(Split Apple Rock, Abel Tasman Nat'l Park)
I've been thinking a lot about languages lately. When I was first deciding where I wanted to apply to work this summer, one of my main considerations was that I be in an English-speaking country because I did not want not knowing the local language to limit my ability to assist in legal work. As it turns out, though English is the most widely spoken language here, I have had a most direct exposure to the widest array of languages. It's not just that I pass people on the street speaking something I don't understand as I walk by. I deal with clients, face-to-face every day who do not speak English at all, let alone conversationally.
Most of my work is with refugee clients. They have been fleeing violence, risking their lives to get to refugee camps across borders, starving, homeless and abused. Still, some have managed to learn English through it all. Most of the time though, even if the client can speak rough English, having an interpreter is better because they can be clearer to give full effect to how they are feeling and what the details of their legal issues are in their own language. The beauty of it all is that at the Centre where I work, we have the luxury of calling an interpreting line. We dial the number, request the language our client speaks fluently, set a conference phone on the center of the table, and have any language we want translated on the spot during our interviews.
Even when the client speaks in her own language of which I cannot understand a word, I am sitting there with her and can see by her facial expressions and voice inflection and tears what she is feeling even before the interpreter translates. The languages are beautiful to listen to almost like a song. It's not an awkward, rigid conversation just because there is a phone to relate what is actually happening in the conversation. Instead, we maintain direct eye contact with each other, gesture and explain as if we are understanding the words coming out of each other's mouths. The experience is beautiful.
All of this exposure to foreign language has made me realize just how important it is that I keep improving my own language skills in Spanish. In the States and especially in New York, so many people speak Spanish as their native tongue which means that so many clients will be most comfortable speaking Spanish rather than English, or will not be able to fully express the extent of their issue and feelings about it without being able to communicate in Spanish. It is so important to me that I am able to connect with clients in the most direct, open way possible. I can already tell when I work with some of our Colombian clients how they connect with me in a special way because I can speak Spanish with them and understand their words describing what they have been through and how they want us to help.
(Te Waikoropupu Springs, Takaka, NZ)
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