Monthly Email Newsletter
January 2006
IN THIS ISSUE:
I. Message from the Editor
II. Articles:
***
FEATURED INDUSTRY: Healthcare in the U.S.
1. Focus on Healthcare: Communicating with the U.S. Hispanic
Population
2. Useful Links
***
FEATURED LANGUAGE: Spanish
3. Spanish Quick-Glance
4. Hispanics on the Web
5. Useful Links
III. GLS in the News
IV. New Financial Industry Tip Sheet Available
V. In Our Next Issue
VI. Your Feedback
VII. How to Subscribe
I. MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR
Happy New Year from Global Language Solutions! We hope you were able to take a break from business, however brief or lengthy, and spend some time at the end of '05 with your friends and families.
As promised in our year-end holiday greeting, in this issue, the Global Communicator takes a look at what practitioners and members of the healthcare industry can do to help better understand how culture and language impacts the treatment and education of their Hispanic patients.
From potential variances in non-verbal norms to emphasis on respect and hierarchy, there is a lot to learn about communicating effectively with the Hispanic population in the U.S.
Our featured language in this issue is Spanish, which is spoken by nearly 400 million people around the world. Take a look at our "Hispanics on the Web" article for more information on just how many are logging on and what language they prefer to surf in.
And finally, we introduce our newest tip sheet for financial translation success. The robust guide should be especially useful for foreign-based companies looking to comply with various U.S. financial regulations and global companies meeting internal auditing requirements.
Since this newsletter is meant to create a virtual community where we share the latest news and advice, we invite you to
Contact us with your suggestions, story ideas, statistics, and website tips.
Inna Kassatkina
Editor
II. ARTICLES
*** FEATURED INDUSTRY: Healthcare in the U.S.
1. Focus on Healthcare: Communicating with the U.S. Hispanic Population
Did you know that nearly three out of every four adult Hispanics in California are overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? Thirty-three percent of Hispanic children in the United States are overweight, compared with 15 percent of non-Hispanic kids ages 6-19, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.
This alarming rate of obesity among U.S. Hispanics recently prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture to release its first Spanish translation of the government's food pyramid. Now, all the new graphics and the USDA's site,
http://www.mypyramid.gov, are available in Spanish, and handouts and other materials have also been translated.
The goal, obviously, is to present the information in the native language of millions of Hispanics to help lower the obesity rate. But translation of words is not the only factor to consider when communicating your health-related message more effectively to the U.S. Hispanic population.
Dr. Roberto Treviño, director of the San Antonio-based Social and Health Research Center, called the Spanish translation of the food pyramid a good first step but said there also should be an effort to get the information into the hands of low-income, minority children who are at higher risk of developing diabetes and obesity. This grass-roots approach combined with attention to cultural variances and norms can help reinforce the healthy message the government is trying to get across.
How can other members of the healthcare industry more effectively communicate with their Hispanic patients, families, and communities?
While it is impossible to make global characterizations of a culture and people with any degree of accuracy, there are commonalities and unique characteristics in every culture. Below are a few tips and considerations for healthcare professionals to better understand the U.S. Hispanic
population:
- UNDERSTAND THEIR CULTURE. Healthcare providers need to understand cultural beliefs, norms, food practices, and terminology to assist their patients. The provider should interact with Hispanic patients and communities in culturally sensitive ways, which includes incorporating cultural beliefs into the plans of care, stressing a strong sense of family, and taking time for conversation.
- GAIN SUPPORT FROM PATIENTS' FAMILIES. In the Hispanic society, family orgroup needs take precedence over the needs of the individual. Families are a source of emotional and physical support and are expected to participate in important medical decisions.
- PAY MUTUAL RESPECT AND ATTENTION TO COMMUNICATION STYLE. Healthcare providers can easily misunderstand their Hispanic patients' dictions if they are not familiar with the differences in their communication styles. Respect is highly valued and shown by using formal titles. Patients will naturally offer respect to the health provider, an authority figure with high social, educational, and economic status. In return, patients rightfully expect to be treated with respect. Important verbal and non-verbal communication norms that are both important and denote mutual respect include: eye contact; speaking directly to the patient, even when speaking through an interpreter; shaking hands at the beginning of each meeting; and the use of formal titles.
FOLK BELIEFS
In addition to the cultural attributes outlined above, there are several folk beliefs of some Hispanics about health and illness that can affect care and treatment. "What Language Does Your Patient Hurt In? A Practical Guide to Culturally Competent Care," lists the following folk beliefs for healthcare practitioners to consider when interacting with their Hispanic
patients:
- Good health is a matter of luck that can easily change. Sick persons may be the innocent victims of "fate," with little responsibility for taking action to regain health.
- Illness may be the result of negative forces in the environment or a punishment for transgressions.
- Balance and harmony are important to health and well-being. Illness may be the result of an imbalance.
- The natural and supernatural worlds are not clearly distinguishable, and body and soul are inseparable. Telling a patient that an illness is all in the mind is meaningless because there is little or no distinction between somatic and psychosomatic illness.
- While education and training may be somewhat important, what truly matters is the caregiver's "gift" or "calling" for curing illness.
- Moaning, far from being a sign of low tolerance to pain, is a way to reduce pain and to share it with interested others.
- Diseases may be divided into Anglo and traditional diseases, and traditional diseases may be either natural or unnatural. Many people mix and match "modern" medicine and traditional care, consulting modern health providers for Anglo and natural diseases, and folk healers for traditional and unnatural diseases.
SOURCES:
1. "What Language Does Your Patient Hurt In? A Practical Guide to Culturally Competent Care," Diversity Resources, Inc. Amherst, MA. 2000.
2. Journal of the American Medical Association
2. Useful Links
HISPANIC CULTURE:
http://www.nhccnm.org/
http://www.si.edu/history_and_culture/latino/
http://www.ihch.org/
http://www.mypyramid.gov/ (in English)
http://www.mypyramid.gov/sp-index.html (in Spanish)
*** FEATURED LANGUAGE: Spanish
3. Spanish Quick-Glance
Spanish is spoken by nearly 400 million people in Spain, all of Central and South America except Brazil (where the closely related Portuguese language is spoken), as well as in the Canary Islands, parts of Morocco, and the Philippines. In the United States Spanish is used amongst numerous Hispanic communities in California, New Mexico, Texas, Florida, in New York and Chicago, in the free state of Puerto Rico, and more.
According to the Colombia Encyclopedia, Spanish is a descendant of the Vulgar Latin brought to the Iberian peninsula by the soldiers and colonists of ancient Rome (see Latin language). Thus the Spanish vocabulary is basically of Latin origin, although it has been enriched by many loan words from other languages, especially Arabic, French, Italian, and various indigenous languages of North, Central, and South America. The oldest existing written records of Spanish date from the middle of the 10th century A.D.
There are a number of Spanish dialects; however, the Castilian dialect was already the accepted standard of the language by the middle of the 13th century, largely owing to the political importance of Castile. There are several striking differences in pronunciation between Castilian and major dialects of Latin American Spanish. In the former, "c" before "e" and "i", and "z" before "a", "o", and "u", are pronounced "th", as in English "think"; in the latter, they are sounded as "s" in English "see". Moreover, the alphabetical symbol "ll" in Castilian is pronounced as "lli" in English billion; but in Latin American Spanish, as "y" in English "you". On the whole, however, the differences between the Spanish dialects of Europe and of Latin America with reference to pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar are relatively minor.
4. Hispanics on the Web
How important is the U.S. Hispanic online market? EMarketer's statistics show that this audience is growing fast: up 6 percent in 2005, and set to grow at an annual rate of 6.7 percent through 2008, versus 2.8 percent a year for the overall U.S. online population.
Next time your company is debating whether or not to translate its materials or website into Spanish, consider this: According to the December 2005 issue of Hispanic Business magazine, there were a total of U.S. 14.4 million unique Hispanic web visitors in 2005 - as measured by the web trackers at comScore Media Metrix. And while this same research indicates that about half of the total Hispanic audience (52 percent) prefers to view their information in English, the other 48 percent prefer bilingual or Spanish materials.
5. Useful Links
Local newspapers and country- or language-specific search engines can be great sources of information about political, economic, and social issues that are important to Spanish-speaking people. Business articles will also help you to identify new business contacts, refine your marketing methods, and assess whether economy is strong enough and the timing is right to launch your new business expansion abroad.
NEWSPAPERS AND ONLINE NEWS RESOURCES:
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com
http://www.economista.com.mx/
http://www.abc.es/
http://www.buenosairesherald.com/
http://costarica.capitalfinanciero.com/edactual/
http://news8.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/news/
SEARCH ENGINES:
http://www.us.starmedia.com/
http://www.google.com/intl/es/
http://www.es.lycos.de/
http://espanol.yahoo.com/
http://www.mundolatino.org/
III. GLS IN THE NEWS
Global Language Solutions (GLS) has been providing linguistic solutions in over 100 languages to pharmaceutical, biomedical, and healthcare related companies for more than a decade. It will lend its expertise to several leading publications in this space over the coming months.
GLS president, Inna Kassatkina, contributed a tip sheet on successful translation in global clinical trials for the December 2005 issue of the ACRP Monitor.
She also served as a medical translation source expert for the Orange County Register's cultural community columnist, Yvette Cabrera. The article focuses on the trend for using children as translators in the medical setting and a new measure in California seeking to make it illegal.
Contact us to request either article.
IV. NEW FINANCIAL INDUSTRY TIP SHEET AVAILABLE
Download our latest industry tip sheet on successful translation in the financial industry.
VI. IN OUR NEXT ISSUE
*** FEATURED TOPIC: Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance for Foreign-Based Companies
*** FEATURED LANGUAGE: French (European)
V. YOUR FEEDBACK
Have questions? Or a story idea or topic you would like us to address in a future issue?
Contact us.
VI. HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
