Learn to Cross Language Barriers

The COMMUNICATING ACROSS LANGUAGE BARRIERS workshop is a unique diversity training that addresses the challenges many people have understanding accents from countries where the first language is not English.

As workplaces and communities become more multicultural, we may find ourselves having difficulty comprehending crucial information. In government, non-profits, healthcare, education, transportation, and community outreach, accent comprehension can make the difference between success and failure.

In the relaxed atmosphere of the COMMUNICATING ACROSS LANGUAGE BARRIERS workshop, participants learn techniques for listening and responding to people with varied ways of speaking English.

COMMUNICATING ACROSS LANGUAGE BARRIERS participants learn skills that help:

• Improve interaction with customers and clients. In business, loss of customers and clients due to misunderstanding threatens the bottom line and causes greater costs in hiring and retraining.
• Encourage participation from all employees in meetings and work projects. Coworkers who don't feel understood in the workplace participate less fully in meetings and projects. In workplaces where employees have trouble understanding each other, morale suffers. Productivity and creativity are lost and the skills and talents of each person are not fully engaged.
• Deepen understanding of patients' needs and avoid medical mistakes. In healthcare, wrong diagnosis and treatment resulting from language issues are common. Over sixty percent of medical misdiagnoses and inappropriate treatments are due to communication problems of which misunderstanding of accents is a part.
• Ensure that instructions given in vital situations are clearly understood. Communication between dispatchers and drivers, air traffic controllers and pilots can be life saving. Misunderstanding of accents between Dutch and American crews and a Spanish air traffic controller led to a crash that killed 583 people. This was not an isolated incident.
• Broaden outreach campaigns and recruitment. In community organizations, better understanding means more successful membership drives and community involvement.
• Avoid legal action. While anti-discrimination laws don't specifically mention accents, increasingly, lawsuits alleging discrimination are based on intolerance of language differences, adding to companies' legal costs.
• Overcome embarrassment, frustration and worry. These feelings can contribute to cutting off an interaction for the sake of comfort before adequate information is relayed. We may assume the speakers meaning without actually being sure. This can lead to problems in all of the above situations.

The workshop includes:

KNOWLEDGE


The sounds, stress and intonation of one's native language affect how English is spoken. Learn characteristics of specific accents from Asia, Latin, America, Africa and Europe and some general characteristics that will help you decipher most accents.

PRACTICING
with VIDEOS Effective listening is a skill that needs practice. Watch and listen to people from different countries as they speak, and practice techniques to translate what you hear into messages that you can understand.

DISCUSSION

Share experiences of past misunderstandings and identify solutions that can be used in future situations. Receive and discuss a list of helpful do and don'ts for multilingual interactions.

MATERIALS Receive a packet of practical information for ongoing reference.

About Judith Wild

A resident of North Portland, Judith Wild has over thirty years of experience teaching English as a Second Language, diversity, and video production. Over that time, she has worked with a variety of educators and organizations to navigate the difficulties of multilingual encounters in workplaces and communities.

While most language training focuses on the language learner, Wild realized that the listening component of an interaction was too often ignored as a crucial element. Reports from language students, workers and managers about the lack of understanding they experience prompted her to create this training to answer an unmet need.

For Details, Contact:

Info@CrossLanguageBarriers.com
Phone: 503-289-4585