Habla Blog

The Chicago Tribune reports that the Sherman Hospital in Elgin, IL has a staff of 11 professional interpreters to help the large Hispanic patient population communicate vital health information to doctors and hospital staff. The article also says, “under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, medical institutions that receive federal funding must ensure patients have access to services regardless of their English proficiency, at no extra cost. In a national survey released last year, 63 percent of hospitals reported seeing patients who spoke limited or no English on a daily or weekly basis.” Some practitioners report that they used to use children or anyone who spoke Spanish to convey serious information to and from patients.

The Kansas City Star reports that the Tennessee tourism department is courting Hispanic tourists. “Tennessee’s tourism department began advertising in Spanish-language newspapers and plans to roll out a Spanish version of its Web site by the end of October. ‘We have multiple cultures — the census tells us that — and we know (Hispanic) culture is part of our potential market,’ said Phyllis Qualls-Brooks, a spokeswoman for the department.”

The Ledger.com says that you are worth more if you speak Spanish. The publicatioln says that, “the job market is all but begging for bilingual candidates, and the language of Florida’s, and in fact all of the Unites States’, fastest-growing minority is Spanish. That’s according to staffing agencies and consulting firms. According to U.S. Census statistics, in the past three years Florida’s population increased by 1.4 million people, more than a third of them Hispanic. More than 81,000 Hispanics call Polk home, making up 14.5 percent of the county’s total population.” And, the article goes onto say, “from tourists to immigrants, even if they speak a functional amount of English, the people calling and coming into those offices are increasingly likely to speak another language better or more comfortably. That ease makes for more meaningful interactions and accurate problem-solving. In some cases, that second language means being able to offer a transferable skill that commands higher compensation. Riegle of Action Staffing has seen such candidates earn anywhere between 50 cents and $1 more per hour.” Being bilingual has never been as valuable a skill as it is today.

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