Hurdling the Language Barrier

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the Washington Post,

Hurdling the Language Barrier

Monday, April 17, 2006;

Am I supposed to feel sorry for Ramiro Games because he was incarcerated
for six months ["Without English, Inmate Was Trapped; Prince George's
Defender's Office Never Met With Immigrant on Misdemeanor," front page,
April 10]? Mr. Games has been in this country for six years, and he still
can't speak English. He came here illegally -- or, as euphemistically
reported, "without documentation." He has been convicted of a crime in
addition to illegal entry into the country, and he still hasn't been
deported. Should I be critical of the Prince George's County public
defender's office because it doesn't have a bilingual staff? Maybe we
should put more emphasis on people learning to speak English than we do on
government agencies hiring bilingual employees.

JAMES D. ASHLEY

Dunn Loring


The incarceration of Ramiro Games shows how much Maryland needs to improve
delivery of public services to those with limited English proficiency. The
Washington-Baltimore corridor is heavily populated with speakers of other
languages. Spanish is the most common language, but some schools can count
more than 100 languages among the student body. Regardless of what happens
with immigration policy at the national level, every state must wrestle
with providing language access to public services.

Public employees need initial training and continuing education in what
U.S. and Maryland laws require regarding language access and, above all,
in how to provide it. Maryland has statewide contracts with
language-service providers through which interpreters can be obtained, but
if a state employee doesn't know that or if the employee has no record of
who needs language-access support, these resources go unused. A tiny
number of committed state employees are trying to provide information and
training to many public servants whose knowledge of these issues and needs
for support vary widely.States such as California, Washington and New
Jersey are further along in supporting their agencies' language-access
implementation.

Even modest increases in Maryland's staffing and funding of this function
could lead to significant improvement in the language-access performance
of a state that takes pride in promulgating enlightened and effective
public policies.

CATHERINE W. INGOLD

College Park

The writer is acting director of the National Foreign Language Center at
the University of Maryland.

 2006 The Washington Post Company