History doesn’t necessarily repeat itself, but it often rhymes, observes the crew at Open Culture in recounting Japanese efforts during the Spanish flu epidemic to quell the disease. The article on the Open Culture website — Japanese Health Manual Created During … Continue reading →
Find a variety of COVID-19 related posters appropriate for health care settings at this Minnesota Department of Health website. Available in English, Amharic, Hmong, Oromo, Russian, Somali and Spanish, these pieces describe the idea of flattening the curve of infection, … Continue reading →
Here’s an extensive directory of COVID-19 translated fact sheets, flyers, posters, audio recordings, videos and more, all available for download here. Compiled by the Washington Department of Social and Health Services, these resources appear in 73 languages including English. The … Continue reading →
Do patients know what you’re talking about? Especially now, in the scramble to deal with the coronavirus crisis, language access issues can expose patients, interpreters and the broader public to increased risk, according to an analysis in US News and … Continue reading →
Do you have limited-English patients who want answers about the City of Saint Paul’s response to the coronavirus pandemic? A new phone line at 651-266-6000 is staffed with interpreters available to answer questions in Hmong, Karen, Oromo, Somali and Spanish. … Continue reading →
Among the dislocations of the COVID-19 pandemic is the effect on health system interpreters, who are discovering new complexities in the already fraught world of medical interpretation. As revealed in the New York Times story, When Coronavirus Care Gets Lost … Continue reading →
The Seattle-based nonprofit, Vital Talk, specializes in building communication skills for healthcare professionals. With the COVID outbreak, it recognized a vast new sector of work. “We’re facing conversations that we never expected — or wanted — to have,” the group … Continue reading →
Get the low down on non-verbal communication in the United Arab Emirates with this demonstration of six hand moves that pack in a lot of information. Confused, threatened, threatening and more — you can get it all across with these … Continue reading →
Here’s another batch of translated COVID-19 material, this time with information vetted by Harvard Medical School faculty and physicians. Available in English and 39 additional languages, the pieces include: COVID-19 Prevention About COVID-19 Managing COVID-19 COVID-19 and Pregnancy COVID-19 for … Continue reading →
Thorough hand washing is touted as a major step your patients can take to beat back coronavirus. But how many of them really know how to get the job done? Here’s a series of videos in translation from the Minnesota … Continue reading →
Get half-hour long interpreted descriptions of the coronavirus pandemic and its effect in Minnesota in these videos produced by ECHO/TPT (Twin Cities Public Television). Hmong: https://www.tpt.org/coronavirus-almanac-special-hmong/ Spanish: https://www.tpt.org/top-questions-spanish/ Somali: https://www.tpt.org/coronavirus-almanac-special-somali/ English: https://www.tpt.org/coronavirus-an-almanac-special/ In addition, check out these new print pieces from the Washington State … Continue reading →
Here’s another batch of coronavirus-related information that may help you communicate with patients with limited English. The Minnesota Department of Health just added new basic overviews of COVID19 in Amharic, Hmong and Karen to a list that already included translations … Continue reading →
Looking for ways to reinforce your message about Coronavirus to patients who don’t speak English? Get one-page information sheets from the Minnesota Department of Health in Arabic, Chinese, English, Russian, Somali, Spanish and Vietnamese at this MDH web page, and … Continue reading →
How can you adapt mental health practices to fit your clients’ languages and cultures? Get help at a free cultural adaptation event, 2-4 pm, Tuesday, March 17, at the University of St. Thomas’ McNeely Hall, MCH 100. 2060 Summit Ave., … Continue reading →
And the answer is … well, no one really knows, according to writer Dan Nosowitz in the online journal Atlas Obscura. “This question, frankly, is a nightmare,” Nosowitz observes. But on his way to leaving the question dangling, he provides … Continue reading →
Wonder sometimes why interpreters seem to be scratching their heads? Watch a group of Spanish speakers struggle to find English equivalents to Spanish expressions in this video from the Pero Like YouTube channel. Part of the BuzzFeed online juggernaut, Pero … Continue reading →
Just in time to fill in the linguistic subtleties involved when Iranians employ the phrase, “Death to America,” the Iranian-American Pontia analyses the many common uses of the Persian word for death when Iranians are insulting or questioning others, or … Continue reading →
Consider the poem, A une Damoyselle Malade (To a Sick Young Lady), written in 1537 by Clemont Marot for the daughter of a queen. Twenty eight lines, three syllables per line. How complicated can it be to translate from French … Continue reading →
Who doesn’t wonder what “Jingle Bells” sounds like when played by Mongolian musicians on traditional instruments, dressed in an impressive collection of fur hats, while gathered around a campfire in a snow-filled woods? Santa Claus also makes an appearance in … Continue reading →
Here’s a New York Times rundown on states responding to a recent Trump administration executive order that gives governors the right to refuse to accept new refugees. Governors find themselves squeezed between faith-based groups that urge them to decide that … Continue reading →
Learn more about the 100-year history of the International Institute of Minnesota and its present and future challenges in a StarTribune story, Minnesota refugee aid center’s future in flux at 100. The piece offers a look at the organization’s evolution, … Continue reading →
Here’s a case of dueling conclusions that start from the same statistics, as sketched out in the newsletter, Intersect, published by the Cross Cultural Communications. The firm, which specializes in interpreter training, offers a back-handed compliment to the anti-immigrant think-tank, … Continue reading →
Get a rundown on the Twin Cities area growing Congolese population in the StarTribune story, Congolese find home in Minnesota. Swept up in the armed conflicts of Central Africa that have driven millions from their homes, the local Congolese are … Continue reading →
Yet another sign that the future is catching up with us fast: the availability of interpretation devices that fit in your ear and instantly render foreign languages into your own. A recent article in the New York Times, The Latest … Continue reading →
Among life’s Tower-of-Babel puzzlements: why do so many words exist in different languages for the same thing? The website Open Culture answers one very narrow version of this question by taking on the reasons why tea is called something like … Continue reading →
Take a look at this New York Times story, A Steady Paycheck Is Good Medicine for Communities, to get another view on how the medical industry can help improve the health not only of individuals, but of entire communities. The … Continue reading →
Looking for a way to communicate the importance of hepatitis B immunizations? Check out the Hepatitis B Foundation‘s collection of videos that tell the stories of people touched by the disease. Find the video gallery here. Among the collected pieces … Continue reading →
Here’s another item to stuff into your Brave New World file — a hand-held translation device that, according to Bloomberg News, is taking Japan by storm and is also now available in the US. (“Tourists are fueling a boom in … Continue reading →
Wondering how to say “How are you? Are you fine?” in Tamashek? Or, “How are you doing? How are you feeling?” in Fulfulde? Here’s a chance to satisfy your curiosity. Check out this interactive website on Google Earth that features … Continue reading →
Looking for ways to better serve refugee kids in your mentoring programs? Here’s a free webinar open to all refugee service providers, including those working at state agencies, resettlement agencies or other organizations. Set for noon through 1 pm, Wednesday, … Continue reading →
Well, unlike the states of North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, South Carolina and Colorado, it’s not German. The US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey annually asks more than a million Americans questions about their lives, families, and backgrounds — … Continue reading →
Here’s an inside look at a skilled interpreter’s complicated work. This video focuses on interpreting in a diplomatic environment as it explains the advantages and pitfalls in simultaneous and consecutive interpretation — but the lessons are broadly applicable to the … Continue reading →
The June 4 end of Ramadan is right around the corner, but it’s still worthwhile to take a look at a StarTribune story on health considerations for Muslims who adhere to the month-long period of fasting. In the article, Minnesota … Continue reading →
Proving that language problems are everywhere, a Massachusetts school teacher recently undertook a translation project — creating a dictionary of youth slang to help him understand his students. When a TV reporter took the results to the streets, the Olds … Continue reading →
When it comes to learning a new language, not all tongues are created equal. Some offer a much rockier path to fluency for native English speakers. Consider this analysis by the Foreign Service Institute on how tough it is for … Continue reading →
It’s all about diet, says University of Zurich researcher Balthasar Bickel, in a study reported recently in the journal, Science. Bickel’s contention is that the move from a meat-heavy diet — and all the tearing, ripping and hard chewing that … Continue reading →
Here’s a conversation starter that will most likely lead to some interesting laughs with your organization’s interpreters and translators. Check out the bi-lingual translation site, Tr-ex, which provides translations for phrases you enter, then shows their use in a sentence. Tr-ex … Continue reading →
Check out a collaboration between renowned Hmong shaman Wa Leng Lee and artist Sieng Lee, in an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The installation explores the story of Siv Yis, the first Hmong shaman. Along the way, Sieng … Continue reading →
The Center for Victims of Torture has just released a free, downloadable toolkit for providers who work with refugee patients. Based on CVT’s clinical work with Karen refugees, Improving Well Being for Refugees in Primary Care: A Toolkit for Providers gives … Continue reading →
Check out this video in Somali (with English subtitles) on the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding. The video was produced by Allina Health and WellShare International, with assistance from Somali WIC Breastfeeding Peer Counselors, and financial support from the Allina Foundation … Continue reading →
Here’s a moving essay about a college student’s effort to understand more about the escape her grandmother made from the Philippines to the United States. Seeing My Heritage through My Grandmother’s Eyes is another of those stories that point out the … Continue reading →
If you’re trying to arrange interpreter services for patients, it may seem that the world already has too many languages. But here’s the other side of that coin: the number of languages that are at risk of disappearing entirely. A … Continue reading →
Okay, this story about the interpreter who makes the declutter maven Marie Kondo understandable in English might seem a little off track. But here’s the redeeming feature that makes the piece relevant — it’s also full of nuanced description of … Continue reading →
Despite the advances in machine translation that have moved it from the ridiculous to the potentially useful, there remain glitches — particularly in the area of assigning gender, as pointed out in an article in Slator: Language Industry Intelligence. A … Continue reading →
Should the arts be considered an essential ingredient in general well-being? And should therapeutic art or hobby-based treatment be prescribed as part of a treatment plan? The answer is yes, according to United Kingdom Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who has … Continue reading →
How many patients are capable of fully understanding the care instructions they’re given? The answer: barely one in ten. A 2006 national survey found that 12 percent of patients fit the “proficient” health literacy category. Things get even more bleak … Continue reading →
With the Trump administration poised to deport a large group of legal Cambodian immigrants to the United States, among the questions that arise is, How will those booted from the US adapt to Cambodia, a country that in many cases … Continue reading →
Want to be viewed more often as a liar? Try telling the truth in another language. That, roughly speaking, is the conclusion of research conducted by University of Würzburg psychologists Kristina Suchotzki (photo, right) and Matthias Gamer. In their experiment, … Continue reading →
Here’s another note on the consequences of inadequate language services, this time from the St. Paul public school system. Como Park high school student and Karen immigrant Lor Ler Kaw got placed in mainstream English and social studies classes with … Continue reading →
Looking for a cheap and easy way to learn how to say hello and exchange a pleasantry or two with recent immigrants? Check out the language lessons — many of them free — at the Open Culture website. You’ll find … Continue reading →