U.K. police spending money on translating telephone service into a ton of languages for foreign criminals, including Esperanto
Monday, November 10, 2008
Hm, this is interesting. I wonder who came up with the idea to translate into so many languages and which lucky Esperanto user has been paid to do the translations?
Last week it was revealed that hundreds of thousands of pounds was being spent every year translating the NHS Direct telephone service into 160 languages, including Esperanto and Cherokee.
Other languages include Laotian - which is spoken by just one work permit holder in the UK, and Burmese with two permit holders.
According to research not one single child in full time education in the UK has ever been recorded as having spoken Cherokee, Akan, Homa or Cebuano, and yet the service is still provided.
The "international" language of Esperanto, which was invented, in 1887 and has less than 2,000 native speakers worldwide.
Checking technorati.com, I see a single post on the article: a Norwegian blogger that has translated the article here:
Forrige uke ble det i tillegg avslørt at flere hundretusen pund hvert å blir brukt til å oversette NHS` (det nasjonale helsevesenet) Direkte telefonservice til 160 språk, inklusive esperanto og cherokee.
Andre språk inkluderer laotisk – som det bare er 1 person med arbeidstillatelse i hele Storbritannia som snakker, samt burmesisk som på landsbasis er registrert morsmål for 2 personer med oppholdstillatelse.
9 comments:
Can I ask why you place the word international in italics, as if to indicate is is not a living language?
Esperanto has a long history of persecution. See http://www.his.com/~wormsong/esw/esw6.html
So specifically, why single out Esperanto for attack now?
It seems to me to be highly unlikely that anyone is going to be idiotic enough to go ahead and pay for translations into languages for which there is little, or no, established need. Surely these oral interpretations were/are made on an ad hoc basis, i.e. on call and as and when needed?
Can someone in the UK please clarify this point, not touched on in any UK news report that I have seen so far, to a non-Brit? Thank you.
If I am wrong, then I shall have to complain about this blatant discrimination against Manx Gaelic for not being included in the list of languages.
Brian Barker:
It's a quote from the newspaper; you'll have to ask them about the italics.
I haven't got any insider knowledge, but from this link it looks to me like the headline is more than the sum of the parts:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/health/3217864/NHS-Direct-pays-to-translate-services.html
If callers can request an interpreter for a given language I don't think that means they have paid anyone to translate, as mankso suggests. Quite possibly they have just compiled a list of speakers they know they can call if need arises.
Probably worth pointing out also that NHS Direct has nothing to do with the police translators they talk about earlier in the article - it is a telephone helpline for medical problems.
The Telegraph tends to have a right wing agenda which in my opinion is sometimes pursued at the expense of journalistic integrity.
Cherokee? There are no cheorkee speakers even in the US who are not also fluent in English.
Local voter information is in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. You can also eques French, Chinese, and a few other languages if you wish. Vietnamese is a dying language in Houston. The new generation can barely speak it.
Coming to this a bit late, but never mind...
The article in the Telegraph, along with a similar one in the Daily Mail, was based on this written answer from the Secretary of State for Health. All it says is that NHS Direct has a contract with a language services company who are able to provide interpreters, on request, for a list of languages as long as your arm.
Keen to print yet another story pushing their agenda of "your taxes are not only being wasted, but wasted on foreigners too", the right-wing press twists the simple statement of fact by the Minister into "NHS spends millions translating everything into Esperanto and Cherokee".
Depressingly predictable, and complete bollocks, of course.
Coming to this a bit late, but never mind...
The article in the Telegraph, along with a similar one in the Daily Mail, was based on this written answer from the Secretary of State for Health. All it says is that NHS Direct has a contract with a language services company who are able to provide interpreters, on request, for a list of languages as long as your arm.
Keen to print yet another story pushing their agenda of "your taxes are not only being wasted, but wasted on foreigners too", the right-wing press twists the simple statement of fact by the Minister into "NHS spends millions translating everything into Esperanto and Cherokee".
Depressingly predictable, and complete bollocks, of course.
I haven't got any insider knowledge, but from this link it looks to me like the headline is more than the sum of the parts:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/health/3217864/NHS-Direct-pays-to-translate-services.html
If callers can request an interpreter for a given language I don't think that means they have paid anyone to translate, as mankso suggests. Quite possibly they have just compiled a list of speakers they know they can call if need arises.
Probably worth pointing out also that NHS Direct has nothing to do with the police translators they talk about earlier in the article - it is a telephone helpline for medical problems.
The Telegraph tends to have a right wing agenda which in my opinion is sometimes pursued at the expense of journalistic integrity.
It seems to me to be highly unlikely that anyone is going to be idiotic enough to go ahead and pay for translations into languages for which there is little, or no, established need. Surely these oral interpretations were/are made on an ad hoc basis, i.e. on call and as and when needed?
Can someone in the UK please clarify this point, not touched on in any UK news report that I have seen so far, to a non-Brit? Thank you.
If I am wrong, then I shall have to complain about this blatant discrimination against Manx Gaelic for not being included in the list of languages.
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