Living in a host family - London

There is nothing more exciting than having an experience abroad, either to study or to work. I am currently working in London as an intern in a superb translation agency, in a very friendly and young environment, where the music is always on and this implies that if you are not an English native speaker it is a real performance speaking on the phone successfully, especially when the call is a marketing one and they ask you how many sockets you have in the office...what the hell do I know about it? J Anyway, I will discuss this topic later on.

Now I would like to focus on how it is living in a host family and why you should choose or not choose this option for your accommodation during your stay abroad. Before coming here, I was asked about which kind of accommodation I preferred to go for and with no doubt I decided that the best option would be to stay in a family. I thought that if I had the chance, I should have tried to stay with a local family. After all, an important reason to go abroad is to go crazy in a place where nobody knows you. Moreover this is the best way to pick up the language much faster, as you have to communicate with them in local language most of the day; they can also give you advice on the area you live and above all you can learn a lot on their culture, believes, cuisine, an insight that you will hardly get when you live with other foreign student in a flat. If you are unable to find a family to live within a foreign country then people often look for translation services for communication purposes.

Since I arrived I have already changed two families and I must admit that my first one was really funny and I got on very well with them. A month ago I moved to another area, in the south of London, to get near to my job place so now I have a new family. They come from Jamaica, and that is not surprising at all in a melting pot like London, but what’s more my new “parents” have two wonderful daughters, but with the exception that they don’t even speak or look at me J  In a multicultural city like London people are always looking for professional translation in order to help them settle down in a new place. However I have never faced such an issue in a busy city like London.

I know that living in a host family is not for everyone and sometimes it can also seem daunting. Here are some tips to make your stay easier. It would be good to bring them a small gift when you arrive, tell them if you have special needs and ask if they have any rules about meal time, which rooms and appliances you are allowed to use, whether you may have a space in the kitchen for your own food. I know people who were not allowed to have a shower every day and their stay turned into a real nightmare. It is also important to ask them why they decided to host a person; they may have a variety of reasons, from wanting to get in touch with people from abroad to simply needing the money that comes with renting out a room. Cultures and languages play a very important role whilst leaving with a family from different country and nationalities. People often look for a translation agency to seek advice and help on these matters. It is also important to speak to them and to show them that you want to get to know them by making an effort to start a conversation every day, which is exactly what I try to do every day with the young girls, but with no result at all. It takes a lot of patience J As you need to show you are open to interaction, you also have to leave them alone together.

Things probably won’t be perfect, but what’s important is keep trying and enjoy as much as you can J

EVERYONE HAS AN ACCENT

This means everyone who speaks has an accent.  To speak is to have an accent. Accent defines and communicates who we are. Accent is the map which listeners perceive through their ears rather than through their eyes to ‘read’ where the speaker was born and raised, what gender they are, how old they are…’. 

As the markets become increasingly global, organizations are more likely to employ people from different countries whose languages and accents clearly identify them as different from the local workforce. With the surge in multiculturalism we have also seen a rise in the demand of professional translation in a city like London. This is more likely to happen in London, a real melting pot, where different languages, dialects and cultures cross each other and where it is really amazing discover how people manage to interact and communicate beyond borders. The UK is a rich landscape of regional accents, evidence of English society’s continuity and change, local history and day-to-day lives. 

Translators and interpreters are supposed to convey the right message and understand foreign languages, but the way people speak is important as well. Our accents can tell the listener everything about us, they reflect our experiences. Understanding the impact of accents is vital because accents can be salient in the same way as ethnicity, age, gender, and skin colour. Multilingual society around us has helped Translation services providers to multiply their business globally. This represents a challenging task and sometimes can be frustrating because consonants and vowels are the building blocks of linguistic meaning and slight changes in their quality carry large differences in meaning, which we detect immediately, and can trigger problems. 

Notwithstanding recognizing the linguistic patterns of those around us can be a thrilling and exciting opportunity to learn more. If something is hard to do, then it is worth doing and what really marks the difference in our life and our work is being tenacious and passionate about what we do. 

Community Interpreting and Translation

With the rise of immigration and settling of minority groups in urban areas, there is an increasing need for community interpreters in the UK. In urban areas, where there is a high concentration of ethnic minority groups, there is an increasing need for individuals who speak and write minority ethnic languages such  as Hindi, Guajarati, Farsi, and many more.

As the UK experiences a surge in its immigration and pockets of minority communities settle in large urban areas, some of these immigrants have a limited or poor grasp of the English language. These community interpreters provide a service where they can translate and interpret at court hearings, police stations, tribunal hearings, and other such situations.  They can also provide translation services in the production of government paperwork, where forms and documents are translated to community languages to enable these individual’s access public services. 

Community interpreters also work with the police, social services and the Home Office to assist where necessary during court cases, at community meetings and at application hearings.  This service is set to grow even further as the UK becomes more and more multicultural in its make-up.  This means there is set to be an even greater need for individuals from these communities to train as interpreters and translators to facilitate the integration of these community groups into the wider society.

How can this be addressed?  Currently there are not enough trained individuals to carry out these roles so raising awareness of what they do could be the first step in recruiting individuals to act as interpreters and translators. Secondly, community interpreting should be made more widely available and its services encouraged particularly in urban areas that have high concentrations of migrant communities.  Also community interpreting should be made widely available as a course at colleges and education centres, once again with more publicity being provided to raise public awareness.

Community interpreting and translation is also a good way of fostering community relations and integrating these communities fully into society, while at the same time respecting and acknowledging their differences. It is a good way of promoting the value and importance of languages in the community.