A time I had to overcome a significant language barrier was when I was doing my internship at CCC House Maharangamma. It’s a location where patients who aren’t in much serious conditions can stay the night without being admitted to the hospital itself. Me and my friends who were doing the internship had to ask patients a questionnaire. And at first I thought it would be easy because I’m fluent in English and Singhala. But unfortunately I hadn’t put into consideration the fact that there would be patients who are only fluent in Tamil. That was a main issue we faced because we couldn’t ask them any of the questions and And they seemed uncomfortable with our presence because we couldn’t communicate what we wanted to them and we couldn’t understand what they said to us. The main strategy I used was Google translate. That way we could ask them the questions and it would translate and they would understand it and then they would give us the answers. definitely made them feel more comfortable and I saw a lot of smiles on patients because they thought the whole Google Translate thing was really cool. But something that I felt after overcoming this barrier was definitely satisfaction but also it was a big eye-opener for me to start getting more fluent in Tamil because I feel like I had disregarded that language for a long time, even though I had learnt it until 9th grade. I think I need to brush in my Tamil speaking skills in the future. And definitely Google translate was a big help.
Band 7+: Describe a time when you overcame a significant language barrier. You should say: - What the situation was - How you felt initially - What strategies you used to communicate And explain what you learned from the experience.
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A time I had to overcome a significant language barrier was when I was doing my internship at CCC House Maharangamma. It's a location where patients who aren't in serious conditions can stay the night without being admitted to the hospital itself. My friends and I, who were doing the internship, had to ask patients a questionnaire. At first, I thought it would be easy because I'm fluent in English and Sinhala. But unfortunately, I hadn't considered the fact that there would be patients who were only fluent in Tamil. That was a major issue we faced because we couldn't ask them any of the questions, and they seemed uncomfortable with our presence because we couldn't communicate what we wanted to them, and we couldn't understand what they said to us. The main strategy I used was Google Translate. That way, we could ask them the questions, and it would translate, allowing them to understand it and then give us the answers. It definitely made them feel more comfortable, and I saw a lot of smiles on patients because they thought the whole Google Translate thing was really cool. After overcoming this barrier, I felt satisfaction, but it was also a big eye-opener for me to start getting more fluent in Tamil because I feel like I had disregarded that language for a long time, even though I had learned it until 9th grade. I think I need to brush up on my Tamil speaking skills in the future, and Google Translate was a big help.
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Speaking Time: 102 seconds