I just took in a job for a patient who spoke very broken English, was of course, here alone, and was extremely difficult to refract.
I explained to her as clearly as I could the differences between reading, bifocal, progressive lenses, and gleaned the best I could from hand signals and non familiar words what she needed/wanted.
I'm always happy to take people's money, but I'm also not trying to swindle anyone. What a nightmare.
This is a very common problem for me. I have a 40% Latin population here, a majority of which speak little English. I have found that lens displays and such help greatly. I have also learned some optical spanglish so that i could explain some of the basics. Good luck to you, I know how bad it feels when you're not sure if you got the message across and met their needs.
If you have a smart phone it will translate almost any language.
Too bad my phone ain't that smart...could be operator error
I always find myself speaking slowly and loudly. Like that helps!
-Tony
HA! I know, between people who don't speak good English, and old folks, I'm surprised I still have a voice at the end of the day.Originally Posted by TLG
I always find myself speaking slowly and loudly. Like that helps!
Annie - hold on, jump back.
Don't lump old people in the same catagory with those who no speak a da english. We have seperate issues that we must cope with as we deal with all of you gum chewing thumb monkeys. You can always learn to speak English but you ladies are pretty much stuck with poor bladder control and maintaining a decent estrogen level while we older gentlemen have to do battle with a prostate the size of a bread box.
While I don't refract here, I can only imagine how difficult that would be....It's hard enough trying to communicate eyeglass purchases. I use Google Translate, had to use it yesterday, as a matter of fact...works out pretty well. I can get by with the minor stuff, but when it comes to explaining warranties and insurance...that becomes a problem, there is a lady that owns a shop across the street that speaks Spanish and she has come to help me out on occasion
BTW...ummm, rbaker, what the heck is a thumb monkey? LOL!
___________________________________________
Thumb Monkeys - Those who are permanantly attached to their cell phones texting absolutly nothing to those who really don't give a rats patoot what they are doing. They are typically found in the food court at the local mall.BTW...ummm, rbaker, what the heck is a thumb monkey? LOL!
How about investing into some language courses ? Specially in the south where there are a lot of latin immigrants. Advertise that you can operate in different languages. My father was fluent in 5 languagesm I am only good at three, but again thats old school.
No. Just, no. I live in a area where there are a ton of Asian immigrants, and I'm not going to even try to learn all the different dialects that come from that area of the world. I have neither the time nor the interest to learn another language.
Amen sister. Why should we adapt to their language in our own country. If I move to a non-English speaking country, I'll make damn sure I learn that language.
Last edited by mdeimler; 06-14-2012 at 10:17 AM.
I live in an area with a lot of Latin (mostly Mexican), Somalis, Hmong, Palestinians and Norwegians. They are all learning English and I'm slowly learning enough of their's to stay out of trouble. I'm also fortunate to have a number of bi-lingual friends that help out when needed.
My language barrier stems from people that never make it out of the county in which they were born and think they speak English. It not only becomes a language barrier it's a narrow field of view.
Learning another language not only helps in your communication with that language, It allows you to learn to communicate with languages you don't speak better.
People who speak one language tend to speak to foreigners louder and slower and repetitive to make up for the language barrier; They not deaf folks, They're foreign.
In the not too distant future we'll speak into our smart phone and out will come the translation!
Fester:
The future is here. Not only can you do this, you can have a conversation with someone speaking something other than English and have it come out in English, the other parties will hear your Engish in whatever.
Google also has translation service for typed messages (and maybe spoken) on the internet.
While not adept at this myself there is a commercial showing someone in Italy or Scissaly visiting his ancestral home using this to speak and hear from the natives.
Chip
I was in Florida for 18 years and never had a problem....I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina....and half my clients can't speak English.
"Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde"
Is this a cheap app? If not most of us will probably wait.
We use the google translator online sometimes. Although, after several years of bugging the multi-cultural affairs dept. we finally got access to the ciracom system - dial it up, tell it the language you need and you are hooked up to an interpreter within minutes. It's freaking great. I think it also costs the hospital a lot of money. (but kind of needed - since the hospital accepts federal funding we're required to be able to translate for any patient who comes in.)
Bart Smith, continuing to be awesome since 1982 so that you don't have to.
Love is a duet, each voice complementing each other and making them sound better than they would alone, each voice at times stepping back and letting the other shine. We've got a pretty good duet going Tina.
On April 28th, I'll be marrying my best friend. I can't wait!
i need the smartphone app for Farsi.
Where do you have a lot of Persians ?
Here!
http://www.google.com/search?q=persi...w=1131&bih=827
Cali.
Learning a few key words won't hurt, you'll gain more customers that'll appreciate you, my mum and dad go to an opthomologist who says a only maybe one or two words in their language, they can't praise him enough.
http://astore.amazon.com/optiboard-20/detail/0750675624
From the OptiBoard Amazon Store Forum.
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