Re: Native English

Robert Bannister wrote:

Another side to this, is the way people living in another linguistic
culture forget their own language. I used to be on a German exam
board. All the other members were native Germans, most of whom had
lived in Australia for some time, but the bulk of our discussions
were held in German. What amused me was the how, when it came to the
latest edu-jargon, they would all use the English words and gradually
slip into English.

This changes as people get older. My wife works in the Migrant Health
system, and one of the bigger parts of her job is finding interpreters
for people who are in hospital. The most obvious need for an
interpreter, you might think, would be when a tourist is involved in a car
accident, or something like that. The more typical cases, however, are
with old people who have lived in Australia for years, who used to be
perfectly fluent in English, but who revert back to their native
language as their memory starts to deteriorate. Apparently old habits
come back as the newer memories fade.

I sometimes get a shock when I notice the misconceptions that many
nurses have - it's usually a nurse - when requesting an interpreter.
When my wife is on call for after-hours duty, I often overhear
conversations like the following.

"Could I have an interpreter in the emergency department, please."
"Yes. What language?"
"Do you need to know? I thought interpreters did all the languages."

Or, as a variant on this:

"What language?"
"African, I think."
"There are lots of African languages. Could you try to find out which
one the patient speaks?"
"She said she comes from Somalia."
"Yes, well, they speak several different languages in Somalia. You'll
need to go back ..."

Chinese is an ongoing problem. The Chinese people themselves insist
that there is only one Chinese language, with several different
dialects. The fact that the "dialects" are not mutually comprehensible
doesn't shake this argument. Thus, it can be hard to pin down which
language is required. It's possible to end up sending a Cantonese
interpreter for someone who speaks only Mandarin, because of excessive
vagueness on the part of the patient.

I can foresee the day when interpreters will also be needed for the
doctors. Our government finds it cheaper to import doctors (some with
very questionable qualifications) from third-world countries than to
fund the universities and hospitals to train doctors. As the shortage
grows, it's becoming harder to find doctors who speak a clear and
understandable English.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org

Please note the changed e-mail and web addresses. The domain
eepjm.newcastle.edu.au no longer exists.
My e-mail addresses at newcastle.edu.au will probably remain "live"
for a while, but then they will disappear without warning.
The optusnet address still has about 5 months of life left.
.

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