to do world book day so I asked for them to recieve the info in their language and he told me to f off Unnecessary imo

sorry, noddy, I didn't mean to imply you had. But he does know some english if he told you to f off, and probably does meet people who make that assumption all the time.

yours wasn't one of the posts I was referring to in my second observation either btw.

"I'm just infuriated that people don't try harder to integrate."

Don't forget that many times the community makes it harder for them to integrate, there's always some stupid person around ready to remind you that "you are not like us"... Integration goes both ways I'm afraid.

I think it is useful to be able to have some translation services available for those new to a country.

Like Mrs Mills, we had some time out in Sweden (I am envious Mrs Mills!!) and though we learnt Swedish from the start (and were lucky to have Swedish friends to talk to) we found the translated documents useful regarding work and the Drs.

As an adult it has been harder to learn a language, but it didn't stop me from learning Malay when we moved to Asia, for the children it really is less of a problem (though does seem to get harder if the parents can speak a different language plus the nations mother tongue is different again).

My experience in this country and other countries is how people of Non British/western descent is how bloody hard and well they do learn English when they want/need to.

I do think money would be better invested in English clsse as a whole though.

sigh.. can't spell today

When I was talking about children and parents speaking different languages, I meant say the mother speaks German, the father Swedish and the nations tongue is English or Chinese for example.

I wish people would stop being infuriated - how can you be infuriated about something you barely understand? What is it called - displacement?

I´ve moved around a lot, speak 3 languages fluently, 2 enough to get by but very little of the language where I am now. I am the FOREIGNER in a small community, people speak the local language to me in the limited contexts in which I meet them but I have never developed closer relationships with anyone. I spend my time exclusively with a small child, not old enough to go to school/nursery and have no possible childcare options through the day or in the evening to attend languiage classes. So after 2 years I wouldn´t follow the "how to stop smoking" conversation either and am not ashamed to admit it. A little more UNDERSTANDING of peoples difficulties would be nice.

How many of you on this thread have a friend with limited English and whose English you are helping to improve?

Twelvedays... could your husband translate "no me cuadra el balance"?

At some point in my life I conducted a good number of interviews and I noticed that the most humble a person was about speaking a language the more likely she spoke it well.

When I asked them to say how proficient they were in the language, I was sure as hell they were not good at all if they mentioned ANYTHING over 85%. Actually, most English speakers would not get a perfect grade in a Cambridge Proficiency test, even those born and bred here.

So what's the solution? Cut the translating services and then pay out even more when their care gets cocked up or becomes a more serious and costly disease to treat b/c of language difficulties?