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Police advised against "evenin' all" greeting

A Warwickshire Police handbook called "Policing Our Communities" hit the headlines this week. It gives advice on 'Communication - some do's and dont's' when engaging with people from other community groups.'

It may be some time since any police officer, with a dipping of the knees, greeted someone with 'Evenin' all', but the handbook advises against it. It points out that different cultures and nationalities may think of evening as earlier, or later, than we do. The handbook says that evening is usually associated with the evening meal which varies in time depending on your culture.

New Training Day Date January 2010

Chalmers & Byrne will be delivering one of our training days in Chelmsford, Essex in January on 20th January 2010. We will be posting details on our home page soon.

Translation firm seeks 'fluent Glaswegian interpreters'

This news item caught our eye last week. A London firm placed an ad in The Herald looking for 'speakers of "Glaswegian English" with knowledge of vocabulary, accent and nuances, to meet interpreting needs of clients who find it an unexpected challenge.'

I guess it proves that the rich variations in regional accents and slang throughout the UK can be difficult for people who don't speak fluent English - especially if the have not been exposed to it much. The translation company says it has had requests from visiting foreign business people for Glaswegian translators.

Earlier this year a bus driver was recognised for teaching his Eastern European Colleagues to understand Glaswegian slang. James Lillis said "When new employees come to Scotland and hear the Glasgow accent, it can be a problem. Drivers have to learn to understand what is meant when a customer says, for example, 'Gie us an aw day tae the toon' (Give me an all day ticket to the town)."

New Trainer at Chalmers & Byrne

We have started training up secondary school teacher Liz Hickey to deliver our Lowering Language Barriers sessions. For the moment she will be working alongside Clare while she learns the ropes.

Liz is perfect for the job. She is a qualified secondary school teacher of French and German, and also speaks Italian fluently. She has experience of living abroad in both France and Italy. She has also had experience in 'training the trainers' as she trains teachers in the new secondary school French curriculum.

Report into GP practices recommends Chalmers & Byrne training

Chalmers & Byrne Training was recently recommended by a report from the University of Chichester. The report studied a GP practice in Bognor Regis with a significant number of non-fluent English speakers.

The study, by Klaudia Furmanek, found that people who spoke English as a second language did not access all the practice services, and did not know about the out of hours and emergency care. The use of family translators was widespread, and reception staff had no help in dealing with non-fluent speakers.

The report recommended more translation services at reception, as well as better staff training - in particular of the type provided by Chalmers & Byrne Training.

Coincidentally Chalmers & Byrne will deliver its first training to GP receptionists later this month.

London Training Day April 1st 2009

Our London Training Day will be on April 1st 2009 at The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health near London Bridge. We will be booking more dates in the future, so if you are interested but cannot make that date, then email us and we will put you on our mailing list for future dates.