Calendar Snapshots
4 January – World Braille Day
Celebrated every 4 January since 2019, World Braille Day marks the invention of this writing system for blind and visually impaired people. It is held on the birthday of its inventor, Louis Braille.
From Braille to Screen readers
Over the last 100 years, communication support for blind people has made huge advances. Audio content is much more accessible now, thanks to the enormous strides technology has taken, and screen readers, audio books and audio descriptions all help make the written word more available.
We at tls now offer Braille translation (creating documents in Braille for your blind and visually impaired service users) and support for Deafblind people.
Make your interactions count
If you have blind or visually impaired service users, there are a number of ways to make your meetings with them more accessible and comfortable.
- Introduce yourself, especially when entering a space.
- Speak directly to the blind or visually impaired person, and use their name so they know you are addressing them.
- Use normal language, at a normal volume, and hand gestures. Blind and visually impaired people often use language such as ‘see you later’, so don’t worry about causing offence with that.
- If you have to give directions, remember to be very descriptive; eg instead of saying ‘the room you need is down there’, describe the journey: ‘walk straight ahead and it’s the third door on the left’.
In your diary
FREE Diversity and Inclusion online talk
18 January – join a free 50 minute online talk about what’s on the horizon in 2024, from D&I Leaders. Click here to register or find out more.
January’s dates at a glance
Religious/cultural
1 – Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, Catholic Christian
Gantan-Sai (New Year), Shinto
5 – Twelfth Night, Christian
6 – Epiphany, Christian
7 – Feast of the Nativity, Orthodox Christian
7 – Baptism of the Lord Jesus, Catholic Christian
8 – Seijin No Hi, Shinto
13 – Lohri/Maghi, Hindu and Sikh
14 – Old New Year, Orthodox Christian
15 – Makar Sankranti, Hindu
15-18 Pongal, Hindu
17 – Birthday of Guru Gobind Singh, Sikh
18-25 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Christian
20 – Timkat, Ethiopian Orthodox Christian
25 – Conversion of Saint Paul, Christian
25 – Thaipusam, Hindu
25 – Tu Bishvat, Jewish
25-27 Mahayana New Year, Buddhist
Awareness And Events
4 – World Braille Day
15 – Martin Luther King Jr Day
21 – World Religion Day
24 – International Day of Education
25 – Robert Burns Night (Burns Night)
27 – Holocaust Memorial Day
In other news: stories from the language industry and beyond
BBC: NHS interpreting service problems contributed to patient deaths
In late November, the BBC reported on failures in language support contributing to the deaths of 80 babies between 2018 and 2022. In an online article, it highlighted two other maternity cases, detailing how one woman had tragically died in labour, while another had had her womb removed. Neither had adequate language support to know what was happening to them.
NHS England has responded to the investigation by saying that interpreting was “vital for patient safety and a review would identify if and how it can support improvements in the commissioning and delivery of services”.
The Diversity Dashboard: Disability Influencer launches world’s first truly accessible retail site
Disability influencer Mike Adams OBE has launched the first accessible online shopping site, www.enableall.com. The site beats disability discrimination on two fronts: by conforming to standards of accessibility, making it possible for everyone to use, and by promoting businesses that support disabled people.
And finally…
BBC: Endgame author Omid Scobie criticises translated extracts of royal book
No one is safe from the perils and pitfalls of bad translation – not even the Royal Family! Late in 2023, Royal commentator Omid Scobie published Endgame, a book about the relationship between King Charles and his two sons, William and Henry. However, soon after publishing, Scobie was forced to beg the public to ignore badly translated snippets of his book, which gave incorrect or misleading versions of events.
Language Fact File: Polish
Spoken in: Poland, with Polish speaking communities in Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania.
Number of native speakers: 41 million.
Learn some: Christmas is a big celebration in Poland. Wish your Polish friends a merry Christmas by saying ‘Wesołych Świąt!’ (Pronounced vees-oy-ih shvi-ou-t.)
Fast facts:
- Polish has one of the longest histories among Slavic languages, with the first recorded sentence appearing around 1270. This was ‘Day, ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai’. It was spoken by a man to his wife, and is an expression of care and affection, meaning ‘Let me, I shall grind and you take a rest’.
- According to the 2021 census, Polish is the most commonly spoken immigrant language in the UK, with more than 600,000 speakers.
- This is not an easy language to learn, with consonant clusters, irregular pronunciation and unique letters. We all love a ridiculously long word, and Polish delivers, with Dziewięćsetdziewięćdziesięciodziewięcionarodowościowego! This translates as ‘of nine hundred and ninety-nine nationalities’ and we challenge you to say it after a mulled wine or two!
The Language Shop provides interpreting and translation support in Polish. Ask your account manager if you would like more information.
The Linguist’s Story - Magdalena Szpilman
Every month, we get to know a bit more about one of our linguists. This month, meet Magdalena Szpilman, who works in Polish and English.
Magdalena, tell us about the work you do for TLS.
I work for TLS as an interpreter, between Polish and English. I have a PhD in Medical Communication and most of my work is medical.
What’s been your favourite project at TLS?
Whenever I get sent to ENT [ear, nose and throat department] or audiology! I absolutely love it. These were the subjects of my medical translations at the very beginning of my career, and also speaks to my personal history as a long term ENT patient and hearing impaired person. Not only can I relate to the patients, but I can also make use of my expertise.
For instance, I once had a service user who came for ear cleaning, but by providing interpreting support, the clinician was able to refer the patient to a surgeon as this was what was required. Without a qualified interpreter, the service user may not have been able to explain the underlying issues and left without getting the treatment that was needed.
What has been your biggest challenge?
What was a surprise initially was how much of the work is in mental health. I was prepared for medical interpreting – I have been doing highly specialised medical translations for journals etc for years. But since I’ve been working as an interpreter in the UK, the medical language is less challenging but the personal interactions more so.
What I’ve found helps the professionals is giving them some cultural background, so what I can tell them about the patient’s education level, language background. Certain treatments eg CBT [Cognitive Behavioural Therapy] require understanding abstract concepts and I have to work around that with the professional, explain that the concepts need to be simplified so that it can be interpreted effectively
Can you tell us about a time your work has made a difference to someone’s life?
It doesn’t always feel dramatic, but it’s things like being there accompanying someone when they get a difficult diagnosis, or a bad prognosis, even holding someone’s hand while having chemo. It’s such a huge responsibility to have, especially in the medical sphere.
Tell us something interesting about you.
I did a PhD in Medical Communication and finished this year. In the UK it’s more commonly called medical humanities. In short, the whole idea is to study the patient’s narrative of illness and look at how it affects their entire life; a more holistic approach. What I decided to do was focus on the physician, because if they are not taken care of and their story isn’t heard, there won’t be anyone to treat us. Burn out among medical professionals is an enormous problem and suicide rates are high.
What are your ambitions for the next 12 months?
The last 12 months were very challenging but successful. I think for the next 12, I would love to do more translations and more advanced translations. I also want to settle a little bit and stop doing a million things at once! Take some mental rest. Having said that, I’m already preparing an e-course for Warsaw University at the moment!