Hi everyone!
Welcome to "Globalization, Education, and Localization:
How a little bit of language can go a long way at work."
My name is Stephanie Horn and I'm excited
to be presenting today from my home in New-York, in the United States,
which is actually nowhere near New-York City.
This is my second time at the Gathering,
I actually wanted to...
I've wanted to go for years,
but I've been a teacher and it's right around final exam time
so not really time to travel, so
I was able to attend virtually last year,
and you know, hopefully I'll be able to come in person someday.
So the title is definitely a cute rhyme,
but it's also the structure of the presentation,
so, let's break down what each part means.
The first part is "Globalization",
and we often use this word when talking about international companies,
and international influences.
I went to business school to study accounting
and my professors would always talk about the world getting smaller,
which means that you know, with the Internet, the ability to travel,
and disposable income, people can now access more parts of the world
than they could even a few decades ago.
With access to the world, comes access to language, cultures,
and sometimes more jobs or business opportunities.
So under this umbrella of globalization,
I will talk about my experiences trying out languages
with colleagues and clients who are from all over the world.
Next is "Education".
As I mentionned at the beginning, I used to be a teacher.
I taught English to speakers of other languages for seven years
in the United States and in a few other countries,
and the interesting thing about teaching
your native language in your native country
is that you often end up with students from all over the world,
with multiple languages spoken in the classroom, and many of which
you don't even know yourself.
So I'll explain how I navigated some of these multilingual challenges as a teacher
in this education segment.
Then, we have "Localization".
"Localization" is a term used for adapting products or services to different regions.
And this often means translating into the local language,
or adjusting for cultural norms and expectations.
I'm currently project manager in the translation industry,
and I very often work with languages that I can't read or write,
so I'll explain how all of that works in localization.
And then, the final part of the title is
"How a little bit of language can go a long way at work."
And so, that's kind of trying to answer the question
"How can I use basic language skills to benefit myself and others?"
And that keyword is "basic",
which I guess we could say is like A1 or A2 in the common european framework.
So knowing a bit of vocabulary, being able to
hold a small conversation, things like that.
There's definitvely lots of different schools of thought
in the language learning community,
about what it really means to know a language,
or when knowledge can be considered useful,
and, you know I'm not trying to argue that
being able to say "sziasztok" means that you're fluent in Hungarian,
but I do think that any amount of knowledge
can be useful in the right context.
So in short, I'll be explaining how I've been able
to use basic language skills to make a difference
in different multicultural and multilingual worplaces,
and how you might be able to as well.
So let's talk first about this term "Imposter Syndrome".
It's probably something that many of us can relate to.
So Imposter Syndrome is doubting your abilities
or thinking you're not good enough,
or that you don't deserve your accomplishments.
I see this all the time, and experience it myself,
people write a gramatically perfect post,
and then end it with, you know, "Sorry for my bad English!"
or they scored a C1at a language exam, and like,
"Oh, must have just been a lucky day, because my Dutch is terrible!"
or, you know,
"Oh, well I speak three languages but you know,
it's not that big of a deal, because this person speaks five!"
It's great to be humble,
and recognize that you have more to learn,
but being too humble can actually be detrimental
to your motivation and success.
So what can we do to stop feeling
like our skills are not good enough?
It's really about your mindset.
Start by setting small realistic checkpoints
on the way to your end goal,
and celebrate when you reach them!
I studied abroad in Hungary many years ago
and my goal was to be able to have
a conversation with my friends in hungarian
by the time I left.
Some of my goals along the way included
buying a bus ticket without anyone translating for me,
or asking a stranger for directions
and understanding the response.
And each time I did something like that,
I just had to remind myself that you know,
"I couldn't do this yesterday,
so it's awesome that I can do it today!"
And just, you know, celebrating that little win.
A lot of us also dream of being mistaken for native speakers,
and it's really cool when you are,
but I also think, spending too much time
comparing yourself to native speakers
can be destructive to your self-esteem.
Native speakers have had an entire lifetime
of experience speaking your target language,
so they have years more practice than you do.
It's like starting piano lessons and thinking you're terrible
because you don't play as well as Mozart and Beethoven.
You know, it's great to look up to these people,
and use them as role models for improving your skills,
but just, you know, be careful
with how you let that affect your self-worth.
As long as your making progress,
you're moving in the right direction.
And finally, consider your purpose for learning
and use that to mesure your progress.
So if you want to be conversationnal in Korean,
and you can make jokes,
you can navigate the honorific system correctly,
you can carry on conversations about various topics,
but you can't understand
a Korean research paper about organic chemistry,
I think you can still call yourself conversationnal.
Because your goal was never to discuss scientific issues
at an intense, you know, level,
so it makes sense that you never focused
on the terminology or background knowledge needed to do so.
So using that to measure your abilities is unfair to yourself.
You know, hopefully the next time you find yourself dwelling on your mistakes
or feeling bad about your language learning abilities,
you'll remember some of these tips and keep going.
Moving on to "Globalization",
just something that I wanted to point out,
last year Aleksandar Medjedovic did a great presentation
called "Do you speak business?",
about the way knowing languages
could impact your career in different job sectors.
And I'd really recommend checking that out
if you are looking to market your languages
for job opportunities.
Since we are focusing more on basic skills here I'll just talk a little bit
about when I think you should or shouldn't try to communicate in a foreign language
that you're just begining to learn.
So why you should try :
One thing is that people care when they think that /you/ care.
So of courses there are cultural differences,
in how employers and employees
treat each other and interact with each other in the workplace
depending on where you are,
but I think that most of us would agree that we like to feel valued and included,
and when we feel valued and included,
we take more pride in what we do,
and that leads to better performance and productivity,
which is great for everyone.
So when you have employees or colleagues that speak another language,
taking the time to learn about their language and culture
sends a message that they're important to you,
and worth your time, and you get
to establish much more meaninful connections with them.
My friend worked in a kitchen with mostly Spanish speaking employees
and when she started using Spanish to talk with them,
it really improved the mood in the kitchen and boosted morale,
because everyone really appreciated
that their boss was going out of her way
to communicate with them in their language.
And a lot of bosses don't really take the time to do that.
I worked in a school with a colleague from Nepal,
and I had worked in previous jobs with Nepalese students,
I was getting ready for a trip to Nepal,
so I started, you know, speaking a little bit of Nepalese with him
and he was really excited because no one else had really tried to do that before.
And we ended up becoming friends,
and we developped a bond that helped both of us, you know,
personally and profesionally.
So without that language as a common ground,
we might have not thought to connect in that way.
We might not have been, you know, as likely to establish a friendship.
Language can also open the door to business and networking opportunities.
I used recruit international students at a local school,
and I once traveled with a group of recruiters
to a business school in China.
None of us spoke Mandarin very well,
but some of us tried to speak what we knew,
and engage in small talk with students and teachers.
When it came time for students to pick the school they liked,
they almost always picked the school with recruiters who tried
to speak in their language.
Because we were the ones who showed that we cared about them,
beyond just the money they were going to give us.
And you know, we made the kids feel like we'd do our best to look out for them,
and make them feel safe and comfortable if they came to study with us.
So that personal touch and connection can make a big difference in business,
so language is just one of the ways you can do that,
you don't need to be fluent or very proficent
to be able to, you know, make a little difference.
Those are just two ways that basic language skills
can be helpful in the workplace,
but of course there are times when you should stick to your native language
or the established language of business for your workplace.
So when I say "the established language of business",
my current company for example has offices and business partners
in many countries around the world,
but we're supposed to do all official client communication in English.
So that's our, like, established language of business.
You should really be careful of anything beyond small talk,
any negotiation, technical discussions,
topics that require expressing complex ideas,
those should be done in a language you speak conmfortably.
It's really important that everyone's thoughts and questions
are communicated accurately when business is at stake,
so you should do that in a language
that you feel really comfortable with,
even if it requires, you know, the use of a translator or interpreter.
The same with legal informations,
or informations that your colleagues might need access to later,
and they don't speak your target language.
So that would be like contracts, instructions,
policy updates, any of those should be documented
in the established language of business.
And you know, I do believe that any employee
who don't speak or read the established language of business very proficiently
should have access to this type of information
in their home language, but that's not something
that you as a beginner should be doing,
you should be outsourcing that to someone who is fluent in the home language,
like a profesionnal translator or interpreter.
Next we move on to "Education".
So, just to show you how truly multilingual this experience has been,
I've compiled a list of languages
and created a map of the birthplaces of students I've worked with
as an "English as a New Language" or an ENL teacher.
And these are the ways the students have identified their languages themselves,
it's not meant to be political in any way.
Yeah, so to give a bit of background,
I've taught every grade from kindergarten,
which in the U.S begins at age four or five,
or adult education classes, with students
as old as 75.
Some were international students,
meaning they came to the U.S for the purpose of studying,
some were immigrants whose families had chosen to move here for work
or other opportunities.
And most were refugees who were displaced from their homes for a variety of reason,
and selected to relocate to my city.
Even though the United States doesn't have an official language,
most of the schools in the country have instructions in English.
So when a student enroll in school for the first time in New York state,
they are asked which languages are spoken at home and,
depending on the answer, they take a placement exam
to determine their level of English, and what language services they need.
The students take another exam at the end of the school year
to measure their progress and decide
what services they need next year,
and they keep taking this test every year
until their scores are high enough to be proficient.
We do teach social English, but the primary goal is
English for academic purposes, because we want all of our students
to graduate and have professional success,
whether they go to college or go right into the workplace.
It's probably a very different experience that some of you have had
learning languages for fun.
I also want to bring up some of the challenges that my students have faced.
Because I don't think that it applies to all language learners,
but it's really like a good perspective to have.
Some of my students have missed years of school,
maybe even never went to school before,
due to circumstances like sickness or war.
They might have never even learnt to read or do maths,
which means even, you know, some teenagers we start working with,
we need to teach them the fundamentals of learning in addition to language skills.
So many of our students struggle with adapting to
american school culture but the kids with interrupted and limited schooling
have even more difficult adjusting and progressing.
Which is not to say they can't be successful,
but they just have more challenges to overcome than other kids their age.
Many of my students experience post-traumatic stress disorder,
based on situations that happened to them
before they came to our school.
And this can affect their concentration
and ability to take in new informations.
Lack of technology skills or ressources is a huge issue as well.
Even before school went remote because of the pandemic,
in the U.S most schools required students to carry around a computer,
and do all their work online.
But not all students are comfortable with technology,
or have access to it at home.
I actually once worked with a 17 years old who grew up in a refugee camp,
and didn't know what a computer was until his first day in our school.
So we actually had to spend like, a week,
teaching him how to sign on a computer,
and to use a password, and then we had to teach him to,
you know, use Google Docs.
I'm sure technology has been a great benefit
to many of you while learning languages
so you know, just imagine how different the experience might have been
without all the access to it.
Age is also a factor, which is not to say
you can't learn a language after a certain age,
but it does affect the services that people can receive.
So, in New-York state, most american kids ograduate high-school by age 17 or 18,
but you can go to public school until age 21.
So anyone in public school who requires english services receive them for free.
Once you graduate or turn 21, you're no longer eligible for free services.
So, depending on how old you are when you arrive in New-York
you need to learn english completely by yourself
or just do volunteer programs, that sometimes don't have certified teachers.
That's often easier said than done
when you consider some of these others factors.
And, due to the limited services for adults,
there is many situations where immigrant and refugee children
speak english better than their parents,
so parents often rely on their children
to interprate and translate and take care of important matters for the family.
Sometimes parents aren't able to help
with homework or other importants school issues,
because they aren't educated themselves or, you know,
just the american school environment is just so new to them,
that they don't know how to help.
Sometimes children miss school or can't get their homework done
because they're working or taking their parents to appointments.
So very often these kids, you know, a lot of my students said
that they always felt like the adult in the family,
and it can lead to power struggles within the family,
and it can often lead to less emphasis on school.
And finally, while many of my students are polyglots,
I mean, I worked with a few students who spoke five or six languages
before learning english,
sometimes they feel that their skills are not valued,
because they don't speak, maybe like a cool language, or a popular language,
which is unfortunately often tied to race or country of origin,
and these students might struggle with motivation or confidence or making friends,
and they might struggle more with that Impostor Syndrome.
You know, thinking that, you know, they have all these skills
but it doesn't matter, because they don't speak the right languages,
or they might think that they're stupid
because they haven't picked up english quickly.
But, you know, we all know that
the ability to learn a language is not based on just your intelligence.
It's also based on your motivation,
the degree of similarity with other languages you know,
and a whole multitude of things.
All of these perceptions could affect the ability to improve english
or even motivation to come to school at all.
I think that these are important to point out,
because many of us have the privilege of learning languages,
so you know, we think it's fun,
or we want to be able to watch Japanese anime,
or we want to make more money at work,
and if you're at this conference you have a large support system of fellow polyglots
who can encourage you and help you practice
but in many cases language learning is a necessity
and without that support system
or access to the right tools, or the right state of mind,
it can be really challenging.
So, you know, I'm not asking you to feel guilty or to feel pity for anyone,
but I would encourage you to find a way to use your skills to support learners
who might not have the same opportunities.
So, some examples of why, you know, even though I'm trying to teach english,
why I might use my students' languages.
The first is to build rapport, which is just a fancy way of saying,
connecting and learning to trust each other.
So think of your first day at school or a new job or a new city :
it was probably a little scary if you didn't know anyone.
So imagine being a young child and not knowing anyone,
not understanding the culture,
and not understanding what anyone is saying to you.
Even if people have big smiles on their faces,
and they're trying to be nice, it's still scary
if you can't understand what anyone is saying.
And depending on the circumtstances that led you to this new place,
you might already have a hard time trusting strangers and,
you know, feeling safe.
So there is actually a term in english learning
called the "affective filter".
And if someone is stressed or nervous,
all those feelings act like a filter or a wall,
that prevents you from retaining new information.
So if a person is feeling safe and comfortable,
that filter is lowered, and they can learn better.
So a good tip for trying to speak a language is
to get yourself into a environment
where you feel comfortable taking risks
and you'll probably perform much better.
As a teacher, I always try to use students languages as much as possible
when I first meet them
to help them feel welcome and just let them know
I'm someone that cares and you can take risks around me.
I'll never forget I had a new student from Cuba,
couldn't speak any english, and I showed her around the school
with my very elementary spanish, so like,
"Okay, esta la biblioteca, esta el baño... Tienes hermano?"
You know, I don't speak spanish very well,
I actually studied italian for a long time
so at some point I think I actually started
accidentally speaking italian to her,
but she was really grateful that
I recognized she was scared, and tried to make her feel better,
and eventually, when she was ready to start speaking english,
she felt comfortable trying that with me,
because she'd already seen me embarass myself,
and step out of my comfort zone.
So I set the tone for the class, like
"It's okay to make mistakes here!"
And, you know, as a teacher in general
I would encourage you to create that environment yourself.
Anyone who tried immersion in their target language
knows that it's very exhausting,
it can be really embarassing,
and how relieving and empowering it is
when you actually understand what people are saying.
So, you know, those little bits of the student's first language
can be a breath of fresh air at first.
It's also helpful in meeting parents.
So a lot of students' parents are nervous about coming to school
because they don't speak english
and the american school system is so different from what they're used to.
So we do use interpreters for conversations with parents,
but speaking a few words and phrases of the home language yourself
sets the tone of the visit that, you know,
"we care about you and welcome you want to work with you."
Another reason to learn your students' language is
it can actually help you be a better teacher in some ways
because understanding how another language works
helps you understand the differences with your native language.
So as an english teacher, understanding
some of the fundamentals of different languages means like,
"Okay I've got a new student who is
from an arabic speaking country, they'll, you know, definitely need
to learn the latin alphabet,
and they'll need to learn how to write left to right instead of right to left.
But they also might have trouble with /b/ and /p/.
Their writing, you know they might need help with when to use a comma,
or when to stop a sentence.
I found a lot of my Aarabic speakers would have like,
really run-on sentences because of the way that writing system is different in Arabic.
Every student is different, and will have unique challenges to learning language.
I've actually worked with twins and triplets who have had totally different needs.
But understanding their language background
can really help you figure out starting points for what to teach.
And of course, your goal as an ENL teacher
is ultimately to teach students English
but there are times when you need to communicate to students or families
in their home language and, there's limits to what you should do yourself.
I would go to a professional translator or interpreter
for anything that's highly academic,
any important legal or school information,
like anything you'd send home to all the parents,
that should be available in the parents' home language.
And any serious mental or physical health concerns,
like if you needed to go to a psychiatrist
or a social worker.
A1 or A2 language skills can make a huge difference
in helping families to acclimate and learn English,
but it's not very enough to discuss very serious topics
that could impact a child's future or health and, you know,
we try to treat everyone with dignity and respect,
regardless of their language background so,
if I'm trying to have a serious discussion while trying to talk to an adult
with the vocabulary of a child,
you know, that's maybe not the most respectful way
to include them in the conversation.
So, how do we communicate, when we can't communicate?
Well, there's a lot of great professional services
for schools and workplaces, in the United States at least.
We have local translations agencies,
that will not only translate letters and school documents,
but also state exams.
The translators will sit with the students
and read questions, or even the whole test.
We've even had a student write a whole essay in Ukrainian,
and the translator translated it into English for us.
So these things helps us understand
what the students actually know,
and not just what they're limited in expressing through English skills.
New-York also has bilingual glossaries, which I'll show in a minute,
these are for major school subjects
and in a ton of different languages,
and students can use them for reference
when working with academic vocabulary.
And we also have an over-the-phone interpreting service,
which when you call the number, you punch in a code,
I think it's like, 23 for Arabic,
and they get an interpreter on the phone,
who can help you make phone calls.
They can also be, you know, if you're in a meeting
and an interpreter is not present, you could put the phone on speakerphone
and have that interpreter interpret the conversation.
Some strategies that I use as a teacher,
I think the best way to help students is
to just meet them at their level.
There is a language learning theory called "I+one",
which means that the best way to improve your language skills
is to expose yourself to content that is
just a little bit more difficult that your current level.
If it's too easy you won't progress,
and if it's way too hard you won't progress either,
because you know, you might burn out.
So expecting students that, you know, came with a very low English proficiency score,
expecting them to read and understand a History textbook
on their first day of school probably isn't very fair,
and will probably kill their self-esteem.
But maybe they can read a picture book about an historical event,
and answer questions about it.
Start there, gradually add more.
Some examples of specific supports are like simplified texts,
which maybe some of you use in your target language,
and sentence frames, to help with writing.
So, in these cases here are some sentence frames
that I might help the student with for an essay or a debate.
So all they really have to focus on at first
is putting in like, the meat of the content.
And then, they kind of see these examples
and learn the structures of the sentences
that we would expect them to write.
And here are some bilingual glossaries,
so here is English Language Arts in Albanian,
Math glossary for grades 3 to 5 in Tibetan,
and Slovak Earth Science,
and here is Physics for Twi.
And while we're on the topic of translation,
we can move on to localization.
Here's another fun list : all the languages I've worked with
since starting work as a project manager
in the translation industry.
As you can see there's a lot of languages and just to clarify,
translation is reading and writing,
and interpretation is speaking and listening.
So I wish I could read and write all these languages,
but I do not.
So, people ask a lot, you know,
"Do I need to know a bunch of languages to work in the translation industry?"
And I have been surprised to find out
that really the only ones that require
fluency or proficiency in multiple languages
are translator and interpreter.
And you would typically translate or interprate
into your native language because,
you know, I guess that depends on need,
but you might be fluent in a bunch of languages,
but you'll typically better understand the cultural or linguistic nuances
that make the words sound natural in your native language.
And then, we also like, really look for people who have industry experience,
so if I'm translating a medical document,
I'd hire a linguist who has medical experience
over a linguist with business experience.
Same for legal documents, engineering documents,
anything with technical knowkedge.
So if you want to be a translator,
it really helps to study and work in other fields
besides just studying linguistics.
My friend is an American sign language interpreter,
and she had to interpret for a biochemistry exam
and I just, you know,
she had to learn a whole bunch of biochemistry
to be able to help, because she's like,
"This is not my field at all!"
So yeah, obviously that industry knowledge makes a big difference
depending on what your translating or interpreting.
And, you know, for any job we also look for communication
and ability to meet deadlines,
so if you produce great work, but you're rude,
and you don't turn your work in on time,
people won't want to hire you.
And then, yeah, here are a few jobs
in the translation industry,
that don't always require knowing
a bunch of languages outside of
your company's official language of business.
This was really surprising to me, when I started.
How many jobs there are where other skills
are kind of, maybe maybe more important.
So for example my company's language of business is English.
I need to know English for my job
so I can communicate with clients and service providers,
but if I'm managing a translation project in Turkish and Swahili,
I don't need to understand those languages to do my job.
So examples, I'm a project manager
that's what I do, when we receive a project
I kind of hire the linguist to do the job,
and anyone to do like, special services,
and I deliver it and, you know, do quality checks.
Graphic Designers and Media Specialists
are the ones that actually, you know,
actually put the translation into posters and videos,
and make sure it looks good.
Localization Engineers are programmers,
so they get the translation
into apps and websites.
And the recruiters are people who
find people to work for the company
in different departments,
and negotiate their pay.
So in many of these jobs
you'll be surrounded by languages
but you don't have to know them all fluently.
Instead you'll have to know things
like programming or working in indesign,
or building relationships
and communicating effectively...
So these are great jobs to look into
if you like languages, but you're maybe not...
You don't have the skills to be a translator or an interpreter,
or that doesn't really interest you.
There's lot of other things you can do,
and still work with languages.
So I don't always know the languages,
I don't always speak or read the languages needed within the project,
so a lot of responsability does fall
on our translators and interpreters
to make sure the project is completed with the best quality.
But there are some translation tools that
even I, you know, can use for quality.
So one is the translation memory, or the TM.
When we put a document into translation software,
the text is divided up into segmrents like sentences or phrases.
And when the project is finished,
the segment is saved into the translation memory
for future use.
So the next time that segment appears in another project,
it will show you similar segments that were already translated,
which helps with consistency.
Here, this is a software called memoQ,
we see "The next stop is Tower Bridge",
and that's 70% similar to a previous translation
"The next stop is Charring Cross"
So that 70% is the similarity to previous translations,
and it also tells you what's different between the translations.
So here the only difference is that
one is Charring Cross, the other is Tower Bridge,
and we won't be translating those names anyway,
so we can use that same construction
(German): "Die nächste Haltestelle ist"
and then you just put in "Tower Bridge".
Another thing that helps is the Term base.
So this is a glossary that the client provides to us,
that tells us their preferred translation
for certain words and phrases.
And it's programmed into the software,
so anytime the word or phrase appears in the text,
the linguist knows to use that.
In this case it's a program called Memsource,
and these yellow words mean that
there's something in the Term base for them,
and red mean that you should not ever use that translation.
So my russian is not great,
but I know that "download" should be
translated as "скачать".
So if a different word is used,
I know that the linguist didn't follow the Term base.
And I know here, "Memsource" should not ever
be spelled with a capital "S".
So that helps with consistency as well.
And we also have what's called a Quality Assurance,
or QA check, which are automated checks
for translations errors or,
you know it basically looks into the translation,
analyzes them against rules or ressources that we programmed in,
and it helps us look for inconsistencies.
So here, this is from MadCap Lingo,
there's three different translations of
"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall",
that are all a little bit different.
So what I would do, if I was looking at this QA report,
I would ask the linguist to review them,
and just make sure that those are supposed
to be intentionally different.
And if not, then they should fix them
to meke them more standard.
So it's not necessary to know the languages your team is translating,
but there are a few ways it can be helpful.
So one would be catching small mistakes,
like typos, or if there is issues with formatting,
maybe a word is supposed to be bolded in the english file,
but the formatting didn't transfer over to the target file.
If you know those words then you can kind of find that.
That's also helpful if you know right to left languages,
like Hebrew and Arabic.
Sometimes when you copy and paste
into certain files formats,
the orientation is not preserved,
so it comes out backward.
If you don't know those languages
you might not realize that you might send
something to the client that's completely useless.
So, that's always very helpful,
and we do use English for official communications
but any opportunity to use a little bit of languages with your partners
during small talks is always appreciated.
Very helpful for phone calls too!
A lot of our clients and service providers
have operators who only speak the local language
so if you call and try to speak english,
I've been hang up on before.
One time I reached an answering machine in French
and I left an awkard message because I don't speak French,
and I didn't realize the answering machine
said that they were closed for the next three days,
and I only figured that out
after a colleague called them with a question.
And you know, a little bit of French
might have been helpful there!
We can also sometimes use our knowledge in QA reports,
even knowing a little bit about grammar could be helpful.
So here are some examples of text
that might show up in the Term base.
So in the case of Polish, there's only one word
that we use for "operating system" that's translated in.
And so there's all these different declensions,
where the computer just reads the rule:
"'operating system" has always been translated this way"
and flags all of these as errors,
but depending on the context, these are correct.
Same with Latvian.
The Term base only says translate "patients" as this,
and if this comes up, then it will say an error.
So that's a false positive.
Unfortunately, computers can't critically think
the way that we can, so this happens a lot.
The same with Portuguese,
in these two cases, there's two different versions of the word "good",
and it's flagged for inconsistency,
but they're actually correct because
there are gender differences,
and the words they are referring to,
one is male and the other one is female,
so they actually should not be the same word.
And the same in German:
in this case "die die" is flagged as a potential typo
because the same word shows up twice.
But in this case "die" is a relative pronoun
for "Die Frau", "The woman",
and it can also be an article
for "the milk", "die Milch".
So that's actually correct,
but a computer just knows the rules
to, you know, make sure that the same word isn't repeated.
This happens in some other languages as well.
So these are examples of times
when you might be able to use your basic language skills
in a translation project
but of course you need to be very careful.
Anything that's highly specialized,
something you're not 100% sure about,
you should always leave to a professional linguist.
People pay a lot of money for translation,
and we have certain international standards
we have to meet for quality,
and that means that, you know,
I shouldn't be translating things myself
if I'm not a certified linguist.
And you know, anything that's more than small talk, and related to business,
should be done in your company's established language of business.
So I've mentionned using professional quite a few times,
and the focus has of course been on beginner skills,
but some of you might be interested
in becoming one of these language professional yourself.
And I'm not a hiring manager or expert,
but I just wanted to, you know,
maybe flesh out some of the ideas I've already talked about.
I mentionned over-the-phone interpreting, earlier,
which I used a lot as a teacher
when communicating with families.
If you don't have a lot of opportunities
for interpreting in your immediate area,
but you're highly proficient in speaking two or more languages,
I'd look into something like this.
You know, just know that interpreting is
not just knowing the languages,
but there is also skills such as, you know
being able to think in both languages at the same time,
and being able to, you know,
give timely feedback.
I would definitely, you know, suggest training for this,
but that's something you could look into.
Same with translation:
Translators Without Borders is an awesome humanitarian organisation,
that strives to provides access to information to everyone
regardless of their language background.
I am not affiliated with them,
but I follow a lot of what they do on social medias,
and I know they're a non-profit organisation,
and they're always looking for volunteers who write and write multiple languages,
especially languages without a lot of mainstream representation.
So like, for example, a lot of things are translated into French for Africa,
but there's so many languages in Africa,
and so many people that don't speak French well,
and if you just rely on French to spread information,
that's not really equitable for everybody.
Then, industry knowledge of course is very important
to make sure you understand the content and terminology of the text,
and depending on the job you want,
you might want to consider getting certifications
or putting together a portfolio of translations for review,
which is not necessary for every job, but definitely, you know,
something nice to have on hand.
And, yeah, here is an example of the COVID-19 Glossary,
put together by Translators Without Borders
to make sure that accurate information was being spread
to communities around the world, regardless of language.
They don't just do healthcare,
they do a ton of different, you know, industries,
but this is something I know they worked on very hard last year.
So yeah, just to sum up,
beginner level skills do have a place at work
for connecting with people, being inclusive,
improving you teaching, and maybe even saving you some time,
but there are limitations,
especially anything that's technical,
legal or sensitive discussions.
And to stay motivated and measure your progress,
think about your end goal,
and set many checkpoints to reach along the way.
I did see there was a question about a small win,
and I guess that can kind of be whatever you want it to be,
it depends on your goal,
everyone's goal are kind of highly individualized,
so yeah, think about like, what are some steps to progress to your goal,
and it's good to be realistic about
the work that still needs to be done,
but don't let that keep you from remembering
the value of what you've already put in.
And I've already said this like four times
but in order to get your language skills to a place where
you can use them professionally,
you'll likely need technical and linguistic experience
in the field or industry you want to work in,
wether that's medicine, law, or something else.
I'm so happy to see some questions on here!
Yeah, I think that there are a lot of people that,
they feel like, you know,
"English only! English is the most important thing, I don't want to, um..."
You know, they really want to challenge themselves,
and they might not appreciate some of
the bilingual ressources we provide for them.
That's sort of their- I actually suggest
using your languages that you already know
to help you learn another language,
especially for academics purposes,
but that's sort of, I guess, up to the individual themselves.
Also, yeah, I mean, I don't speak a lot of languages very well, and so,
if I didn't know the language sometimes it is just easier
to communicate in a language that, um,
either having an interpreter or translator with me,
you know, that gets things done a little bit faster than,
like I said, trying to speak with my elementary skills,
yeah, sometimes that, like I said that doesn't really go very far,
and it's better to just sort of cut our losses there and,
you know, get down to business.
Hope that answers your question
"How can I get in contact with people that don't speak English
and can't afford a school or a private teacher?"
That is also a great question
So I can only speak to the places that I've lived and worked,
but there are a lot of volunteer agencies,
that help refugees when they come to your country
that help them, you know, get [close/clothes?],
get acclimated, there's a lot of legal paperwork
that needs to be done and so there's often very-
there's often some sort of volunteer agency
that has connections like this.
My city is called the "Sanctuary City",
which means that we accept anybody who comes in
regardless of their background,
so we have a ton of these agencies,
I would look maybe for refugee organisations,
and they're usually looking for volunteers.
And sometimes it's not just like, teaching English,
they might also need help with bringing food to families,
or donating clothes, so yeah.
I would see if there's any organisations like that
in your hometown.
Yeah, that is really challenging, and I would say that,
involving mental health experts,
so like at my school, we had social workers,
we had school psychologists,
we had, you know, juste the regular student counselors
that are more trained in those types of emotionnal needs,
andh having an interpreter or a translator available
to accurately discuss that information would be very helpful.
And, yeah. Definitely involving mental health professionals.
And I think, just as a teacher or as someone at the workplace,
I know that a lot of refugees have, you know-
get help with job placement.
This could really affect their ability to learn,
and their ability to do work,
so just being patient, and understanding that, you know,
they might not be ready to do an exam on Earth Science,
and sometimes you know, you need to
take care of those mental health needs first.
And so just being aware of that,
getting them support with mental health professionals,
and then kind of, like I said, take things as they go,
and meeting them where they are,
and know that sometimes teachers,
you know they have their one way of teaching,
and they want to kind of expect every kid to fit into that,
and that's sort of something that's changing in american schools,
that instead of teaching with the style that you're comfortable with,
you might need to make adjustments for kids,
and just having that flexibility and that empathy is really important.
And also, you know, I don't think-
I think sometimes we pity refugees,
and I don't think that they need pity
I think they just need like, a friend,
who is there to help them,
so yeah, being there for all those needs is helpful as well.
If you have access to like, an over-the-phone interpreting service,
that is probably the most helpful.
I know that that's not always available,
so in that case, I guess body language and images and visuals,
those can go a long way.
For example, I'm thinking about,
like an emergency situation like a medical situation,
you can kind of point to your head,
you can, you know, things like that,
and it's awkward but any type of communication...
If something- I think people-
It might take a long time and it might feel a little uncomfortable,
but using things like that can be really helpful.
They also- I wouldn't always recommend
that people use their family members to translate,
just because you don't always know if
they're telling all the right information,
and I don't mean that in a way like,
they're trying to hide anything from you,
but a professional interpreter is definitely more, you know,
unbiaised in what they're saying,
but if there's a family member that speaks a language
that can be really helpful in those cases.
And, "what can I consider a small win?"
I kind of already mentionned that but, um,
yeah, I would say that's kind of up to you
and what you're trying to accomplish.
If you're trying to be conversationnal,
then, like I said with Hungarian,
I think that, you know,
being able to buy a bus ticket by myself is a big win,
and that's something on the way to eventually being conversational.
So, kind of think of your end goal,
and what are some, yeah, I guess a small win can be anything,
anything you couldn't do before
that you can do now, that's a win!
So this is actually very different depending on
the company that you work for and the company structure.
So, I know some-
There's definitely a lot of planning, emailing and reporting,
because your goal is to get the project done,
and that often requires a lot of, you know,
communicating between people,
but I also know that some companies have like, language experts,
so they deal more with the linguist side
so I, as a project manager in my current role,
I deal with both the clients and the linguists.
And so the clients, that's very much like, overhead, account things,
and then, the linguist expert side,
like, I work with the linguists,
make sure they understand the needs of the project.
And yeah, I know that in some countries,
there's some companies that might have, you know,
only people that know Spanish or work on Spanish translations,
it kind of depends on the, I guess the breakdown of your company,
if that helps.
But you will do a lot of emailing and reporting (LAUGH), I'm sure.
Yeah, so I think those are all the questions,
thank you so much!
And if there's anyting else, I left my email adress
and my profile, I didn't really fill out a lot of the other stuff,
but definitely included my email adress
so please feel free to reach out at me at any time,
and yeah, thanks so much, enjoy the rest of the conference!