[EDLING:2096] Language emergencies

[Francis M Hult]

Via ILR...

> _http://www.washtimes.com/national/20061127-103714-2507r.htm_ 
> (http://www.washtimes.com/national/20061127-103714-2507r.htm) 
>  
>  
> Language emergencies
> November 28, 2006 
> FORT VALLEY, Ga. (AP) -- "What's that word?" asks Peach County Deputy Sheriff 
>  Shane Broome, looking disconsolately at his "Survival Spanish" textbook.  
> Prodded by classmates -- all public safety officers  from central Georgia -- 
> Deputy Broome reads aloud "a la izquierda," or "to the  left." Then his 
> teacher continues around the room, having the two dozen students  repeat basic 
> commands in Spanish. 
> "It's been a big  problem," Deputy Broome said later of his inability to 
> speak the same language  as the many Hispanics he stops while patrolling 
> Interstate 75. "It's hard to  even know if they're even able to drive. I'd try to take 
> the one or two words I  know -- I know driver's license, 'licencia' -- and 
> sign it out."  
> He hopes the traffic stops will go smoother after a  three-day class offered 
> by the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, especially  because he plans to 
> keep his textbook -- with its translations for everything  from "windshield 
> wiper" to "drop that weapon" -- in his patrol car.  
> Every day, emergency responders  and law-enforcement officers nationwide help 
> people who don't speak English and  whose lives might be in immediate danger. 
> The job is particularly  challenging for small agencies in the South, which 
> has experienced an influx of  Hispanic residents. 
> Many  dispatchers and officers are going out of their way to learn Spanish, 
> and  departments are recruiting bilingual employees and buying translating  
> technology as they adapt to changing demographics. 
> It all starts at 911 centers. During the past two  years, demand has 
> increased nationwide for on-the-phone  interpreters such as those provided by 
> Monterey, Calif.-based Language  Line Services. Spanish is the most requested 
> language.  
> When someone who doesn't speak English dials 911,  the dispatcher gets a live 
> interpreter who, for about $1.65 a minute, holds a  three-way conversation to 
> assess the emergency. Most are straightforward police  or medical calls, such 
> as burglaries and heart attacks, but interpreters are  especially useful in 
> breaking through cultural barriers in cases such as  domestic violence, said 
> Danyune Geertsen, a company interpreter.  
> "A person speaking Spanish on  every shift would be a dream come true," said 
> Mary-Anne Eaton, E911  director in Tift County in southern Georgia, home to 
> thousands of immigrants who  pick peanuts, peaches and cotton in the area's 
> fields. Of  her 27 dispatchers, only one speaks Spanish.  
> Past the initial call, things get dicier for  emergency responders. 
> "It gets  real hard to deal with because ... we don't know what the problem 
> is beyond what  we see," said Dennis Garrett, a firefighter from Houston County 
> who  attended the class in neighboring Peach County.  
> With increasing pressure on  police to help enforce immigration laws, 
> tensions between immigrants and  officers run high and the language barrier hurts 
> both.  
> In border states such as Arizona, long  accustomed to a strong Hispanic 
> presence, some agencies resent the added  pressure of learning a new language. 
> "I'm not going  to train my officers to speak Spanish when the illegals are 
> in this country,"  said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has offered 
> inmates English  classes.