4 ms·

My SO had to seek medical attention in rural southern France (we were visiting Carcassone) - she initially sought care at the local emerg where there was not a

by munk-a 5y ago

My SO had to seek medical attention in rural southern France (we were visiting Carcassone) - she initially sought care at the local emerg where there was not a translator available, she speaks high-school french but most of the conversation was carried out through miming and charades. A few days later, as instructed, she followed up with a local clinic where she prepared a written version of her condition and brought it in to show the doctor, they consulted that and again went through a song and dance to try and mime out the response. I think it'd probably be nice if there was an english fluent person on staff at the emerg but I think it's unreasonable to expect local clinics to have support for translating especially when English is a rather unlikely language to be spoken in that area - having someone German and Italian literate would be nice and having someone Spanish literate (and, ideally, Basque literate) would be much more important. If you're running a hospital in Vancouver you better have a French[1], Punjabi and Mandarin translator on staff - outside of those I think it's reasonable to rely on tools like Google Translate, it sucks but full language coverage isn't reasonable. 1. I think a French translator might be legally required due to the bilingual nature of Canada but it's honestly much less common on the west coast compared to Punjabi and Mandarin.

Cd00d 5y ago
I had experience with the charades act. Got food poisoning or a stomach bug in Sofia, Bulgaria and had to act out vomiting and diarrhea at the chemists desk. Eventually they got the drift, opened a box of pills and gave me a sheet of them with no further instruction. I think I could have been successful if I knew some French, but alas, I opted for Spanish in high school. At the time it seemed Bulgarians over a certain age had French for their second (or third) language, and the younger folks had English.
- Xenoamorphous 5y ago
  > At the time it seemed Bulgarians over a certain age had French for their second (or third) language, and the younger folks had English. Yes this happens in Spain too. People over 50 or 55 or so were taught French at school but younger people were taught English. However don’t expect most of them to speak much of it.
- Scoundreller 5y ago
  > Eventually they got the drift, opened a box of pills and gave me a sheet of them with no further instruction. This isn't too far off how prescriptions work in many places in europe, east or west. If you're lucky, they'll hand-write instructions on the box (that are incomprehensible to me). For added confusion, the chemists don't count pills/break packages. So if your order is for 7 doses, but they come in boxes of 5, you'll get 10 doses.
ipaddr 5y ago
Usually your staff comes from the local population which gives you staff members who speak the languages you would need.
- missblit 5y ago
  Unless a recent immigrant or tourist has a medical emergency right? Or even a longer-term immigrant who never quite learned much medical vocabulary.
- djrogers 5y ago
  There are relatively few native French speakers in Vancouver..
  - munk-a 5y ago
    They have plenty of employment opportunities though - having fluent french on your resume opens up a whole lot of opportunities with companies that are required to offer some french language support (i.e. train stations, government offices)
throwawayboise 5y ago
> I think it's reasonable to rely on tools like Google Translate, it sucks but full language coverage isn't reasonable. Far better than what was possible before, when as a tourist you maybe had a phrasebook or something similar. This is part of the risk of travel into an area where you don't know the language. Also if you are going to permanently move to such a place, it's incumbent on you to become functionally fluent in the local language. Nobody there owes you a special accomodation.
- munk-a 5y ago
  > Also if you are going to permanently move to such a place, it's incumbent on you to become functionally fluent in the local language. Nobody there owes you a special accomodation. Functional fluency doesn't really cover hospital interactions though, right? I can live for decades in Paris without knowing what the word for chest pains or sprained ankle are.
  - Talanes 5y ago
    I've spoken English my whole life and still struggle to express the exact sensation I'm feeling to a doctor.
  - djrogers 5y ago
    No, I doubt you could - 'pain' and it's synonyms, as well as basic body parts like 'chest' are pretty basic words for someone who's spent decades immersed in a language...
  - AmericanChopper 5y ago
    I’ve lived in a foreign country where I learned the local language and was hospitalised twice during the time I lived there. My vocabulary certainly didn’t contain very much medical vocabulary, and it wasn’t an issue at all. At worst you’re Google translating one or two words, or explaining things in a slightly odd way. I could certainly say “chest pain” though.
- rtpg 5y ago
  The difficulty with "functional fluency" is that medical terms are extremely specific. On top of that you have to deal with "doctors in X recognize this illness, but doctors in Y recognize it as something entirely different"-style stuff. Alergies can be a scary one to get wrong, too! Of course nobody owes anybody anything. I do think that in countries with nationalized health care, at the very least having a call center to help out with language difficulties around this feels like almost a no brainer though. There are doctors with specialized dictionaries and the like as well, of course. And... yeah honestly, Google Translate (or my favorite solution of "go to wikipedia page and find the linked article in local language") can help a lot.
Fogest 5y ago
Really? A lot of our hospitals in Ontario make use of a tablet on a stick that can very quickly connect with a live translator on camera in their language. I am surprised Vancouver would be using Google translate and not an option like this. I've used it and it works fairly decently. Obviously it's still slower than speaking their language, but even having a translator in person still incurs such a delay. The only real benefit I found to in person is that it's a bit more personal feeling and you don't have as many issues with the patient not hearing what they said on the tablet and vice-versa. I found the language barriers are not a huge deal with options like this. I've also worked for a 911 call center taking ambulance calls and it's much harder to manage language barriers there as it can be hard to tell someone who speaks none of your language that you're getting a translation service on the line.
- munk-a 5y ago
  Oh sorry, I'd clarify - I've never actually needed ESL assistance in a Vancouver hospital so I have no idea what they're equipped with - I was just offering a more local language selection to those of us on the west coast.

by munk-a 5y ago

Cd00d 5y ago

I had experience with the charades act. Got food poisoning or a stomach bug in Sofia, Bulgaria and had to act out vomiting and diarrhea at the chemists desk. Eventually they got the drift, opened a box of pills and gave me a sheet of them with no further instruction. I think I could have been successful if I knew some French, but alas, I opted for Spanish in high school. At the time it seemed Bulgarians over a certain age had French for their second (or third) language, and the younger folks had English.

Xenoamorphous 5y ago
> At the time it seemed Bulgarians over a certain age had French for their second (or third) language, and the younger folks had English. Yes this happens in Spain too. People over 50 or 55 or so were taught French at school but younger people were taught English. However don’t expect most of them to speak much of it.
Scoundreller 5y ago
> Eventually they got the drift, opened a box of pills and gave me a sheet of them with no further instruction. This isn't too far off how prescriptions work in many places in europe, east or west. If you're lucky, they'll hand-write instructions on the box (that are incomprehensible to me). For added confusion, the chemists don't count pills/break packages. So if your order is for 7 doses, but they come in boxes of 5, you'll get 10 doses.

ipaddr 5y ago

Usually your staff comes from the local population which gives you staff members who speak the languages you would need.

missblit 5y ago
Unless a recent immigrant or tourist has a medical emergency right? Or even a longer-term immigrant who never quite learned much medical vocabulary.
djrogers 5y ago
There are relatively few native French speakers in Vancouver..
- munk-a 5y ago
  They have plenty of employment opportunities though - having fluent french on your resume opens up a whole lot of opportunities with companies that are required to offer some french language support (i.e. train stations, government offices)

throwawayboise 5y ago

> I think it's reasonable to rely on tools like Google Translate, it sucks but full language coverage isn't reasonable. Far better than what was possible before, when as a tourist you maybe had a phrasebook or something similar. This is part of the risk of travel into an area where you don't know the language. Also if you are going to permanently move to such a place, it's incumbent on you to become functionally fluent in the local language. Nobody there owes you a special accomodation.

munk-a 5y ago
> Also if you are going to permanently move to such a place, it's incumbent on you to become functionally fluent in the local language. Nobody there owes you a special accomodation. Functional fluency doesn't really cover hospital interactions though, right? I can live for decades in Paris without knowing what the word for chest pains or sprained ankle are.
- Talanes 5y ago
  I've spoken English my whole life and still struggle to express the exact sensation I'm feeling to a doctor.
- djrogers 5y ago
  No, I doubt you could - 'pain' and it's synonyms, as well as basic body parts like 'chest' are pretty basic words for someone who's spent decades immersed in a language...
- AmericanChopper 5y ago
  I’ve lived in a foreign country where I learned the local language and was hospitalised twice during the time I lived there. My vocabulary certainly didn’t contain very much medical vocabulary, and it wasn’t an issue at all. At worst you’re Google translating one or two words, or explaining things in a slightly odd way. I could certainly say “chest pain” though.
rtpg 5y ago
The difficulty with "functional fluency" is that medical terms are extremely specific. On top of that you have to deal with "doctors in X recognize this illness, but doctors in Y recognize it as something entirely different"-style stuff. Alergies can be a scary one to get wrong, too! Of course nobody owes anybody anything. I do think that in countries with nationalized health care, at the very least having a call center to help out with language difficulties around this feels like almost a no brainer though. There are doctors with specialized dictionaries and the like as well, of course. And... yeah honestly, Google Translate (or my favorite solution of "go to wikipedia page and find the linked article in local language") can help a lot.

Fogest 5y ago

Really? A lot of our hospitals in Ontario make use of a tablet on a stick that can very quickly connect with a live translator on camera in their language. I am surprised Vancouver would be using Google translate and not an option like this. I've used it and it works fairly decently. Obviously it's still slower than speaking their language, but even having a translator in person still incurs such a delay. The only real benefit I found to in person is that it's a bit more personal feeling and you don't have as many issues with the patient not hearing what they said on the tablet and vice-versa. I found the language barriers are not a huge deal with options like this. I've also worked for a 911 call center taking ambulance calls and it's much harder to manage language barriers there as it can be hard to tell someone who speaks none of your language that you're getting a translation service on the line.

munk-a 5y ago
Oh sorry, I'd clarify - I've never actually needed ESL assistance in a Vancouver hospital so I have no idea what they're equipped with - I was just offering a more local language selection to those of us on the west coast.