How do you translate patients who don't speak your language?
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How do you translate patients who don't speak your language?
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When you have a patient who cannot speak your language, how do you communicate? We have had a discussion along these lines called Re: Should we charge patients for use of interpreters? , but how do yo
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How do you translate patients who don't speak your language?
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How do you translate patients who don't speak your language?
posted at 11/1/2012 2:34 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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*Moderator*
Posts: 630
First: 7/4/2011 Last: 18/5/2012 |
When you have a patient who cannot speak your language, how do you communicate? We have had a discussion along these lines called Re: Should we charge patients for use of interpreters?, but how do you technically translate what a patient is saying? Do you have a sit-in translator? Or do you have to phone up a translator? Or do you use an automated service? |
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Re: How do you translate patients who don't speak your language?
posted at 11/1/2012 4:24 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 152
First: 17/12/2011 Last: 20/5/2012 |
As an Inner City GP I see a lot of people who's first language is not English and quite a lot of patients who speak no English. My language skills are poor ,a bit of French and a few works in other languages. We used to have translators that came in with the patients. But now, if there is no friend or relative to translate; then for the past 3 years or so, we phone a telephone translation service. I was apprehensive about this when it started, but it usually does seem to work. having a friend or relative to translate is not ideal and telephone translation is not ideal but it generally works. I would recomend telephone translation services to other GPs. with mobile telephone it seems quite practical. |
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Re: How do you translate patients who don't speak your language?
posted at 12/1/2012 5:23 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2075
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 18/5/2012 |
This may seem a glib answer, but if you have a language you see a lot of, why not learn it or have a go as some attempt to do so makes a huge difference I have found. I with speak French, some Italian and am getting better at Greek. If it is Hindi, try that. This enlarges your cosmological paradigm. My late father who was a GP was a afflicted with the same eclectic love of languages. I hope to start Norwegian soon as we have a long of men in long ships coming up the Brisbane River. I find this interest attracts patients and it then becomes a self-fulfilling process as well as an interesting journey. |
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Re: How do you translate patients who don't speak your language?
posted at 12/1/2012 9:22 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2075
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 18/5/2012 |
I did not make this post to show off as I know in Europe and Asia it is common for people to know many languages fluently. It is we Anglophones who are in general, appallingly gingoistic about English - Just shout louder and the blighters will understand us. Amongst medical students in Australia, and indeed those students doing high school matriculation, there is a low proportion with fluency in another language and most of those come from ethnic backgrounds eg where English is not the mother tongue. Learning another language has dividends. It adds to your art of medicine as you see life in yet another cultural paradigm. It is never too late to start.
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Re: How do you translate patients who don't speak your language?
posted at 13/1/2012 3:12 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 632
First: 9/12/2011 Last: 21/5/2012 |
Odysseus I applaud your love of language, and your grasp of Latin shows in your posts as well. I too Love Latin, I started loving it when I was in Germany stationed with the US army Military Police, and we went to The German Military Police Feldjager Counter Terrorist school, and got issued Feldjager Badges with our Red Berets, The Feldjager Badge has Suum Cuique on the front with the Black Eagle, Suum Cuique, {Each according to his merits}. I immediately immersed myself in latin, and still love it. I just need to rejourney into the study of latin, I also learned German Fluently, and A little Japanese for my Kendo, and Karate Classes. I find Doctors and other professionals who learn language to be Higher Thinkers.DuaneF |
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Re: How do you translate patients who don't speak your language?
posted at 13/1/2012 10:26 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 195
First: 8/6/2011 Last: 19/5/2012 |
I agree with you it is beatifull to can speak the old languages like latin and ancient greek. But it is more for encyclopedic or mental purposes than for practical reasons. The words of these languages are like some fishes who live in the deep waters of the seas, they may be beautifull or very interesting when you push up them in the surface, but they can't live anymore theare but only in the deep waters. Before many years ago, had been done an efort in greece to start masivelly speaking an amalgam of modern and ancient language with ridicolous , i can say , results. The languages are like living organisms ; they evolve. I am more for speaking the modern languages but to be well educated on them. And to know the root of each word. I think that as a first priority we should give emphasis on the modern english language , witch is our common world language wich has and the capability to embody and words of many other languages and to evolve (thousands of greek and latin and other nation words are in it ) . I would prefer to can speak in the perfection the modern english ( wich are usefull ) than the ancient greek or latin( wich i will can speak only with myself ) . For me is of paramount importanse ' how well you are speaking a language. Most people don;t speak properly not even their native language! Now back to our subject. I speak Greek ( my native language ) , Romanian ( a beatifull latin language ) and i am starting learning English. I will not try to learn and another language. Now about the patients ; germans and scandinavian , all of them speaking english. The french ; most of them . Italians and spanians in less proportions. So i have learned some basics word and frases in italian , spanish, rusian , arabian... but the communication can be difficult. A good choice i think can be the google translate. |
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Re: How do you translate patients who don't speak your language?
posted at 13/1/2012 11:25 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2075
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 18/5/2012 |
We are an eclectic bunch, Duane and Ikaros. Mastery of even one language is a life's work but I think it is good to try to learn some of the dominant languages of your clientelle. In Australia the most common European languages are Greek and Italian because of migration, and now with other waves of Asian and Middle Eastern nationalities as well as Polynesian etc. Medicine after a while becomes a bit less of an intellectual challenge once you have mastered most of the main recipes and learned how to improvise. It is mostly pattern recognition but what I find spices it up is the patients and their tongues, literature, idioms, proverbs, social and religious paradigms. Only tonight when I was doing Modern Greek I again realised that they have so much more complex and specific names for relations. The word for you wife's brother is quite different from you sister's husband but in English these are called your brother-in-law. I won't bore you with more but this is just a snippet of the complexity they have a bit like the Innuits' many words for snow (or is this a myth?). So get off you but, get a CD to play in your car, a few Teach Yourself Books, go to a class and learn Urdu or Hindi or Greek. You will never be the same again as once your eyes and ears are open, sounds will never be the same. P.S. Ancient Greek and Latin are treasures that await you as reading Eurpides or Xenophon, or even that imitator of Homer, Vergil in the original is sublime even if they dwell at the bottom of the wine-dark sea Ikaros fell into.
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Re: How do you translate patients who don't speak your language?
posted at 13/1/2012 4:25 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 851
First: 12/3/2010 Last: 20/5/2012 |
I use, as my Trust insists, "Language Line" a commercial telephone translation service. I applaud your polylingual efforts, Odysseus, but are you really, really sure you can take an accurate clinical history in any of your tongues except the one your grew up and trained in? One of the many problems with English is multiple synonyms, especially for bodily functions. For instance, I think that English for Foreign Doctors courses list one hundred and thirty nine words used for 'penis'. English is unique in its accumulation of words from other languages and possibly from the uptight introversion of the people that lead to them using euphemisms. I have no idea if any other language is so difficult in this respect, but I do know of cases, such a non-English woman who was sterilised after her husband had been her translator. It was too embarrasing for him to use the words or even to talk about the subject to her, so she had no idea what the operation was or meant for her future. Telephone translation works well, IF you have a 'speaker phone'. Passing the hand piece from person to person is a dreadful way to have a consultation! John PS, I've needed Estonian, Moldavian and Hakka recently. The last we had to postpone as no Hakka translator was available! But I was able to impress my Polish ODP with 'Good Morning', 'Good Night' and 'Please show me the way the bus station' in, she was kind enough to say, good Polish! |
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Re: How do you translate patients who don't speak your language?
posted at 13/1/2012 4:58 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 20
First: 27/9/2011 Last: 13/1/2012 |
@John D I agree, English is an amazing language because it has so many synonyms, which must make it a nightmare to learn as a second language! @Odysseus, Language learning is an amazing skill to expand the mind: "The limits of my language are the limits of my world" Wittgenstein :-) |
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Re: How do you translate patients who don't speak your language?
posted at 13/1/2012 5:40 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 632
First: 9/12/2011 Last: 21/5/2012 |
Your right Odysseus, and I am studying Latin, at present, Problem for me is I have so many Irons in the fire, I just finished up 13 more credits of Toxicology with the EPA, and 12 credits of Forensic Epidemiology with The US DOJ, National Institute of Justice, RTI. So My Mind is about to split asunder and pour forth its grey matter upon the floor. As a Side Hobby study, I do some computer Digital Forensics courses, and That necessitates learning of some windows programming languages, and Windows Power shell commands, Digital Languages tend to muck up the pristine waters of my Brain, Perhaps I need a Rest from Books, or possibly a Brain transplant? DuaneF |
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