Essay On Language Barriers

1394 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Importance of English

Language
Research Paper

Makenna Miller, Tiffany Cisco
4/2/2016
Introduction

How many languages are in the world today, in the average Americans day to day life its pretty normal to hear many different languages in a single day. Thinking about it only a couple languages come to mind like english, spanish, maybe even chinese; but we hear so many more languages then that. As infoplease tells us “there are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers.” After figuring out roughly how many languages there are it isn’t a surprise that sometimes communicating with people who speak different languages is a challenge. Along with just the language the culture
According to a journal, “The Truth About Language Barriers: One Residency Program’s Experience”, residences finishing their graduate medical training at a pediatrics hospital with families that are from a spanish speaking background. According to a questionnaire given to the residences, 68% of them spoke little to no spanish but they did want to learn spanish. On an everyday basis 53% of the residences handled patients and families that spoke little to no english. Because of this barrier the residences felt that the families did not fully understand the diagnosis of their child’s result, what the medications prescribed do, and fully understand what the procedure was as to how to treat their child. Most of the residences stated in the questionnaire that 80% of them avoided communication and contact with those non english speaking families. So when they had to interact and communicate, they used a non proficient interpreter and not a professional interpreter. This type of negative barrier interaction with a non english speaking family led to insufficient interchange, avoidance of interaction and would cause detrimental durden on colleagues (O 'leary,

Show More
Related

  • Medical Beliefs of the Hmong People Depicted in the Book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

    1498 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ulture is changing, Hmong are not all the same, importance of family, privacy issues, mental health issues, and small talk is important (Barrett et al., 1998, 181-182) . Overall, Barrett and others concluded that in order to improve interaction between patient and doctor all they have to do is follow these easy steps. First, is to be kind and have a positive attitude towards the patient and interpreter. Second, learn about each other’s cultures prior to meeting, to better understand each other. Third, better explain diagnosis and treatment options to patients. Fourth, improve translation providers need to get better interpreters who could concisely explain the consultation. Fifth, involve the family to make more thorough decisions. Sixth, respect patient’s decisions and there are still other alternatives to improve interaction (Barrett et al., 1998, 182-183).

    Read More

  • Haitian Culture: Impact on Nursing Care

    1656 Words  | 4 Pages

    Nearly all Haitian immigrants entering the U.S. are poorly educated, illiterate, and speak only Creole, which is seldom seen in written form. Creole is a “pidgin” language, meaning it is a simplified form of a base language with parts of other languages added. These types of languages were frequently used by sailors, pirates, and other trade people to accommodate the span of communication needs they faced. Haitian Creole is thought to have been derived by combining various native African dialects with the French language of their owners. Very few Haitians (10%) can actually speak French, and one’s ability to do so is seen as an indicator of social class. Because of Haitian views that Creole is the language used by the poor and uneducated, many will claim to be able to speak French and become insulted if it is suggested that they speak Creole. This can pose a problem for the healthcare worker trying to find a way to communicate. Often the only interpreters available to a family are their children who have learned English in schools here. This can create conflict within the family therefore a facility provided interpreter usually produces a better outcome. Written materials are often of no use to the Haitian immigrant.

    Read More

  • Hispanic American Culture Essay

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    The increase and changing demography in the United State today, with the disparities in the health status of people from different cultural backgrounds has been a challenge for health care professionals to consider cultural diversity as a priority. It is impossible for nurses and other healthcare professionals to learn and understand theses diversity in culture, but using other approaches like an interpreter is very helpful for both nurses and patients. In this paper of a culturally appropriate care planning, I will be discussing on the Hispanic American culture because, I had come across a lot of them in my career as a nurse. The Hispanic are very diverse in terms of communication and communities and include countries like Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, South and Central America, and some of them speak and write English very well, some speaks but can’t write while some can’t communicate in English at all but Spanish.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Health Disparity In Health Care

    1001 Words  | 3 Pages

    The goal of this lesson is to explore how we can improve communication to eliminate language barriers between healthcare providers and patients in our organization and to establish culturally and linguistically appropriate goals, that provide safe, equal, and quality care to all our clients regardless of race, ethnic, or socioeconomic status. At the end of this lesson we should be

    Read More

  • John Mcwhorter's The Cosmopolit The Means Of A Different Language

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    Today, the world has around “6,000 languages” that exist (Mcwhorter 429). According to John Mcwhorter, author of“The

    Read More

  • Nursing Reflection: Non-English Speaking Patients

    989 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pashley, H.(2012). Overcoming barriers when caring for patients with limited english proficiency. Association of Operating Room Nurses.AORN Journal, 96(3), C10-C11. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0001-2092(12)00833-2

    Read More

  • Giger And Davidhizar Model Case Study

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    There was clearly a barrier in communication with the mother and the nurse. Even though the mother was able to make her English be understood. The nurse should have had the mother repeat back the instructions of how, when and route to give the medication to the child. In the initial assessment this nurse could have asked more information about the culture and language that the patient follows. This information should have been used to have an interpreter and or language line in the room to communicate the information to the mother. If there was an improved cultural awareness may have enhanced the care given to the family in this case

    Read More

  • A Language Barrier

    1256 Words  | 3 Pages

    From my experience, bilingual education was a disadvantage during my childhood. At the age of twelve, I was introduced into a bilingual classroom for the first time. The crowded classroom was a combination of seventh and eighth grade Spanish-speaking students, who ranged from the ages of twelve to fifteen. The idea of bilingual education was to help students who weren’t fluent in the English language. The main focus of bilingual education was to teach English and, at the same time, teach a very basic knowledge of the core curriculum subjects: Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. Unfortunately, bilingual education had academic, psychological, and social disadvantages for me.

    Read More

  • Being Bilingual Essay

    605 Words  | 2 Pages

    Being bilingual always made my life differ as if I lived two lives, speaking Spanish at home and English everywhere outside of home. On the daily basis at my house, my family speaks Spanish. When we communicate we speak very fast, at times we can not even understand one another. After this occurs we all burst out in laughter super loud, no boundaries are enforced in our lexicon. The enforcement changes when entering a different discourse community.

    Read More

  • Language And Culture Essay

    987 Words  | 2 Pages

    Any language that does not include the feature repeatability will be an example inversely refute this hypothesis, and this is what would argue that it applies to the language; This language refutes feature repeatability alleged Even when can learn repetition in other languages or show evidence of thinking recursively, as is the case with speakers language. Thus, if there is one language can exist without tag repeatability, all other languages can in terms of principle, and this contrasts with the claim that the repeatability is a prerequisite indispensable for human contact.

    Read More

  • Cross Cultural Communication in Indonesia and United States

    1619 Words  | 4 Pages

    Schelling (1960) stated language is common tool consisting sounds and signs used by individual to communicate. Indonesia are known as one of the most multifaceted country in the world with approximately 731 distinct languages and more than 1,100 different spoken dialects (Frederick and Worden, 2011). Despite their complexity in culture and language, Indonesia has their own official language, Bahasa Indonesia.

    Read More

  • Linguistic Diversity and Multilingualism

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    Erard, Michael (November 3, 2005). "How many languages is it possible for a person to speak?". The Five Minute Linguist. Archived from the original on April 13, 2010

    Read More

  • Intercultural Communication Stumbling Blocks By Laray Barna

    1189 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many people who go to visit or work in another country suffer some misunderstanding from the local people, because they have a different culture. Different culture will cause disparity points of view about almost everything. In the article, Intercultural Communication Stumbling Blocks by Laray M. Barna, there are five stumbling blocks mentioned that are seen in a cross-culture communication. These blocks are: language, nonverbal signs and symbols, preconceptions and stereotypes, the tendency to evaluate and high anxiety. Barna wants to use these stumbling blocks to show the common blockades between different cultures. I agree with what she thinks about the language, nonverbal signs and symbols, preconceptions and stereotypes, and the tendency

    Read More

  • Problems In Intercultural Communication

    1552 Words  | 4 Pages

    Humans have been communicating since four million years. On the other hand, the birth of culture is estimated to have taken place about 35,000 years ago. Today, both culture and communication have evolved considerably and have become interdependent of one another, to the point that communication is considered to be a product of culture. Thus, our own culture has a deep impact on our thoughts and behaviors. Since each culture has its distinct aspects, intercultural communication can be the cause of conflict and disorder. There are three main issues which are at the root of the problem of intercultural miscommunication : language as a barrier, cultural diversity and ethnocentrism. I will analyze these three notions in situations in which intercultural communication is frequent such as : the workplace, the classroom and vacation trips.

    Read More

  • English as a Global Language

    651 Words  | 2 Pages

    In order to visualize the “global” as an adjective in the collocation “global language”, a study has shown the numbers of people speaking the language. According to them, there are about 6000 languages in the world and not surprisingly English is at the top of the list of most dominant. In the world there are 375 million first-language speakers, approximately the same number of second-language speakers and about 750 million foreign-language speakers (David Graddol, The Future of English? A Guide to Forecasting the Popularity of the English Language in the 21st Century. British Council, 1997). According to magazine Economist, more than one billion people speak some form of English. These numbers could make people think that English is really conquering the world which can be both positive and negative.

    Read More

More about Essay On Language Barriers

Open Document