[Image credit: “Language, power and identity share an entangled relationship”, Michael Joiner, 360info]
Yu Qi and Venus are both victims of a language barrier in Australia that seriously affects their wellbeing. Language barriers can make public communication inaccessible and exclude people from equitable participation in education, employment, healthcare, welfare, and all aspects of social life.
The number of people who suffer from linguistic exclusion is high. UNESCO estimates that 40 percent of students worldwide experience a mismatch between their language repertoires and the language of instruction. Even within OECD countries, the literacy skills of over 30 percent of the adult population are insufficient to cope with complex bureaucratic demands.
Language barriers can relate to language choice, medium, and platform.
Language choice barriers exist where institutions privilege one particular language in communication with multilingual populations. These barriers mostly affect migrant and indigenous minorities. The mismatch between the language of the institution and that of stakeholders can be egregious. Australian research, for instance, found that schools communicated enrollment information exclusively in English, even if up to 98 percent of families in the catchment area spoke a language other than English.
Even people who speak the language of the institution well may be confronted with language barriers because institutions usually preference the written medium. Written communication is often mismatched to the audience’s level of education. The readability of COVID-19 restrictions published by the NSW Health Department, for instance, was found to be pitched at readers with a tertiary education. This means many people did not have a fair chance to understand what was required of them. Even so, children as young as 13 and people with an intellectual disability were fined for not abiding by these restrictions.
These two forms of language barriers increasingly combine with a third, where an institution’s communication platform may not be equally accessible. As more and more communication has become digitised, people without computer access or with low levels of computer literacy may be excluded from vital information. For example, the health authorities in Indonesia’s West Nusa Tenggara province provided information about how to stop the spread of COVID-19 mostly on the web. Yet only 20 percent of the population use digital technologies to access written materials.
Yu Qi’s problem was a language choice barrier: her dominant language is Chinese, and she feels overwhelmed by the written English information she receives from her son’s school. At the same time, she lacks the linguistic confidence to request or attend a parent-teacher interview. Therefore, she relies on information she can glean from her son, from other Chinese parents, and she seeks extracurricular tutoring from commercial Chinese-language services. She is not aware that government-sponsored interpreting services exist in Australia, which could help mediate her communication with her son’s school.
Venus experienced a different sort of language barrier: having grown up in West Africa, she is a fluent English speaker. However, her literacy level is low, and she has hardly any knowledge of Australian occupational health and safety legislation, leave entitlements, and workers’ compensation provisions. Therefore, all she could do was “argue” with her supervisor. She could not set in motion the written bureaucratic process of documenting her injury and making a claim that would have secured proper care and mitigated any long-term health consequences.
Supporting language diversity is a matter of social justice. It is a starting point to making institutions more accessible and inclusive. Australia put a plan in place at the national level in the 1980s with the National Policy on Languages. However, having since fallen into disuse, the National Policy on Languages would require an update to adequately serve the changing communication needs of the times.
A comprehensive, effective language access plan includes the provision of translated materials and interpreting services as necessary. It also includes robust communication chains, where low-literacy people have the chance to talk things over as needed. And a needs assessment of the platforms best suited to communicate with the target population would help the plan be accessible and inclusive.
There is no one size fits all but providing information in the languages of key stakeholders, and adjusting the communication medium and platform to their capacities is key to reaching everyone in the community.
In a linguistically diverse world, institutions are likely to already have people with the right linguistic skills among their ranks. Harnessing and rewarding those linguistic skills unlocks potential and allows institutions and individuals to thrive. As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, communication is a vital aspect of disaster preparedness and response. As we take lessons in a post-pandemic world, every institution could benefit from having a language and communication task force embedded.
[This text was originally published as “Australia’s language challenges limit national potential” by 360info™ under Creative Commons]
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When I was in China, I felt that my English level was not bad, but after I went abroad, I found that it was not so easy to adapt to an English-only learning environment. The most common is that some students often make some jokes when they order food in foreign restaurants because they cannot understand the names of the dishes on the menu. These problems have more or less occurred in international students. Why does this happen? language barrier
I remember the first time when I went to England ,I just stayed at the hotel on the first day, and i asked the front desk for slippers, The front desk said, “We don’t have it.” I didn’t quite believe it, so I showed the pic to them and insisted that I wanted it. They said it was not flippers, but slippers…lol
one more thing was that I took the bus during next day. After getting on the bus, the driver asked me, Single or return ticket? Suddenly I felt very at a loss, and then I only answered shyly: “Sorry, I’m married… “, the driver still said calmly: “I’m married, too. So you should pay for your ticket now”
Thanks, Shiyi! Hilarious example (in hindsight; in the moment it must have been so embarrassing). Reminds me of a story told by a Japanese woman whose non-Japanese husband was trying to compliment the food at dinner with extended family; he tried to say something like “This is delicious” in his less-than-perfect Japanese but what came out was “I masturbate a lot” … you can read the full story is in this book chapter:
Takahashi, Kimie. (2010). Multilingual Couple Talk. In David Nunan & Julie Choi (Eds.), Language and Culture: Reflective Narratives and the Emergence of Identity (pp. 199-207). London: Routledge.
One of the practical ways that information about public health can be delivered to people regardless of their access to digital platforms is sending letters to their house. It might be very uncommon nowadays that people write letters to each other, but I think it is still an effective way as long as people still order things online and have it delivered to their home. Sending a letter would still work. This is based on my own experience. When I first returned to Australia in February 2022 and updated my address on the government platform (my.gov.au), within a couple months, I received a letter from the Department of Health encouraging me to have a cervical screening test, because cervical cancer is one of the life-threatening diseases among women. Despite being written in English, the two-page letter full of cervical screening also contains a small section of a message saying “you can find the program information in your language at health.gov.au/ncsp or call the translating and interpreting on 131 450 for assistance” which is also translated into another 20 languages. I think this is one of the practical and easy ways that communication can be made, because it reaches people who do not have mobile phones or access to the internet. The same could be done with the next disaster management and preparation.
This kind of communication could erase platform barrier in public health communication since the majority of people can access letters sent to their address. However, the language medium barrier is still questionable in this case. It is true that there are some translations (20 languages) on the letter, speakers of languages other than the 20 languages would still struggle to understand this letter, in case they have low English proficiency. Therefore, I think the traditional way of letter communication is workable but there should be more inclusiveness of other languages to ensure that there are as little language medium barrier as possible.
Thanks, Randomcastmember! Good suggestion although I doubt that simply exchanging one platform for another would do much good … by the same token, many young people simply ignore letters – in most apartment blocks the area around the letter box is full of letters that no one ever claims or that go straight into the bin …
Gosh, this post is so hearth-soothing and very inspiring! Two main aspects: culture and language are very complicated and combined potential of society. I guess, each international student faces this sort of trouble at work, at school, and even in the group of friends. Personally, I am always worried about these aspects in terms of my own experiences. It’s good to know how much support and efforts are being taken for making such barrier moved away. There are many communities in social media, basically Youtubers who are making these sort of events more lively and practically exposed in a positive way. I hope, each individual gets supported with whatever help they need in a foreign society rather than being ridiculed and judged.
Thanks, Ayesha, for sharing! Glad the post resonated with you. Agree that social media can be super-helpful but more inclusive communication in everyday life is indispensable.
The third that an institution’s communication platform may not be equally accessible reminded me of news about the difficulty for the vulnerable to participate in online classes in Korea during the early Covid-19.
The vulnerable groups such as low-income families, single-parent families, and disabled students suffered a hard time to access the platform for communication. According to the survey, students experienced the following difficulties.
(1) The content of online classes is “too difficult or easy” (39.1%, 69 people) (2) It was difficult to ask questions to teachers who teach subjects or communicate with friends (39.3%) (3) Computer, laptop, tablet PC, etc. are insufficient or have low specifications (33.1%) (4) It is difficult to concentrate on classes because there is no proper learning space (32.9%)
There was a difference according to the economic level of families. The higher the economic level, the more active parents support and guide their children for participate in online learning. What a heartbreaking example!
Thanks, PurebearJo! Do you have the reference for this study? Would love to add it to my collection of reports about communication during the covid-19 crisis …
This article reminded me of my experience when I first came to study in Australia. When I was in China, I felt that my English level was not bad, but after coming to Australia, I found that it was not so easy to adapt to an all-English learning environment. In the first class of ELC at Macquarie University, I could not adapt to the speech rate of the teacher. In addition, there were many unfamiliar words in it. The part that I could actually keep up with after a class was very limited. Just when I was overwhelmed by this language barrier, my teacher Luke Thompson found me and said don’t worry, give yourself more time to overcome. Therefore, I wrote down the key points of each class in my notebook. In the end, through my efforts, the ELC language course was successfully completed. Overcoming the language barrier has provided a strong impetus for my undergraduate and postgraduate studies, allowing me to slowly change my inherent Chinese way of thinking, using English thinking to solve problems. Now, I am still in an all-English environment and I always enjoy the joy brought by the edification of English knowledge.
Congratulations, Kelly! I’m so pleased for you that your language learning journey is working out for you! And teachers are wonderful – glad you appreciate Luke, and also that he was there to help!
Thanks for sharing the article.
My language learning experience was full of barriers and difficulties. In my country, English is a compulsory subject. However, English is treated as a mere subject here. As far as I can remember, our teachers always forced us to learn grammar-related things like tense, voice change, the right form of verbs, etc. They never emphasize speaking, listening, writing, or reading, which are essential to mastering a language. They used to tell us that, if you want to pass the English Subject, you have to be good at grammar. So, in my country, everybody learns English to pass the exam, not to learn the language itself. I wouldn’t say I liked to memorize things. I knew that grammar is essential for learning a new language but knowing only the grammar can’t help a person to master a language. So, me and Some of my friends decided to create an English language club where we practiced speaking, reading, and different types of English-related activities, which helped us increase our fluency in English.
Great initiative, Abdulla! The club sounds like fun!
The difficulties that people or groups who speak various languages and dialects must overcome are commonly referred to as language barriers. Along with that, it also refers to mistakes and misinterpretations brought on by slurred speech and thought. In particular, this kind of communication barrier exists in written, nonverbal, and verbal forms. The theory reminds me of a story which happened to me when I was a secondary school student. My mother sent me to an international school in Vietnam. My mathematics teacher is an English – native speaker. Therefore, I tried to use a lot of common English idioms and expressions when I discussed something with him as a way of self – practicing English. One day, in order to tell my teacher that I completely understood his instructions, instead of saying “I believe I can solve the task by myself now”, I chose the wrong expression which was highly arrogant in that context “I know this like the back of my hand”. Luckily, my teacher was so sympathetic that he explained this issue to me, which helps me avoid making any dissatisfaction and mistrust for other people after that.
A student who knows their stuff so well is not a bad problem to have!
Because English has become a worldwide language, it is widely used inside countries where English is not their first and official language. In Vietnam, language barriers appear to affect citizens in the country in certain ways. For example, there are areas where most foreigners stay and have their children study at schools located there. Therefore, the whole community has been built up as a foreign town over time. Most schools in those areas are international institutions and restaurants mostly use signs and menus written in English, and people who are living there including Vietnamese and foreigners use English publicly. Because of this reason, most Vietnamese who have little or no comprehension of English or who are living in other areas tend to avoid going to those places due to language barriers. This is because when they go to restaurants in that area, they cannot read the menu and are afraid to lose face asking for translation. Hence, they choose to stay away from it. Moreover, the trend of integrating English signs has become even more popular. There are emergency signs in buildings and elevators using English only, which affects not only individuals who have very little level of the language, but also the elderly who have never used English at all.
Thanks, Minnie! You raise a different side of this coin. I couldn’t agree more that the idea that including English in signage in non-Anglophone countries is automatically inclusive. It’s inclusive of the most privileged migrants (those who we like to call “expats”) but exclusive of less privileged migrants and locals. We really need to stop thinking about English as panacea: sometimes it is helpful but often it is also part of the problem …
Thank you for sharing such an interesting topic about the language barrier.
This article reminded me of my personal experience when I encountered language barriers in my high school English class. In my country – Viet Nam, English is the mandatory subject, and the teachers mainly concentrate on grammar and vocabulary. I was incredibly bored with the way my teacher taught us, and I simply studied English in order to pass the exam. Every week, we attended an additional English class with native speakers to enhance our speaking and listening skills. However, it did not work effectively, at least for me. I hardly ever raised my voice in class to express my opinions, while the majority of my friends were enthusiastic and engaged the teacher constantly. As I was not good at English, using it to communicate and interact with the teacher seemed to be impossible for me. The shyness and embarrassment caused the feeling of isolation in me all these days.
It has been a long way for me to overcome the fear of speaking English and move to an English – speaking country like Australia to study aboard now. As an English teacher, I now constantly look for ways to alleviate my students’ fears about the language and foster a passion for it in each one of them.
Thanks, Clara, good luck teaching your students! I agree that it’s important to help students overcome their anxiety. But I would also say that anxiety and fear are usually not just a personal problem but often a reasonable response to a difficult situation…
This story has got me thinking about a flight security incident that I read about a couple of months ago. This happened on a domestic flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi when a senior Vietnamese passenger used a 20 cm knife to peel fruit while aboard, violating flight safety and security regulations.
The security official who had failed to detect the knife hidden in the luggage has been suspended, faced fines up to $128 US dollars and could have his license revoked due to letting ‘dangerous objects’ get on the flight.
The passenger was allegedly ignorant of airport security rules, as stated by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, because airline announcements and posters have clearly warned about these prohibited items. However, in my experience, passengers oftentimes do not know about these rules until they reach the airport. All passengers should have received these instructions upon ticket purchase. In my old flight ticket reservation emails, I find no information about forbidden carry-ons being clearly stated.
Apart from that, official rules about flight security are not easily accessible to search from home. For example, on the official website of Vietnam Airlines (Vietnam’s national airline), readers need to scroll through a range of details about baggage to reach the bit about ‘Prohibited items’.
Making regulations clearly visible, attractive and comprehensible might be the only way to help them reachable for all citizens and more importantly, minority groups and old adults with limited literacy.
Great example, Quynh, and good suggestions! So much public service communication is designed by well-educated people who too easily forget what is and isn’t “obvious “
Thanks for this interesting articles. As a Mandarin speaker, I don’t think I have experienced language barrier that much growing up in mainland China because of our Putonghua (mandarin) promotion policies which require people to primarily speak mandarin in most occasions, especially when dealing with public affairs, but lots of people who speaks minority languages would often isolate themselves from others and only socialize with people in their own language community. Not only that, many people also suffer from identity crisis because they don’t feel like they belong to a larger group. In this article, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-018-9462-x
Many minority language speakers shared their stories in their lives where they faced discrimination and marginalization due to the lack of Mandarin proficiency.
However, one minority language speaker described this language barrier as a “safe zone”, he says :” it keeps us in, and keeps others out”. I can sympathize with this statement so much since I’ve just moved to Australia for a few months, I sometimes find it hard to socialize with people who doesn’t speak mandarin because I’m overwhelmed by the unfamiliarity. I’m slowly making effort to overcome my insecurities, and luckily, everyone I have ever encountered has been very friendly to me
“overwhelmed by unfamiliarity” – what a powerful phrase for the experience of being a newcomer! Good luck with making the unfamiliar familiar!
This article reminds me of my experience of staying in Cairns, Australia and the language barrier I had gone through there. I stayed in Cairns for three months during summer each year when I was 12 and 13 years old. I went to St. Joseph’s primary school there and stayed with an Aussie family in their home. This stay in Cairns was the very first time I had to communicate with others using my imperfect English skills all day. Since I was familiar with American English (most private English institution hire American native speakers to teach students English in South Korea at that time), I couldn’t pick up the accent of Australian English. Also, as the speed of the conversation was so fast compared to the dialogue which I had learned in my homeland, I could barely understand what’s going on there. In such a difficult situation, I could overcome my English language barrier with the help of my kind home-stay friend, Natalie. I was so lucky that I had the same class with her and she helped me like a mother would. Due to this, I didn’t feel ashamed or self-conscious of my lack of ability. Whenever I didn’t understand the teacher’s instruction, she repeated what the teacher had said and also explained the key concepts so that I could follow the class properly. Natalie played a really important role in overcoming my English language barrier in the class and outside the class. Even though there were some international students, the school had not provided any program that could engage those students more with the class. Without the existence of my friend Natalie, I would have gone through hard time due to the language barrier. However, if there had been bureaucratic measures implemented by the school, I would have more readily overcome the language barrier and improved in English more significantly.
Thanks, Suyeon! Glad you found such a good friend in Natalie! As you say, the thing is that it should not be a matter of luck whether an individual newcomer can bridge language barriers or not. The school could easily institute a buddy system for their exchange students, where everyone gets a guide like Natalie. This could be a great learning opportunity for both the newcomer and the buddy.
When I first time traveled to Australia to study and live, I did stupid things because of my low English level. I asked my friend how to “ open” the microwave, but what I really meant was “turn on”. My friend and I stocked there and could not go on and communicate properly, and I still could not get my answer no matter how many times he opened the microwave. It seems like the language barrier does trouble and really is time-consuming in social circumstances. After living in AU for a while, I started retelling the information from my understanding to double confirm the info that others wanted to let me know to avoid misunderstanding, which worked pretty well. But it reminds me to think this may happen in my native language context as well, like when you ask the staff of the government about the policy. Sometimes you don’t have much sense of the formal language (or I should say formal words, even though it is your first language). So you ask by telling your understanding about it to get Yes or No answers from others. I am not sure if it is a kind of language barrier as well.
Thanks, Maya! The open/turn-on example is hilarious in hindsight but distressing in the moment. Really good strategy to restate your understanding in your own words. It’s a great teaching strategy, too – to ask students to restate what you’ve taught them in their own words. In fact, in a diverse society, all service providers (such as teachers, doctors, police officers, real estate agents, etc.) should be trained to ascertain understanding in this way, particularly in high-stakes encounters where the client’s career, health, safety, accommodation etc. is at stake.
Communication is the bond which makes each one of us feel safe and connected in this diverse world. Internet has definitely helped in providing a platform for the same, but there are many people who still need to learn this platform. In earlier times, it was the barrier of distance in communication but in today’s times distance is not the main problem, but it’s the language. People from all different places in the world are mixing up and living together which has its merits and demerits.
My mom doesn’t understand English and recently she asked me to let her talk with my friends in Australia. And, that’s where I became the translator in the situation. I didn’t feel bad about this situation because it was kind of fun to translate every bad thing that my friends said about me in a good way to my mom. But with all sincerity, I would like to say that many situations can arise which can bring heavy emotional toll on people due to language barrier and make them feel inferior or disconnected from this world. The truth is that communication is food for human beings and without it, we are not human anymore.
Thanks, Tanuj! I appreciate the heavy emotional toll that exclusion (and not feeling at home) bring. I also love your example of making communication work across languages, cultures, and distance, and creating a fun opportunity for intercultural engagement. Keep it up! I’m sure it is a consolation to your mum, who must miss you.
Thank you for sharing this insightful article. Language barriers used to be one of my greatest obstacles when I attended a summer camp abroad in England eight years ago. Before joining this programme, I had not expected that communication would be an issue since I was confident with my vocabulary and grammar knowledge. But soon after my arrival in the English-speaking world, I realized that the limited exposure to English interaction in both out-of- school and in-school learning environments caused my poor reflexes in communication. It was difficult for me to remain present and focus in conversation as I had to concentrate on translating what I heard to my mother tongue in my mind and find the appropriate English words to respond. Consequently, I gradually became more quiet and passive, especially when surrounded by fluent English speakers. As I did not want to be isolated with others, I started to be open with my foreign friends about the language barriers I faced. I asked them to slow down their speech to help me follow the discussion and participate fully. Besides, I tried to form a habit of thinking in English by practicing describing in English everything around me in my head.
Thanks, Tu Nguyen! Speaking a new language 24/7 is exhausting, no doubt about it.
I’ve taught violin and music theory in Sydney. Musical terminology is generally in Italian, German, or English. In Korea, where I learned music, they adopted an American curriculum, so they use many American musical terms as well. Because of this, I suffered a lot in the early days of my music lessons in Sydney.
At the beginning of my lesson experience in Sydney, I encountered a language barrier when teaching a student music theory. I had prepared the lesson by studying the music theory vocabulary in English for the student. However, he did not understand clearly what I had explained because I used American musical terms, which I learned, for explaining instead of British musical terms. I did not think about using British musical terms that Australians use. For example, Americans call it a ‘Half step’, but the British call it a ‘Semitone’; Americans call it a ‘Whole step’, but the British call it a ‘Tone’; and Americans call it a ‘Half note’, but the British call it a ‘Minim’. For this reason, it was difficult to communicate clearly between me and the student during the lesson.
Through this experience, I realised how important it is to distinguish between British and American English terminology, even though they are the same English. Following that, I studied all musical terms in British in order to teach music theory thoroughly. Furthermore, to overcome language barriers like this one, learning the terms that people in that country use is the easiest way to communicate.
What a fascinating and pertinent example – thanks, Haein!
Thank you for sharing such an amazing article! This article reminds me of the language barrier I experienced seven years ago when I first had a trip to Australia with my family. At the time, I was a high school girl who was very excited about having great opportunities of practicing speaking English with native speakers in Australia. I believed that I could apply what I had already learned at school to reality. However, I was completely shocked at how different it was between sample English conversations taught at school and English in reality. I expected the people whom I talked to would follow the flow of sample conversations, but in fact, they did not. During the trip, I was exposed to many people coming from different countries with different accents. I found it difficult to be familiar with their tempo and their accents as well. On the first day of the trip, I hardly spoke any words because I was scared that they could not understand what I meant. However, thanks to my parent’s encouragement, I came out of my comfort zone and tried my best to speak English to the local people that I met. That was also the first time I realized that although I did not use correct tenses and just spoke some keywords, they still could understand me. Thanks to the trip, I also learned some Australian slang. I remembered that there was a man asking me for the direction to the toilet in a shopping mall; however, instead of using the word ‘toilet’, he used the word ‘loo’. I was very confused about it and asked again what he meant. Luckily, he was aware of that matter and changed the word, so I finally understood and happily helped him.
Thanks, Dung! Language learning outside the classroom is certainly very different from the sheltered environment within. One of our research participants once compared English language learning in a classroom in his country to learning how to swim in a pool; and trying to apply that knowledge by speaking English in Australia to being thrown into a raging river. It’s a great metaphor, don’t you think?
Thank you, Ingrid! Yes, I totally agree that it is an excellent metaphor to compare English language learning and learning how to swim in a pool. Although some swimmers can learn all of the instructions by their heart, there are still differences when swimming in reality. I think flexibility is completely necessary. Swimming in a raging river is clearly different from swimming in a pool as well.
Back then when I was in Viet Nam, every time I went to the countrysides, I’ve noticed that the local authorities still use loudspeakers to deliver information to people in the area along with notice boards. Due to many reasons, some people in these areas may have low level of education or even illiterate. Using loudspeakers along with notice boards ensure that most, if not all, people receive the information from the government, especially vital one. Moreover, the local governments are considerate enough to translate them to multiple language according to each ethnic groups in Vietnam (there are 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam; whereas Kinh, aka Viet, is the majority. Thus, there are many languages exist in Vietnam along with Vietnamese, Kinh people’s language).
An article by the Dak Lak government (https://stttt.daklak.gov.vn/-/so-thong-tin-va-truyen-thong-ay-manh-tuyen-truyen-phong-chong-dich-covid-19) shows their effort to deliver information about Covid-19 to Ê Đê people (an ethnic group in Dak Lak) to fight the pandemic. The information was not only translated to Ê Đê people’s language but also spread by multiple medium (written, spoken, infographic) on many platforms including: loudspeakers, notice board, news paper, flyers, website, email, SMS, social media…
Although there exists many opinions saying that using loudspeakers is an old-fashioned way of spreading the news (unlike other developed countries where information is delivered via technology), I am glad that the Vietnamese government did that. As I read through this blog, I can see that the Vietnamese government is well-perceived the figures of the illiterate, low-level of education, or the minorities in Vietnam to having various ways to deliver information to everyone (or as this blog indicated, to erase the language barriers).
Perhaps because of this, effectively surpassing the language barriers to spread vital information to everyone was one of the reasons that helped Vietnam fight against Covid-19 at the beginning.
Thanks, Tram! Great example and so good to hear of a positive example: a multiplicity of diverse ways of communicating is most inclusive of diverse people!
This article reminded me of an incident that happened when I first came to Australia. My family rented a house from a real estate agency. Straight after we signed the contract, we moved some of our furniture to the new house, but we didn’t spend the night there. On the next day, I received a phone call from the real estate agent telling me that the owner changed his mind, and he wanted his house back. We had no idea about our rights as tenants, so we went to the house to take our furniture and return the keys, but we didn’t find them.
With my very poor English, I told the agent that we couldn’t find our stuff, so he replied: “I will check and let you know”, but he didn’t get back to me. My situation is very similar to the lady in this blog, that’s why I can understand her. The language barrier does not only make communication difficult, but it affects you emotionally. This is when you feel that you are not treated fairly, but you can’t do anything about it. Iam sure that if my English was good, the agent response would have been different.
Thanks, Waa, for sharing! I’m sorry this happened to you – what a terrible example. These things keep happening and we clearly need better consumer protection for people from non-English-speaking backgrounds!
I learned Indonesian, the national language of Indonesia for the first time from TV, from my parents’ guesses, from my Chinese Indonesian and Arabic Indonesian neighbors, and I learned Indonesian in kindergarten. Then I went to the elementary school, which was only a 10-minute walk from my old home. In the early years, I often assisted my classmates to understand the instruction or sometimes the teacher who didn’t speak Sasak would ask me to translate what they said to the students who didn’t speak Indonesian. Currently, Indonesia is home to about 270 million people and around 160 million people speak standard Indonesian (Jap, Massen, & Borleffs, 2017, p.1729). In learning Indonesian, my classmates and I were instructed to remember the letters, then we were taught to distinguish consonants and vowels. Later, we learned how to read a pair of letters consisting of one consonant and vowel such as ca, ci, cu, etc. These syllables would be combined into words and so on, so forth. In elementary school, I was not fond of learning Indonesian; it was tedious and monotone. I only liked the stories embedded in the textbook.
During my later years at the same school, I had the privilege to learn Sasak, my mother tongue as a school subject before it went on and off in the national/school curriculum. Most of my classmates found it fun and easy since we speak it every day and used the Latin alphabet to write it down. However, our joy didn’t last long because we had to learn how to write Sasak by using “Ha Na Ca Ra Ka”, an old Javanese-Balinese Aksara. As I grew up, having more contacts with my fellow islanders from the east, the south, and the north, I preferred to speak Indonesian with them since I found out they often speak the refined Sasak, I don’t want to sound rude to them with my common-west Sasak. Learning local tongues has never been a trend in Indonesia. Unlike Indonesian and English, local tongues are not subjects included in the national exams and I don’t find many local words are used as slang by the teens and youths.
I started to learn English in junior high school, only twice a week. In my second year of senior high school, I had to learn German once a week. Most of the language teachers I had in high school were extremely strict #myscienceteachersaretheNbest. I loved English songs and movies, but I never saw English as my future back then. I studied English at university because of my mom’s suggestion and it turned out to be the best decision I’ve made. I met many incredible lecturers at Mataram University, had a glance at what modern teaching-learnings look like, and had a better understanding of the complexity of languages. Beyond that, I learn better about who I am, I also write an essay for the first time in Sasak Customary Law in Lombok – A Sasak Essay – The Sasak Language Project (wordpress.com) and language is the reason why I am here in Sydney.
Dealing with my everyday language barriers in Sydney is not that bad. In the classroom, I always have to have my laptop on as my professors always use words or terms that I don’t understand, so I can look them up in the online dictionary as soon as possible. In the restaurant, I often use numbers to refer to the food that I would like to order, especially for food that has two or more than two words name. I noticed many waiters are not familiar with my accent 😊.
Thanks, Ziadah, for these detailed reflections! So many exciting language learning experiences 🙂 – glad you’ve found your calling with English!
I’m particularly intrigued by the idea that your Western Sasak is more “common” than other more refined forms of Sasak …
When I first arrived in Australia, the first difficulty I discovered was that Australian English was vastly different from the English I had studied in school or at an English centre. I had no problems with academic material because I was familiar with academic English when preparing for the IELTS and in school. My challenge was communicating with native people. I was exposed more to American or British English in Vietnam than Australian English. Besides, I believe that linguistic relativity also contributed to my problem of language barriers. I am too used to the Vietnamese language, which has influenced my way of thinking and my word choice. Because the Vietnamese language is hierarchical, I always wondered whether I was polite and respectful enough when speaking English, particularly with the elderly. However, some of the elderly did not appreciate my caution, which made it challenging for me to communicate with them. It took me a substantial amount of time to become accustomed to the language and adapt to the new environment.
I believe it might take a considerable amount of time to overcome the language barrier and fit into a new setting. In addition to mastering the language, it’s important to learn about the culture and immerse oneself in the new language environment. This would help us to learn how to use the language more properly in the context where we are engaged.
Thanks, Kat! Glad to hear you seem to have had a smooth language learning and adaptation period overall!
One language barrier in Japan concerns official documents and letters. Japan has different government organisations that regularly send out mail, including national health insurance, pension fees, and city tax. These letters can be quite wordy, even for a Japanese person, and are difficult for foreigners to understand, even if they speak Japanese. Although I’m embarrassed to say it, this complexity has led to me misunderstanding the notices, submitting payments late, and still knowing very little about the services I am paying for (and also winning a humorous poetry competition at my language school, by writing about this very problem: この手紙 漢字読めない 捨てとこう “I have a letter but can’t read the characters I’ll throw it away”). Some government letters, thankfully including ones for the covid-19 vaccinations, have a small section saying that different translations of the content are available online, along with a QR code. However, a surprising number of other government services do not have such options, and foreign residents must usually use translation apps or ask a Japanese friend. This would be solved easily enough by creating a team to translate these documents, even if the translations have to be viewed online, but it does not seem to be a high priority.
Thanks, Emily! I know of someone who missed a vital asylum determination interview because they couldn’t read the appointment letter and ignored it till it was too late …
Oh no, that’s a real shame. I hope something worked out for them. I wish organisations that know they contact people with limited abilities in the host country’s language would take more steps. I’ve taken to asking people (friends, my old host family, people at the cafe I often visit, or international centres that offer free services) for summaries of the content of some letters. I think that if you don’t speak the organisation’s language and they don’t speak yours, it helps to have a support network that does.
Couldn’t agree more! We need to consider language barriers and how to bridge them holistically; a large number of translations are usually neither feasible nor useful …
Thanks for the article!
Thankfully in Australia, there are more languages being interpreted about issues such as COVID-19, Centrelink than in the past.
In terms of language barriers that I have personally encountered, there have been some instances especially when I traveled abroad that affected me. For example; when I was in Russia and needed a nasal spray, it was very hard to communicate to the people in the chemist as none of them spoke English and I didn’t speak Russian. But thankfully gestures play a role in communication. Very basic hand gestures are key to break down language communication; and also now technology. There are heaps of mobile apps – even on the popular Google Translate – that offer direct translation from pictures. This is really popular among Chinese apps as it is a very quick translation of characters BUT it can sometimes be unreliable as the exact sentences or words can never be 100% accurate. These types of translation apps might help with language barriers but sometimes (without additional context), the language barrier wall still remains.
Thanks, Ian! Lucky you got the right nasal spray … having to rely on hand gestures and mobile apps to communicate medical needs is terrifying!
The language barrier that I have recently witnessed is about my Thai friend who came to Australia to study English. Last month, he was infected with Covid-19 and had to isolate himself. During his isolation, he would like to call Central Link t to request for Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment, around $750 to reimburse the period that we cannot go to work. I have claimed this payment before in April so I told him that you should call and ask the call center for a Thai translator (because he is not confident in English and his level was in pre-intermediate at the time). He did call, however, it turned out that it was answered with an automated system where we had to press the number 1-5 according to our request, meaning that he needed to be able to understand all the options in English in order to go through, ask for a translator and claim for the money. At the end, he waited until his isolation period ended and asked me to help listen and choose the right option in order for him to successfully claim the money. I think this is perhaps a common language barrier that people from non-English speaking backgrounds face when dealing with a call centre.
On the other hand, what I randomly found on Facebook the other day is that there was a picture saying that “Did you know? It’s safe for you to get your COVID-19 and influenza vaccines at the same time” which was also translated into 63 other languages. I think this is probably the NSW government’s attempt to reach the multilingual population in NSW. What I found contradicting is that you only see this multilingual post in of NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service” Facebook page with 8.6K follower (https://www.facebook.com/mhcsnsw/posts/pfbid024XT1xq8bSGGJvLr7Dmqp1jfiDu74nxGeNnLomUPTEK8de3VL55iH6dKedhkzBHVql)
while the same translated information is not found on “NSW Health” Facebook page with 900K followers, or even other non-digital platforms.
Thanks, Randomcastmember, for both these examples and thank you for helping your friend! Without volunteer language mediation work such as your, language barriers in our society would be even higher.
I agree with you that automated voice can be even more exclusive than talking to a real person; most people think technology is the panacea to solve intercultural communication problems but, as your example clearly shows, it creates new problems of its own …
And great observation that multilingual information is often only available in the most obscure channels – the implicit message is clear: “real” Australians speak English …
Very interesting article! Thanks for sharing!
This reminds me of a trip I had with my friends in California. Although I had been learning English for many years at that time, my first conversation with local people was still very terrible (for example, I was at a loss when asking for details of buying goods, and I didn’t know what to say for a moment). This made me realise the great difference between the English I learn at school and real-life conversations. In conversation, the speed of speech and the choice of words are very different. It is no longer a fixed sentence pattern but a form of casual “talk” .
Therefore, under the trend of globalization, we should get more contact with different cultures and form our own opinions. We can use our language knowledge flexibly in our daily life instead of just taking exams. Improving our education and being able to improve our language skills in the context of globalisation is also a priority for the future.
Thanks, Tviq! It’s often the little things (shopping in your example) that can be the worst because it can feel really humiliating not to be competent in someone as mundane as shopping …
Despite numerous signs scattering across Australia claiming that #racismNOTwelcome, this issue is still prevalent in society as it manifests through a subtler way, which is language exclusion. A friend of mine, who is a non-native English speaker, recently got rejected by a small Australian marketing firm. In the feedback, the recruiter advised her to spend more time practicing English with native speakers, claiming that “it is more favorable for our employees to understand the slang in the workplace and communicate well with other co-workers”.
My friend is fluent in English with a 6.5 IELTS; however, because she is not inherently a native speaker and has not caught up to slang and colloquial that well, she was rejected from employment opportunities, discriminated against by a firm that claims to have a culturally diverse workforce, simply because of her “unnatural” English. Language discrimination in the workplace and employment opportunities has always been a serious issue that is difficult to tackle due to persisting prejudices. I believe a way to bridge this problem is to improve the recruiting process to a higher level of validity. Firms must examine candidates’ abilities rather than making false and quick judgments based on their last names, accents, or the comprehension of spoken English.
Thanks, Brownies! I’ve long said that linguistic exclusion is often a cover for racist discrimination … to exclude someone because their English “isn’t good enough” is widely considered perfectly acceptable, even if the person who judges has no qualifications whatsoever, and the linguistic proficiency of the judged is perfectly adequate for the tasks at hand …
Thank you so much for this interesting article!
Under rapid globalization, cultural contact has never been this frequent, and I agree that there is a pressing lack of mutual accessibility and inclusiveness to support such linguistic diversity. I still remember how during my admission documentary process I dreadfully wish for some official translations of the documents and handbooks. Honestly, it really took me some time to read through those regulations and terms with the unique wording and sentence patterns in a legal tone. At that time, I was pretty worried to have any of these important terms and conditions misunderstood or overlooked with my non-native level of English.
I also recalled my first medical appointment in Australia, where I was freaked out during my visit in describing my symptoms. How do I explain my kind of pain? How does this organ name in English? Luckily, the visit was still manageable with gestures, metaphors and the doctor’s patience, but it makes me think of those younger international students who are less capable of speaking English.
Through such experiences, in a good way, I notice an inadequacy in my linguistic ability, which further triggers my motivation to make improvements in reading and daily communication. However, sometimes I also feel a little bit contradicting about whether it is my obligation to be linguistically well-prepared before living in a foreign country, or whether it is the host country’s responsibility to provide additional support regarding such linguistic diversity.
Thank you, Hakunamata, for raising important questions of mutual responsibility! There is no doubt that newcomers (migrants, international students, sojourners, etc.) should – and, in my experience, desperately want to – learn the language of the wider society. That’s how it should be. But, we also need to recognize that language learning takes time. It is a long-term process during which newcomers also need to get on with the task of living; and the wider society has a responsibility to protect everyone from harm. You mention two very pertinent examples: entering a legal contract such as university admission or seeking medical attention are stressful in themselves, and there is a lot at stake, so institutions have a responsibility to reduce barriers to access.
Following on Sharkie’s comment, this article also made me think of unexpected linguistic diversity in a primary school environment. One of the kindergarten teachers at my kids’ school approached me the other day (she knows I am studying Applied Linguistics/TESOL) and asked me about how she could help one of her students whose L1 is Mandarin. We live in an area of Sydney that is not linguistically diverse (compared to other areas), and this isn’t an issue that she has dealt with before. My immediate thought, given my background in adult ESL, was of this child’s parents. I wondered whether they were able to read the English-language school communications and how they navigate parent-teacher conferences as no staff at the school speak Mandarin. I told the teacher about the NSW government’s telephone interpreting program, but I keep thinking about how unprepared the school is to engage with students (and their parents) who come from linguistically diverse backgrounds. I think that the area that I live in often hides behind the guise of having a very small non-English speaking population in order to not have to make accommodations for the non-English speakers that there actually are in our community.
Thanks, Brynn! That the teacher has to ask another parent (however well-qualified …) on how to best support one of the children in their care is in itself an indictment of the system. It encapsulates that the school is under-prepared to serve a linguistically diverse population. Even the least linguistically diverse areas of Sydney have 10-15% households where a language other than English is spoken in the home so there really is no excuse why schools continue to approach linguistic diversity as if it wasn’t a concern to them …
Having said that, even schools where up to 98% students come from non-English-speaking backgrounds do not have multilingual communication strategies in place, as colleagues and I showed in a recent study:
Piller, Ingrid, Bruzon, Ana Sofia, & Torsh, Hanna. (2021). Monolingual school websites as barriers to parent engagement. Language and Education, 1-18. doi:10.1080/09500782.2021.2010744
The quick version is here: Piller, Ingrid. (2021). Monolingual school websites as barriers to parent engagement. Language on the Move. https://www.languageonthemove.com/monolingual-school-websites-as-barriers-to-parent-engagement/
Oh that’s so cool that you, Hanna and Ana Sofia worked on that paper together! I will absolutely read it. I agree, I was surprised that the teacher asked me for advice as I am by no means an expert yet, and it would certainly be better if this were a more comprehensive area of focus within the education department.
Hi Brynn,
With my previous clinical practice in speech therapy experience, looking at the child’s situation I am a bit concerned about his language development because when two languages are being learnt simultaneously, errors may persist between the two languages. This is because the child’s first language may influence how they speak or say sounds in other languages. Also, Learning a second language all of a sudden can cause a lot of anxiety and cause the child to become selective mutism. I am not entirely sure how much support will the NSW government’s telephone interpreting program would provide, I would suggest teachers use all teaching materials and instructions with visual aids, such as images, sketches, actions, gestures, expressions and audio-video clips to get students’ attention and to help them understand the message. The other thing I would suggest is taking videos of lessons when possible. Parents may have the ability to complete the homework but simply may not know what the home practice requires. Watching a recording of how to solve a math problem, for example, can better equip parents to work through the problem with their children.
Not sure how the child is doing now at school, but I strongly suggest trying out these strategies in the classroom for children who have a diverse linguistic background in the future.
Lots of good suggestions, Sharkie! The situation is not all that rare in Australia and there should be (and are) processes but it seems they are not always implemented well and systematically …
During my early childhood I was exposed to English before Cantonese. In infancy and toddlerhood nursery rhymes and family conversations were in English. To reflect on my tragic language barrier experience, it happened on my first day of entering a Cantonese mainstream preschool, it was related to language choice.
Entering a Cantonese mainstream preschool was a sudden change. Spoken communication was one of the biggest barriers since the other peers all used Cantonese and I was the only person who used English. Nobody could understand me and the low language competence persisted until I turned 9 years old. Another issue I had was dealing with Chinese written characters because it was also my first time exposing them. Written Chinese is definitely different from written English because Chinese does not have syllables and you cannot guess its pronunciation by referring to its spelling. Thus, an individual must also understand the basic stroke rules in order to write Chinese characters. Therefore, I was not able to write my own Chinese name and required assistance from my teacher.
To tackle language barriers in early years, I suggest teachers should develop knowledge about linguistic diversity and be equipped with skills to handle diverse learners.I suggest using code-switching cues to raise the child’s awareness of the intended message (e.g. announcements). Once improvement is perceived, the cueing can be minimised until the child gets comfortable with the new language.
Thanks, Sharkie, for sharing! Starting school in a language you don’t understand – and in which you are not understood – is so traumatic for little children, and can affect their educational achievement negatively for the remainder of their lives. Glad to hear you have been able to overcome that barrier!