September 19, 2023 • 38 mins
It’s time to advocate for language accessibility! This week on Communicate Like You Give A Damn, host, Kim Clark is joined by Language Access Advocate and Founder/CEO of Equal Access Language Services, Carol Velandia as they embark on a journey to better understand the profound ways in which language shapes our world. This critical conversation highlights the importance of language access, specifically within the United States, along with irs profound impact on an individual’s overall well-being. They even explore the fundamental purpose of communication and a communicator’s role in managing the challenges faced when considering ethics, language bias, and even how children are involved in interpretation.
About The Guest:
Carol G. Velandia Pardo CHI, PMP, MBA, LMSW is a University of Maryland Graduate Professor, language access advocate, award winning curriculum developer and short film maker, and the founder and CEO of Equal Access Language Services. She Developed the Interprofessional Curriculum: Effective Inclusion through Language Access which will be taught to three different schools at the University of Maryland in Spring 2024. As a social worker, interpreter, academic, and entrepreneur, Carol’s mission is to make Language Access a priority for public and private services and expand the concepts of Cultural Competence and Diversity Equity and Inclusion by adding this critical concept as a key component. She is promoting a cultural shift that will drive the effective inclusion and outcomes improvement, as well as the equal access of Limited English proficient persons in public and private services, which in turn, will drive businesses and organizations growth and the improvement of our healthcare, justice, and education systems. She enjoys traveling, movies, connecting with people, and dancing flamenco!
Find Carol Here:
About Kim:
Kim Clark (she/her) focuses her work on the communicator and content creator's role in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). She is the co-author of The Conscious Communicator: The fine art of not saying stupid sh*t, an Amazon #1 bestseller and the leading voice for DEI communications and social justice messaging for brands.
She speaks at conferences, writes custom workshops, writes inclusive communications guides, and consults with companies on all things related to diversity, equity, and inclusion communications. Kim is a member of the LGBTQ+ community, a cisgender woman, Native American (Muscogee Nation) and a mom of two kids with disabilities. These marginalized identities and the privileges that come with society seeing her as White motivate her daily for social change.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kim Clark (00:00):
Hey everybody, welcome back. I am so glad that
you're here for this episode ofcommunicate like it give a damn.
Now we're really doubling downon language today with our
guest, Carol. Carol, why don'tyou introduce yourself and i If
you don't mind, I'd really liketo go straight into it.
Carol Velandia (00:20):
Sure. Good afternoon. My name is Carol
Ville. Andrea. I am a linguist,a social worker and an
intrapreneur and also a flamencodancer. And for the past almost
10 years I have been working, Ihave been working on the topic
of language access. That's whatI am most passionate about. And
I hope we talk a lot about thattoday.
Kim Clark (00:42):
Absolutely. And it was it was based on our
conversation that we had where Iwas listening and saying, oh my
gosh, more people need tounderstand language access and
the impact that language has ona person's well being is what
you're all about. You know, somepeople hire translation
services, etc, or even used likesoftware in AI like Google
(01:05):
Translate, but there's a nuancea culture, nuance, there's the
access that can you know, mean,so much a difference between
night and day on an employee orcitizens experience. And so the
more and more we got into thatconversation, I said, we just
got to bring this conversationto this podcast. So thank you
(01:25):
for recording coming in fromSpain, I believe you go back and
forth between the US and Spain.
Unknown (01:32):
Yes, that's right. I am a here for three months here in
Spain in the south of Spain inGranada. I am learning flamenco
dancing, which is anotherlanguage. So I am very excited
about it.
Kim Clark (01:49):
And I am coming off of my lots and lots of travels.
And I've been doing so well instaying healthy and pounding
eCognition all the things insome way somehow this very last
trip that I'm having a break forsix weeks before I travel again,
and I caught something so youget the lower registered voice.
(02:11):
So this smoky blues voice ofKevin Clark today. All right,
let's, yeah, you like that?Alright, let's go. So the first
question I have for you is, whatis language access? You know,
help people understand how itdifferentiates for other other
(02:31):
things. And why is it importanttoday in today's multicultural
and diverse societies?
Unknown (02:39):
Yeah, so language access simply means to provide
the same level of access toservices that you provide to an
English speaker. When you'reworking with a non English
speaker. We probably don't hearabout language based
discrimination. But we arediscriminating against
multilingual communities everytime we deny a service, simply
because they don't speak thedominant language. In our case
(03:02):
in the United States, that willbe English. So in a diverse
society like ours, where we notonly speak over 400 different
languages, we also haveapproximately 26 million people
that don't speak English at all.And they face worse outcomes
across healthcare, education,legal services, than the English
(03:24):
speaking population. And that iswhy it's very important that we
understand the concept oflanguage taxes, and that we make
it relevant.
Kim Clark (03:32):
There's so much history with how we got to be
having this conversation whencompanies started deciding that
English would be the language ofbusiness as globalization
started to expand. And manycountries started teaching
English as part of primaryschool or elementary school. And
(03:56):
so many people born and raisedoutside of the US have more than
one language and English is oneof them. And then you look at
the US in particular, and othermainly English speaking
languages, and we aremonolingual. And we are
expecting everybody else tospeak English and that's, that's
(04:17):
a form of colonialism and, andall kinds of things. And so it's
an interesting topic for us ascommunicators, who are putting
out communications at a globallevel. And trying to get to the
point of communication, thepoint of communication for us as
communicators, Carol isconnection. And this idea of
(04:41):
language access is so overlookedand under resourced, you know,
in, in my experience and inworking with clients. So what
are some of the commonchallenges or barriers that
individuals face when seekinglanguage access services, and
how can they be overcome
Unknown (05:00):
When we you mentioned, for example, at the beginning,
all these different technologiesthat we have, and all these
different mentalities that wehave around language. So we have
a lot of resources in a way. Butwe actually need a change of
paradigm, because I think that'sthe main challenge. Because most
(05:22):
people in the US in the US havethe mentality that we speak
English in the US, which isobviously true. But the problem
is that they also think that ifyou don't speak English, you are
not worthy of receiving theservices that they offer. So we
don't have that a multilingualmentality in the US we think,
(05:44):
for example, that English is ourofficial language when they, you
know, we don't have an officiallanguage in the US, a lot of
people don't know this. Andalso, the United States has
never been a multilingualcountry ever. Since the
beginning of our history, wewere multilingual. So trying to
change that paradigm, not somuch that we now believe that,
(06:07):
okay, we're a multilingualcommunity. But what to do with
that is what's important. That'sthe challenge that we need to
address is how do we interact?How do we communicate with
people that don't speak English?Because as you said, the the
main point is connection. So howdo we go about that? So in the
(06:30):
house is where where we find thebiggest challenge that that
people have, because we actuallyhave the resources, the laws,
and we're going to talk aboutthat. But it's a change of
mentality what I think we needto be seeking and achieving.
Kim Clark (06:45):
I love that I love that it's a paradigm you're
absolutely right. And, andthat's a part of some of us as
communicators, our bias, wejust, you know, we haven't been
thinking about it from, youknow, unless we're really,
really challenged and beengetting some pushback from some
countries who are just like,this translation is, or you're
not providing, you know, accessto us. You know, when I'm
(07:07):
working with Canadian clients,they always want to make sure
that French Canadian ism isincluded. So that was very, very
purposeful, but I'll go to othermore global organizations. And
there won't be that request. Youknow, there isn't any kind of
function function. Like forexample, just yesterday morning,
I did a talk for Europe. Andthere was many, many countries
(07:31):
that were in on that virtualworkshop that I provided for the
client. And the client is basedin Amsterdam. And there was no
conversation of any kind oftranslation services,
captioning, those kinds ofthings. The expectation was that
I speak English and they willreceive it in English, there was
actually no conversation aboutit. And I know enough to not
(07:55):
talk too fast. You know, in myhigh school, French are my
college French and my highschool Spanish when I hear those
languages spoken, you know, ifthey're slower, I can understand
more. And I've been given thefeedback that as an English
speaker, when there's multiplelanguages, to just slow down a
beat, you know, not go so fast.So that's something that we can
(08:17):
think of as communicators aswell, when there isn't the
support. But this in somesituations in some industries,
when there isn't this languageaccess, it's a matter of life or
death. In some situations, let'stalk about health care and
education legal systems, in whatways can language access
services enhance inclusion andequality within these various
(08:40):
sectors.
Unknown (08:42):
For example, in the healthcare system,
communication, again, is themain diagnostic tool. So if we
are going to have a patient thatdoesn't speak English, and we
don't provide a language accessin the way of our professional
interpreter, that person is morelikely to suffer health related
(09:03):
consequences and therefore worseoutcomes. In fact, there is a 4%
chance that they are non Englishspeaker suffers severe temporary
harm if they don't have languageaccess than when compared to an
English speaker. So that's oneone big consequence. in the
legal field, for example, thereis a large amount of wrongful
(09:30):
convictions to people that don'tspeak English simply because at
the moment of the interrogation,they were not provided with an
interpreter because and this isone of the challenges to going
back to your earlier question.People think that if you are
nodding your understanding, forexample, or you speak three
(09:50):
words in English, you areunderstanding and that
therefore, they can releasethese a very complicated
questions. For example, in thecase of a person Some being
interrogated. I mean, education,of course, the the, the way to
look at it is that parents needto be participating in the
(10:10):
children's education. So thechildren are going to learn the
language, they're going to learnEnglish, the it is gonna take a
while and the tools for thosechildren that don't speak
English, unnecessarily, but alsofor the parents so that they get
involved with their education,and then the outcomes of the
children are also better. And bythe way, if I if I mentioned
this is another really bigchallenge is that we are using
(10:34):
children to do professional workas interpreters, right. And that
is one of the most ethical, thebiggest ethical violations that
we do today is that we usechildren, nobody would think
that the US actually a ExploitedChildren, right, that's not a
(10:55):
conversation we even comeacross. But when you think about
employing a child, and by theway, there are 11 million
children that work today asinterpreter, interpreters, when
we think about employing a childas an interpreted in in such a
complex environment likehealthcare, for example, we're
giving them a big responsibilitythat they are not qualified to
(11:16):
do, we can possibly traumatizethis child. So this is this is
something that we definitelyhave to keep in mind when when
we think about all the differentplaces where language access is
key.
Kim Clark (11:30):
I really appreciate that you pointed that out,
because we just take it forgranted. I don't think we're
really thoughtful. And in, in,in a lot of situations. I know
when I was getting divorced,there was the option of Spanish
speaking. And you know, anybodyasked in the galley of, you
know, does anyone need Spanish,but it was only limited to
(11:53):
Spanish speaking, there wasn'tan opportunity to have various
languages available. So I, I'veseen it in that kind of legal
setting, but it's not nearlyenough. And, and, you know, like
we were saying we were reallydepending on the wrong people to
do the job for us and need to bemore thoughtful and strategic
(12:16):
and forward thinking about this.So what are some forward
thinking innovative approachesor technologies that have been
successful in improving languageaccess for individuals with
limited English proficiency?
Unknown (12:29):
Well, there is a ton of technology today that allows you
to do you know, machinetranslation and to interpret,
for example, remotely, theythere is artificial intelligence
that will help with that. Butreally what what I think is more
(12:50):
innovative is that we startrecognizing, going back to the
basics and recognizing theprofession of interpreting and
the profession of translating,because those tools that that we
have through AI and technologyare not enough or are not
sufficient, unless there is alinguist behind it, because
(13:11):
there are all sorts of potentialerrors that can occur if we just
let the machine do that job. Sothere's a lot of innovation in
the language language field andI'm not a tech person to really
go into that. But suffice it tosay that what what really is
innovative, innovative is how weapproach this how do we use this
(13:32):
technology for the better manyof those people that don't speak
English, right? For example,today, if you had if you were to
develop a really robust languageaccess plan, you could offer
technically 24/7 access tointerpret professional
interpretation services right,you could perhaps turn around a
(13:53):
translation faster than before atranslation that has been
reviewed by a linguist right andwhy can we do it faster because
we can use methods to do it someto implement some automatic
optimization with translationfor example. So the technology
is there the professionals arethere is how do we connect this
(14:16):
and how we have that mind shiftin terms of how we approach
these professionals and thistechnology successfully and
effectively.
Kim Clark (14:25):
You know, I've been doing a number of webinars
talking about AI and dicommunication so you know, the
the tax the lip, the visuals,the videos, but especially the
tax when you put something inlike chat GPT for example,
you'll see the bias you'll seethe sexism if you are skilled in
(14:45):
di communications and know whatto look for. Some for some of
us, there can be an improvementof inclusive communications, but
for the most part, I think AI isreally reflecting to us because
it's taking what's already outthere. that that human element
is absolutely credible, youknow, critical in looking
(15:07):
through this kind of languagethat's being spent, I think it's
a mirror of like crap. Is thathow we're talking about that? Is
that what we're saying? And it'sreally missing the point. And we
should really take thatreflection very seriously and
say, Wow, we need to teach thesedatasets and teach ourselves on
how to be more inclusive, toavoid, you know, the bias that
(15:28):
is inherent in these datasetsthat's in AI right now. And so
let me ask you about, let's justkind of level up and talk about
some legislation like where,what is that? Where is
legislation? And what role doesit play in promoting language
access? And are you aware of anyspecific laws or policies that
have a significant impact?
Unknown (15:49):
Absolutely. And that's such an important question came
because we, we talk about thecivil rights and advocacy and
all that is, especially in thediversity, equity, inclusion and
belonging space. And but we allknow about, for example, how the
title six of the Civil RightsAct protect people that don't
(16:12):
speak English, it says thatnobody should be discriminated
on the basis of race, sex, ornational origin. And national
origin is a proxy for forlanguage. So in any kind of
program that receives federalfunding, they should have
language access a languageaccess plan, because they should
(16:35):
not discriminate on the basis ofnational origin. And I think
more and more people are raisingtheir awareness about
complaining when they are notreceiving effective
communication or interpretationservices or translators,
translation services. And theycan call that discrimination
based on national origin. Sotitle six is perhaps the biggest
(16:59):
piece of legislation that wehave. But there is also
executive order 13166, that wassigned by President Clinton in
the 2000s, which also talksabout meaningful access. So it
tells organizations, again, thatreceive federal funding, how to
create this language access planon how to approach a language
(17:21):
access plan. So for example, ifyou are a hospital and you live
in a community, where a lot ofpeople from China or a lot of
speak Chinese speaking peoplelive there, then a it is likely
that for you hospital, becauseyou are providing a critical
service and you're the communitythat you serve a speaks Chinese
(17:43):
is likely that for youmeaningful service means having
a interpreters on staff that areChinese interpreters, or that
your documentation and signageis in Chinese, for example. So
that's what Executive Orderhelps with, it tells for
(18:04):
example, and the theresponsibility is different
depending on the type ofservices that you provide. So if
you are a zoo, for example, yes,you receive federal funds, but
maybe your the service thatyou're providing is not as
critical as that of a hospital.So maybe for you meaningful
access means having all thebrochures translated. So these
are two very important pieces oflegislation, but there is also
(18:26):
some state legislation thataddress health care as well. And
there is one that is the classstandards there is there is a
culturally and linguisticallyappropriate standards that are
specifically for health care,that tells you about how to
provide effective languageaccess also, how to consider the
(18:51):
the proficiency of theprofessionals doing the language
axis, right because this isanother issue is that people
tend to think they are fluentwithout ever having a taking a
test on their fluency on theother language and they are no
oh yeah, no, this this personunderstands because they are
nodding, as I said earlier, orYeah, I speak enough French to
(19:16):
get by. And CLAS Standards isvery specific about the says
like, you know, you need toassess the language skills of
the people serving themultilingual population. So
during these three pieces oflegislation add key for for
people working in, in publicservices, but again, when we
(19:40):
talk about courts is a littledifferent. And when we talk
about schools, schools is alittle different but title so
title six is the like umbrellapiece of legislation that we
have to keep in mind whenever wethink about non discriminating
on the basis of language.
Kim Clark (19:55):
Okay, all right, let's get into the ethics of
law. language access. So whatare these ethical considerations
that language access providersand organizations should be
mindful of when we're offeringtranslation or interpretation
services? Like what are we? Whatare the questions that we ask
(20:16):
what do we need to look for? Andwhat kind of feedback do we need
to hear to make sure that we arecreating that connection through
language access,
Unknown (20:24):
the first thing really, is to stop using children and
family member to interpret forto make your job easier, right?
If you are, and I see this, overand over and over professional
lawyers telling me like, oh, Idon't need to implement language
X is because the page, theperson, the client will come
with their child and the childis bilingual. And that is their
(20:47):
language access plan. That ishighly unethical. For the
reasons we explained before.They are minors, they this is a
professional word where, youknow, we're basically under
employing this child. And alsothe the type of vocabulary that
they might be using could bequite complex. So that's the one
thing and I really will leavethat as the main thing, because
(21:08):
there are several ethicalconsideration. But that, to me,
is the most important one. Therewas actually a film released a
few weeks ago, I posted inLinkedIn on children working as
interpreters. And I was baffledto know that, that these
practices are rampant. So Ithink that if we achieved that,
if we were able to removechildren from the equation, we
(21:30):
are going to be in very goodshape to even open up to all the
other ethical considerationsthat language axes have.
Kim Clark (21:39):
I'm also thinking about sometimes when I've been
in corporate environments,there's been a bias towards
people who don't have English astheir first language, when it
comes to equating that with lessintelligence, and other kinds of
bias that can show up whensomebody comes from another
country. And they're a doctor intheir country, and they come
(22:00):
here, but they're not able to bea doctor here, there's this
assumption, that they are thatthere's an you know, there's a
judgement, because they don'tknow English, but you put me in
the middle of, you know, Japan,I'm not going to be successful,
you know. And I may be, youknow, judged for my intellectual
(22:20):
value, because I'm not able tospeak the language there. You
know, there's, there's a lot ofimpact and bias that that plays
into it. Just people withaccents. There's, there's
reports that I've shared in someof the trainings or workshops
when I work with clients, and isreally talking about the the
bias of accents, and how manypeople I have met who have
(22:41):
forcibly removed their accent inthe workplace in order to not
have harassment, jokes,discrimination, because it
becomes while there's thediversity, and there may be
accents, or somebody doesn'thave English as their first
language, then it turns into anon inclusive situation. And
(23:03):
then it creates an inequitablesituation where that person
isn't necessarily understood aswell. So they don't get the
promotions, they don't get thenew projects, they don't get the
kind of access and opportunitiesthat somebody else does. So
that's something that we reallyhave to consider as colleagues
when we're working with withteammates, and trying to find
(23:25):
some, some more common groundand meeting people where they
are. I often talk aboutinclusive communications. And
when we are using inclusivecommunications, which should be
standard in all of ourcommunications, that we don't
use acronyms, for example, orcolloquialisms, you know, within
(23:46):
the United States, that doesn'tmake sense to somebody that that
came from or, or is currently inSouth Korea. So we're leaving
people out, you know, and that'sone part that as professional
communicators, we need to bethinking about as far as
language access. Now, let's talkabout how language access
actually relates to economicgrowth and development, both
(24:09):
locally and globally, globally.So how does language access
services contribute?
Unknown (24:17):
Well, there is a plethora of answers to this. But
of course, it would facilitateinternational trade because we
have a globalized economy andbusinesses are going to engage
in cross border transactions andnegotiations, where there is
language access provided, rightand perhaps we don't have as
much as a problem when there iscommerce in the middle because
(24:41):
they always think aboutcommunicating effectively and,
you know, interpreters thatworking in that field, they
don't have a shortage, shortageof work, right. So it's going to
be so we the changes that weneed to to make there is just
that in our Local communities orin our smaller business, we
(25:03):
could expand our businesses andmake them grow. If we were to
translate our websites, if wewere to offer language taxes as
part of our daily routines, sowe don't have to only accept or
receive clients from the US, wecan actually have clients from
all over the world. And thatspeaking all sorts of languages.
(25:25):
I think I've mentioned thisstory to you in a past
conversation about how this ladytold me like, you know, what, if
somebody is going to come to myshop, they need to speak
English? And I say, Well, areyou sure about that? Because
Because your work might requirethat a at some point you you
have language that you that youbridge the gap in the language
(25:49):
and say not impossible, I don'tthink I don't think that's ever
going to happen, because I hirepeople, that managers for for
large companies and all that. SoI asked you, so if a company
from Spain, came to you and askyou, okay, you are really good
about hiring the right talent, Ineed you to hire talent in
(26:10):
Spain. So you couldn't say yes,because you don't have, you
haven't planned for that. So yousee what I mean, you can you can
open yourself to a lot moreopportunities if you open the
language access speaker in away. So you can also attract
foreign investment. Enhance?Well, if you, for example, have
(26:33):
tourism company, if you havelanguage access, for example, we
actually have clients that inthe tourism industry, that
connect to our 24/7 services,because they want to attract
people that not only speakEnglish, but to speak a bunch of
languages. So there are many,many ways to expand and grow
(26:54):
economically with successfullanguage access plan.
Kim Clark (26:58):
Carol, I was working with a client who had a similar
situation, they're trying toattract more diverse talent or
very being very intentionalabout that. And they realized
that language was a barrier toattracting talent that they
needed and wanted, for example,they, they were starting to just
(27:21):
do straight translation of theircommunications. They weren't
taking into account the culturalnuance. They weren't taking into
account context. And theyweren't understanding at first
that it's not a straighttranslation from English to
whatever. Let's let's, let's goback to South Korea. So a Korean
(27:43):
language that there is not asit's not a one to one, you know,
straight translation, there hasto be nuanced. There has to be
context, for example, and itdoesn't even have to be for
employees who are located inother countries, it could be
people who have come from thosecountries to the US, that are
now a part of your employeebase. And they, they they don't
understand they don't know, inthis particular example, it was
(28:07):
a client who was sharing healthbenefits, and it was about open
enrollment and how what theywhat they didn't take into
account is that they don'tactually there's a part of their
population that doesn'tunderstand how health care works
in the United States. It'sdifferent, you know, in the
country, their their country oforigin. And so there's so just
(28:28):
straight saying, Okay, here'sopen enrollment, and here's
what's going on andcommunicating that was it just,
it really harmed, you know,parts of their employee
population that didn'tunderstand the context, and the
nuance of an understanding thecultural, so there needs to be
(28:48):
that human element, there needsto be that kind of level of
getting, keeping in mind thatthe objective of communications
is connection, and what willthat take, and it's not always
just the translation, but that,you know, to your point can
bring in more of a diversetalent pool if we are very
thoughtful and strategic andresource language access
(29:09):
adequately. So I've got a couplemore questions for you. What
steps can individuals andcommunities and companies and
organizations take to promoteawareness and support for
language access initiatives?
Unknown (29:23):
Well, before before, I just wanted to comment on
something that you said that Ithink is very, very, very
important, and that is the humanelement for connection. You will
never replace humans when itcomes to language, no matter how
advanced the large, largelanguage models are. I work in
(29:44):
this industry and that that'sthe constant fear and for over
30 years, we have seen thattechnology AI helps us advance
and have more of translation andinterpretation. But it's not
replacing humans I don't thinkthat's ever going to happen is
Gonna perhaps make it moreproductive, etc. Now answering
to your questions, the stepsthat individuals, communities
(30:07):
and institutions can take topromote awareness. The first is
educate, and advocate, I thinkraising awareness about the
importance of language access,it's key, there are well, there
is a training, for example, thatI offer, just changing the level
of consciousness that you havearound language access. So this
educational piece is key. Thencollaborating with a language
(30:33):
services providers, have themsort of as one main provider
that you have, right? If you'rea company, and you want to make
sure that you are actuallyaccessible and inclusive, and
you have to support diversity,equity and inclusion policies,
but to the people that youserve, then they create a
(30:54):
partnership with a languageservices provider. I think those
two are a and then createpolicies internally. Okay, what
do we do when the populationthat doesn't speak English,
approach our business? Because Ithink a lot of people or or
businesses don't even have thisquestion, or they dismiss the
(31:14):
few times that people haveapproached them. And they don't
speak English. They're like, Idon't know, because I don't have
enough of it. So create alanguage access policy internal,
internally to you, I think thoseare key elements.
Kim Clark (31:27):
Yeah, that's an excellent point. And as a
reminder, you don't have to be aglobal organization to have
these language access policies.So there are trades that attract
multilingual folks, and theycould be domestic based, they
could be US based, I should say.And so you know, so it's just
look at your employeepopulation, and get it get a
(31:50):
demographic understanding and apsychographic understanding of
what languages are spoken there.And you got to resource that in
I love I love, you know, the therecommendation, you got to put a
language access policy in place.And so when we're working on
diversity, equity inclusion,whether we are, you know, US
based or in English, primarilybased country, we don't have to
(32:16):
be globalized in order to, youknow, to have this policy in
place when you're a globalorganization 1,000% You need to
have this policy and policiesget funded. So I think it's that
is such a huge point. And thatbrings us home to the question
that I asked every guest Whatdoes communicating like a give a
(32:36):
damn, sound like look like feellike when come when it when
we're talking about languageaccess, I think this is kind of
a homerun for you.
Unknown (32:47):
Well, if you are having any trouble understanding
yourself, because requiredremember that a and I have this
tendency to speak Spanish.Remember that language access is
not only so that they accessyou, but that you access them.
So if you really want tocommunicate like Eva, then
remember your part of theequation as well. So if you are
not understanding, write, behumble and request an
(33:09):
interpreter yourself for yourown sake. And that way, you
don't have to put the onus onthe person that doesn't speak
English, but perhaps they speaksome English, but you prefer to
speak in a language they canunderstand. And you also want to
understand what they're tryingto communicate. So get an
interpreter for yourself, changelittle little points of your
thinking to really expand it, Ithink. So. If you want to
(33:33):
communicate like you've everdone, consider yourself part of
the equation, get an interpreterfor yourself as well, when you
need it.
Kim Clark (33:40):
Language Access is core to diversity, equity and
inclusion communications. Ican't stress that enough. So
Carol, what is your company do?What kind of services do you
offer? And how can people findyou follow you, etc.
Unknown (33:54):
Thank you, Kim. We provide a broad range of
language services, includinginterpretation in over 200
languages, remote and in person,for conferences and for
healthcare appointments also forthe legal appointments. And we
also provide translation ofdocuments in over 200 languages,
(34:15):
we do transcreation, which issomething very interesting you
you for example, write a story achildren's story that you want
to convey in other countrieswith their cultural nuances, so
somebody has to recreate it inthat culture. And finally, I
provide training to companies onlanguage access companies that
(34:36):
want to expand their knowledgein diversity, equity and
inclusion. Hire me to traintheir their employees on
language access specifically,and they can find me in www dot
equal access language.services.com is a nice name
because we are we're all aboutequal access. Language Services
(34:59):
is a long name by This itdefines what we do. And, yes, we
look forward to having peopleconnecting and download our free
resources. We have a ton ofresources for free like podcast
with information on the laws andregulations, and also written
material on that that they cansimply download from our
(35:19):
website.
Kim Clark (35:20):
Excellent. Carol, thank you for providing this
service. And thank you forteaching us communicators what
we need to be doing andprioritizing language access as
part of our dei work. Thank youso much
Unknown (35:33):
for having me. I am really excited that we're
working together and yes, goodluck with everything.
Kim Clark (35:40):
All right. Thank you, everybody. We'll see you next
time.
Hey everybody, welcome back. I am so glad that
you're here for this episode ofcommunicate like it give a damn.
Now we're really doubling downon language today with our
guest, Carol. Carol, why don'tyou introduce yourself and i If
you don't mind, I'd really liketo go straight into it.
Carol Velandia (00:20):
Sure. Good afternoon. My name is Carol
Ville. Andrea. I am a linguist,a social worker and an
intrapreneur and also a flamencodancer. And for the past almost
10 years I have been working, Ihave been working on the topic
of language access. That's whatI am most passionate about. And
I hope we talk a lot about thattoday.
Kim Clark (00:42):
Absolutely. And it was it was based on our
conversation that we had where Iwas listening and saying, oh my
gosh, more people need tounderstand language access and
the impact that language has ona person's well being is what
you're all about. You know, somepeople hire translation
services, etc, or even used likesoftware in AI like Google
(01:05):
Translate, but there's a nuancea culture, nuance, there's the
access that can you know, mean,so much a difference between
night and day on an employee orcitizens experience. And so the
more and more we got into thatconversation, I said, we just
got to bring this conversationto this podcast. So thank you
(01:25):
for recording coming in fromSpain, I believe you go back and
forth between the US and Spain.
Unknown (01:32):
Yes, that's right. I am a here for three months here in
Spain in the south of Spain inGranada. I am learning flamenco
dancing, which is anotherlanguage. So I am very excited
about it.
Kim Clark (01:49):
And I am coming off of my lots and lots of travels.
And I've been doing so well instaying healthy and pounding
eCognition all the things insome way somehow this very last
trip that I'm having a break forsix weeks before I travel again,
and I caught something so youget the lower registered voice.
(02:11):
So this smoky blues voice ofKevin Clark today. All right,
let's, yeah, you like that?Alright, let's go. So the first
question I have for you is, whatis language access? You know,
help people understand how itdifferentiates for other other
(02:31):
things. And why is it importanttoday in today's multicultural
and diverse societies?
Unknown (02:39):
Yeah, so language access simply means to provide
the same level of access toservices that you provide to an
English speaker. When you'reworking with a non English
speaker. We probably don't hearabout language based
discrimination. But we arediscriminating against
multilingual communities everytime we deny a service, simply
because they don't speak thedominant language. In our case
(03:02):
in the United States, that willbe English. So in a diverse
society like ours, where we notonly speak over 400 different
languages, we also haveapproximately 26 million people
that don't speak English at all.And they face worse outcomes
across healthcare, education,legal services, than the English
(03:24):
speaking population. And that iswhy it's very important that we
understand the concept oflanguage taxes, and that we make
it relevant.
Kim Clark (03:32):
There's so much history with how we got to be
having this conversation whencompanies started deciding that
English would be the language ofbusiness as globalization
started to expand. And manycountries started teaching
English as part of primaryschool or elementary school. And
(03:56):
so many people born and raisedoutside of the US have more than
one language and English is oneof them. And then you look at
the US in particular, and othermainly English speaking
languages, and we aremonolingual. And we are
expecting everybody else tospeak English and that's, that's
(04:17):
a form of colonialism and, andall kinds of things. And so it's
an interesting topic for us ascommunicators, who are putting
out communications at a globallevel. And trying to get to the
point of communication, thepoint of communication for us as
communicators, Carol isconnection. And this idea of
(04:41):
language access is so overlookedand under resourced, you know,
in, in my experience and inworking with clients. So what
are some of the commonchallenges or barriers that
individuals face when seekinglanguage access services, and
how can they be overcome
Unknown (05:00):
When we you mentioned, for example, at the beginning,
all these different technologiesthat we have, and all these
different mentalities that wehave around language. So we have
a lot of resources in a way. Butwe actually need a change of
paradigm, because I think that'sthe main challenge. Because most
(05:22):
people in the US in the US havethe mentality that we speak
English in the US, which isobviously true. But the problem
is that they also think that ifyou don't speak English, you are
not worthy of receiving theservices that they offer. So we
don't have that a multilingualmentality in the US we think,
(05:44):
for example, that English is ourofficial language when they, you
know, we don't have an officiallanguage in the US, a lot of
people don't know this. Andalso, the United States has
never been a multilingualcountry ever. Since the
beginning of our history, wewere multilingual. So trying to
change that paradigm, not somuch that we now believe that,
(06:07):
okay, we're a multilingualcommunity. But what to do with
that is what's important. That'sthe challenge that we need to
address is how do we interact?How do we communicate with
people that don't speak English?Because as you said, the the
main point is connection. So howdo we go about that? So in the
(06:30):
house is where where we find thebiggest challenge that that
people have, because we actuallyhave the resources, the laws,
and we're going to talk aboutthat. But it's a change of
mentality what I think we needto be seeking and achieving.
Kim Clark (06:45):
I love that I love that it's a paradigm you're
absolutely right. And, andthat's a part of some of us as
communicators, our bias, wejust, you know, we haven't been
thinking about it from, youknow, unless we're really,
really challenged and beengetting some pushback from some
countries who are just like,this translation is, or you're
not providing, you know, accessto us. You know, when I'm
(07:07):
working with Canadian clients,they always want to make sure
that French Canadian ism isincluded. So that was very, very
purposeful, but I'll go to othermore global organizations. And
there won't be that request. Youknow, there isn't any kind of
function function. Like forexample, just yesterday morning,
I did a talk for Europe. Andthere was many, many countries
(07:31):
that were in on that virtualworkshop that I provided for the
client. And the client is basedin Amsterdam. And there was no
conversation of any kind oftranslation services,
captioning, those kinds ofthings. The expectation was that
I speak English and they willreceive it in English, there was
actually no conversation aboutit. And I know enough to not
(07:55):
talk too fast. You know, in myhigh school, French are my
college French and my highschool Spanish when I hear those
languages spoken, you know, ifthey're slower, I can understand
more. And I've been given thefeedback that as an English
speaker, when there's multiplelanguages, to just slow down a
beat, you know, not go so fast.So that's something that we can
(08:17):
think of as communicators aswell, when there isn't the
support. But this in somesituations in some industries,
when there isn't this languageaccess, it's a matter of life or
death. In some situations, let'stalk about health care and
education legal systems, in whatways can language access
services enhance inclusion andequality within these various
(08:40):
sectors.
Unknown (08:42):
For example, in the healthcare system,
communication, again, is themain diagnostic tool. So if we
are going to have a patient thatdoesn't speak English, and we
don't provide a language accessin the way of our professional
interpreter, that person is morelikely to suffer health related
(09:03):
consequences and therefore worseoutcomes. In fact, there is a 4%
chance that they are non Englishspeaker suffers severe temporary
harm if they don't have languageaccess than when compared to an
English speaker. So that's oneone big consequence. in the
legal field, for example, thereis a large amount of wrongful
(09:30):
convictions to people that don'tspeak English simply because at
the moment of the interrogation,they were not provided with an
interpreter because and this isone of the challenges to going
back to your earlier question.People think that if you are
nodding your understanding, forexample, or you speak three
(09:50):
words in English, you areunderstanding and that
therefore, they can releasethese a very complicated
questions. For example, in thecase of a person Some being
interrogated. I mean, education,of course, the the, the way to
look at it is that parents needto be participating in the
(10:10):
children's education. So thechildren are going to learn the
language, they're going to learnEnglish, the it is gonna take a
while and the tools for thosechildren that don't speak
English, unnecessarily, but alsofor the parents so that they get
involved with their education,and then the outcomes of the
children are also better. And bythe way, if I if I mentioned
this is another really bigchallenge is that we are using
(10:34):
children to do professional workas interpreters, right. And that
is one of the most ethical, thebiggest ethical violations that
we do today is that we usechildren, nobody would think
that the US actually a ExploitedChildren, right, that's not a
(10:55):
conversation we even comeacross. But when you think about
employing a child, and by theway, there are 11 million
children that work today asinterpreter, interpreters, when
we think about employing a childas an interpreted in in such a
complex environment likehealthcare, for example, we're
giving them a big responsibilitythat they are not qualified to
(11:16):
do, we can possibly traumatizethis child. So this is this is
something that we definitelyhave to keep in mind when when
we think about all the differentplaces where language access is
key.
Kim Clark (11:30):
I really appreciate that you pointed that out,
because we just take it forgranted. I don't think we're
really thoughtful. And in, in,in a lot of situations. I know
when I was getting divorced,there was the option of Spanish
speaking. And you know, anybodyasked in the galley of, you
know, does anyone need Spanish,but it was only limited to
(11:53):
Spanish speaking, there wasn'tan opportunity to have various
languages available. So I, I'veseen it in that kind of legal
setting, but it's not nearlyenough. And, and, you know, like
we were saying we were reallydepending on the wrong people to
do the job for us and need to bemore thoughtful and strategic
(12:16):
and forward thinking about this.So what are some forward
thinking innovative approachesor technologies that have been
successful in improving languageaccess for individuals with
limited English proficiency?
Unknown (12:29):
Well, there is a ton of technology today that allows you
to do you know, machinetranslation and to interpret,
for example, remotely, theythere is artificial intelligence
that will help with that. Butreally what what I think is more
(12:50):
innovative is that we startrecognizing, going back to the
basics and recognizing theprofession of interpreting and
the profession of translating,because those tools that that we
have through AI and technologyare not enough or are not
sufficient, unless there is alinguist behind it, because
(13:11):
there are all sorts of potentialerrors that can occur if we just
let the machine do that job. Sothere's a lot of innovation in
the language language field andI'm not a tech person to really
go into that. But suffice it tosay that what what really is
innovative, innovative is how weapproach this how do we use this
(13:32):
technology for the better manyof those people that don't speak
English, right? For example,today, if you had if you were to
develop a really robust languageaccess plan, you could offer
technically 24/7 access tointerpret professional
interpretation services right,you could perhaps turn around a
(13:53):
translation faster than before atranslation that has been
reviewed by a linguist right andwhy can we do it faster because
we can use methods to do it someto implement some automatic
optimization with translationfor example. So the technology
is there the professionals arethere is how do we connect this
(14:16):
and how we have that mind shiftin terms of how we approach
these professionals and thistechnology successfully and
effectively.
Kim Clark (14:25):
You know, I've been doing a number of webinars
talking about AI and dicommunication so you know, the
the tax the lip, the visuals,the videos, but especially the
tax when you put something inlike chat GPT for example,
you'll see the bias you'll seethe sexism if you are skilled in
(14:45):
di communications and know whatto look for. Some for some of
us, there can be an improvementof inclusive communications, but
for the most part, I think AI isreally reflecting to us because
it's taking what's already outthere. that that human element
is absolutely credible, youknow, critical in looking
(15:07):
through this kind of languagethat's being spent, I think it's
a mirror of like crap. Is thathow we're talking about that? Is
that what we're saying? And it'sreally missing the point. And we
should really take thatreflection very seriously and
say, Wow, we need to teach thesedatasets and teach ourselves on
how to be more inclusive, toavoid, you know, the bias that
(15:28):
is inherent in these datasetsthat's in AI right now. And so
let me ask you about, let's justkind of level up and talk about
some legislation like where,what is that? Where is
legislation? And what role doesit play in promoting language
access? And are you aware of anyspecific laws or policies that
have a significant impact?
Unknown (15:49):
Absolutely. And that's such an important question came
because we, we talk about thecivil rights and advocacy and
all that is, especially in thediversity, equity, inclusion and
belonging space. And but we allknow about, for example, how the
title six of the Civil RightsAct protect people that don't
(16:12):
speak English, it says thatnobody should be discriminated
on the basis of race, sex, ornational origin. And national
origin is a proxy for forlanguage. So in any kind of
program that receives federalfunding, they should have
language access a languageaccess plan, because they should
(16:35):
not discriminate on the basis ofnational origin. And I think
more and more people are raisingtheir awareness about
complaining when they are notreceiving effective
communication or interpretationservices or translators,
translation services. And theycan call that discrimination
based on national origin. Sotitle six is perhaps the biggest
(16:59):
piece of legislation that wehave. But there is also
executive order 13166, that wassigned by President Clinton in
the 2000s, which also talksabout meaningful access. So it
tells organizations, again, thatreceive federal funding, how to
create this language access planon how to approach a language
(17:21):
access plan. So for example, ifyou are a hospital and you live
in a community, where a lot ofpeople from China or a lot of
speak Chinese speaking peoplelive there, then a it is likely
that for you hospital, becauseyou are providing a critical
service and you're the communitythat you serve a speaks Chinese
(17:43):
is likely that for youmeaningful service means having
a interpreters on staff that areChinese interpreters, or that
your documentation and signageis in Chinese, for example. So
that's what Executive Orderhelps with, it tells for
(18:04):
example, and the theresponsibility is different
depending on the type ofservices that you provide. So if
you are a zoo, for example, yes,you receive federal funds, but
maybe your the service thatyou're providing is not as
critical as that of a hospital.So maybe for you meaningful
access means having all thebrochures translated. So these
are two very important pieces oflegislation, but there is also
(18:26):
some state legislation thataddress health care as well. And
there is one that is the classstandards there is there is a
culturally and linguisticallyappropriate standards that are
specifically for health care,that tells you about how to
provide effective languageaccess also, how to consider the
(18:51):
the proficiency of theprofessionals doing the language
axis, right because this isanother issue is that people
tend to think they are fluentwithout ever having a taking a
test on their fluency on theother language and they are no
oh yeah, no, this this personunderstands because they are
nodding, as I said earlier, orYeah, I speak enough French to
(19:16):
get by. And CLAS Standards isvery specific about the says
like, you know, you need toassess the language skills of
the people serving themultilingual population. So
during these three pieces oflegislation add key for for
people working in, in publicservices, but again, when we
(19:40):
talk about courts is a littledifferent. And when we talk
about schools, schools is alittle different but title so
title six is the like umbrellapiece of legislation that we
have to keep in mind whenever wethink about non discriminating
on the basis of language.
Kim Clark (19:55):
Okay, all right, let's get into the ethics of
law. language access. So whatare these ethical considerations
that language access providersand organizations should be
mindful of when we're offeringtranslation or interpretation
services? Like what are we? Whatare the questions that we ask
(20:16):
what do we need to look for? Andwhat kind of feedback do we need
to hear to make sure that we arecreating that connection through
language access,
Unknown (20:24):
the first thing really, is to stop using children and
family member to interpret forto make your job easier, right?
If you are, and I see this, overand over and over professional
lawyers telling me like, oh, Idon't need to implement language
X is because the page, theperson, the client will come
with their child and the childis bilingual. And that is their
(20:47):
language access plan. That ishighly unethical. For the
reasons we explained before.They are minors, they this is a
professional word where, youknow, we're basically under
employing this child. And alsothe the type of vocabulary that
they might be using could bequite complex. So that's the one
thing and I really will leavethat as the main thing, because
(21:08):
there are several ethicalconsideration. But that, to me,
is the most important one. Therewas actually a film released a
few weeks ago, I posted inLinkedIn on children working as
interpreters. And I was baffledto know that, that these
practices are rampant. So Ithink that if we achieved that,
if we were able to removechildren from the equation, we
(21:30):
are going to be in very goodshape to even open up to all the
other ethical considerationsthat language axes have.
Kim Clark (21:39):
I'm also thinking about sometimes when I've been
in corporate environments,there's been a bias towards
people who don't have English astheir first language, when it
comes to equating that with lessintelligence, and other kinds of
bias that can show up whensomebody comes from another
country. And they're a doctor intheir country, and they come
(22:00):
here, but they're not able to bea doctor here, there's this
assumption, that they are thatthere's an you know, there's a
judgement, because they don'tknow English, but you put me in
the middle of, you know, Japan,I'm not going to be successful,
you know. And I may be, youknow, judged for my intellectual
(22:20):
value, because I'm not able tospeak the language there. You
know, there's, there's a lot ofimpact and bias that that plays
into it. Just people withaccents. There's, there's
reports that I've shared in someof the trainings or workshops
when I work with clients, and isreally talking about the the
bias of accents, and how manypeople I have met who have
(22:41):
forcibly removed their accent inthe workplace in order to not
have harassment, jokes,discrimination, because it
becomes while there's thediversity, and there may be
accents, or somebody doesn'thave English as their first
language, then it turns into anon inclusive situation. And
(23:03):
then it creates an inequitablesituation where that person
isn't necessarily understood aswell. So they don't get the
promotions, they don't get thenew projects, they don't get the
kind of access and opportunitiesthat somebody else does. So
that's something that we reallyhave to consider as colleagues
when we're working with withteammates, and trying to find
(23:25):
some, some more common groundand meeting people where they
are. I often talk aboutinclusive communications. And
when we are using inclusivecommunications, which should be
standard in all of ourcommunications, that we don't
use acronyms, for example, orcolloquialisms, you know, within
(23:46):
the United States, that doesn'tmake sense to somebody that that
came from or, or is currently inSouth Korea. So we're leaving
people out, you know, and that'sone part that as professional
communicators, we need to bethinking about as far as
language access. Now, let's talkabout how language access
actually relates to economicgrowth and development, both
(24:09):
locally and globally, globally.So how does language access
services contribute?
Unknown (24:17):
Well, there is a plethora of answers to this. But
of course, it would facilitateinternational trade because we
have a globalized economy andbusinesses are going to engage
in cross border transactions andnegotiations, where there is
language access provided, rightand perhaps we don't have as
much as a problem when there iscommerce in the middle because
(24:41):
they always think aboutcommunicating effectively and,
you know, interpreters thatworking in that field, they
don't have a shortage, shortageof work, right. So it's going to
be so we the changes that weneed to to make there is just
that in our Local communities orin our smaller business, we
(25:03):
could expand our businesses andmake them grow. If we were to
translate our websites, if wewere to offer language taxes as
part of our daily routines, sowe don't have to only accept or
receive clients from the US, wecan actually have clients from
all over the world. And thatspeaking all sorts of languages.
(25:25):
I think I've mentioned thisstory to you in a past
conversation about how this ladytold me like, you know, what, if
somebody is going to come to myshop, they need to speak
English? And I say, Well, areyou sure about that? Because
Because your work might requirethat a at some point you you
have language that you that youbridge the gap in the language
(25:49):
and say not impossible, I don'tthink I don't think that's ever
going to happen, because I hirepeople, that managers for for
large companies and all that. SoI asked you, so if a company
from Spain, came to you and askyou, okay, you are really good
about hiring the right talent, Ineed you to hire talent in
(26:10):
Spain. So you couldn't say yes,because you don't have, you
haven't planned for that. So yousee what I mean, you can you can
open yourself to a lot moreopportunities if you open the
language access speaker in away. So you can also attract
foreign investment. Enhance?Well, if you, for example, have
(26:33):
tourism company, if you havelanguage access, for example, we
actually have clients that inthe tourism industry, that
connect to our 24/7 services,because they want to attract
people that not only speakEnglish, but to speak a bunch of
languages. So there are many,many ways to expand and grow
(26:54):
economically with successfullanguage access plan.
Kim Clark (26:58):
Carol, I was working with a client who had a similar
situation, they're trying toattract more diverse talent or
very being very intentionalabout that. And they realized
that language was a barrier toattracting talent that they
needed and wanted, for example,they, they were starting to just
(27:21):
do straight translation of theircommunications. They weren't
taking into account the culturalnuance. They weren't taking into
account context. And theyweren't understanding at first
that it's not a straighttranslation from English to
whatever. Let's let's, let's goback to South Korea. So a Korean
(27:43):
language that there is not asit's not a one to one, you know,
straight translation, there hasto be nuanced. There has to be
context, for example, and itdoesn't even have to be for
employees who are located inother countries, it could be
people who have come from thosecountries to the US, that are
now a part of your employeebase. And they, they they don't
understand they don't know, inthis particular example, it was
(28:07):
a client who was sharing healthbenefits, and it was about open
enrollment and how what theywhat they didn't take into
account is that they don'tactually there's a part of their
population that doesn'tunderstand how health care works
in the United States. It'sdifferent, you know, in the
country, their their country oforigin. And so there's so just
(28:28):
straight saying, Okay, here'sopen enrollment, and here's
what's going on andcommunicating that was it just,
it really harmed, you know,parts of their employee
population that didn'tunderstand the context, and the
nuance of an understanding thecultural, so there needs to be
(28:48):
that human element, there needsto be that kind of level of
getting, keeping in mind thatthe objective of communications
is connection, and what willthat take, and it's not always
just the translation, but that,you know, to your point can
bring in more of a diversetalent pool if we are very
thoughtful and strategic andresource language access
(29:09):
adequately. So I've got a couplemore questions for you. What
steps can individuals andcommunities and companies and
organizations take to promoteawareness and support for
language access initiatives?
Unknown (29:23):
Well, before before, I just wanted to comment on
something that you said that Ithink is very, very, very
important, and that is the humanelement for connection. You will
never replace humans when itcomes to language, no matter how
advanced the large, largelanguage models are. I work in
(29:44):
this industry and that that'sthe constant fear and for over
30 years, we have seen thattechnology AI helps us advance
and have more of translation andinterpretation. But it's not
replacing humans I don't thinkthat's ever going to happen is
Gonna perhaps make it moreproductive, etc. Now answering
to your questions, the stepsthat individuals, communities
(30:07):
and institutions can take topromote awareness. The first is
educate, and advocate, I thinkraising awareness about the
importance of language access,it's key, there are well, there
is a training, for example, thatI offer, just changing the level
of consciousness that you havearound language access. So this
educational piece is key. Thencollaborating with a language
(30:33):
services providers, have themsort of as one main provider
that you have, right? If you'rea company, and you want to make
sure that you are actuallyaccessible and inclusive, and
you have to support diversity,equity and inclusion policies,
but to the people that youserve, then they create a
(30:54):
partnership with a languageservices provider. I think those
two are a and then createpolicies internally. Okay, what
do we do when the populationthat doesn't speak English,
approach our business? Because Ithink a lot of people or or
businesses don't even have thisquestion, or they dismiss the
(31:14):
few times that people haveapproached them. And they don't
speak English. They're like, Idon't know, because I don't have
enough of it. So create alanguage access policy internal,
internally to you, I think thoseare key elements.
Kim Clark (31:27):
Yeah, that's an excellent point. And as a
reminder, you don't have to be aglobal organization to have
these language access policies.So there are trades that attract
multilingual folks, and theycould be domestic based, they
could be US based, I should say.And so you know, so it's just
look at your employeepopulation, and get it get a
(31:50):
demographic understanding and apsychographic understanding of
what languages are spoken there.And you got to resource that in
I love I love, you know, the therecommendation, you got to put a
language access policy in place.And so when we're working on
diversity, equity inclusion,whether we are, you know, US
based or in English, primarilybased country, we don't have to
(32:16):
be globalized in order to, youknow, to have this policy in
place when you're a globalorganization 1,000% You need to
have this policy and policiesget funded. So I think it's that
is such a huge point. And thatbrings us home to the question
that I asked every guest Whatdoes communicating like a give a
(32:36):
damn, sound like look like feellike when come when it when
we're talking about languageaccess, I think this is kind of
a homerun for you.
Unknown (32:47):
Well, if you are having any trouble understanding
yourself, because requiredremember that a and I have this
tendency to speak Spanish.Remember that language access is
not only so that they accessyou, but that you access them.
So if you really want tocommunicate like Eva, then
remember your part of theequation as well. So if you are
not understanding, write, behumble and request an
(33:09):
interpreter yourself for yourown sake. And that way, you
don't have to put the onus onthe person that doesn't speak
English, but perhaps they speaksome English, but you prefer to
speak in a language they canunderstand. And you also want to
understand what they're tryingto communicate. So get an
interpreter for yourself, changelittle little points of your
thinking to really expand it, Ithink. So. If you want to
(33:33):
communicate like you've everdone, consider yourself part of
the equation, get an interpreterfor yourself as well, when you
need it.
Kim Clark (33:40):
Language Access is core to diversity, equity and
inclusion communications. Ican't stress that enough. So
Carol, what is your company do?What kind of services do you
offer? And how can people findyou follow you, etc.
Unknown (33:54):
Thank you, Kim. We provide a broad range of
language services, includinginterpretation in over 200
languages, remote and in person,for conferences and for
healthcare appointments also forthe legal appointments. And we
also provide translation ofdocuments in over 200 languages,
(34:15):
we do transcreation, which issomething very interesting you
you for example, write a story achildren's story that you want
to convey in other countrieswith their cultural nuances, so
somebody has to recreate it inthat culture. And finally, I
provide training to companies onlanguage access companies that
(34:36):
want to expand their knowledgein diversity, equity and
inclusion. Hire me to traintheir their employees on
language access specifically,and they can find me in www dot
equal access language.services.com is a nice name
because we are we're all aboutequal access. Language Services
(34:59):
is a long name by This itdefines what we do. And, yes, we
look forward to having peopleconnecting and download our free
resources. We have a ton ofresources for free like podcast
with information on the laws andregulations, and also written
material on that that they cansimply download from our
(35:19):
website.
Kim Clark (35:20):
Excellent. Carol, thank you for providing this
service. And thank you forteaching us communicators what
we need to be doing andprioritizing language access as
part of our dei work. Thank youso much
Unknown (35:33):
for having me. I am really excited that we're
working together and yes, goodluck with everything.
Kim Clark (35:40):
All right. Thank you, everybody. We'll see you next
time.
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