But what about the situations when a company contacts us for marketing purposes and we hear a robotic voice which insists to have 'a conversation' with us?
During the last month many companies contact us to obtain a confirmation of agreement. Due to some recent changes in the European law, they want us to agree to being contacted by them, their business partners, the partners of their partners, and so on... for marketing purposes.
Today I received 3 robotic calls. First two I disconnected after hearing the robot. The third one I tried to listen to... but after hearing very fast and unclear information about the things I was supposed to agree, I was forced to answer 'Yes' or 'No'. I tried to say 'Repeat please' and 'Contact operator' but all attempts ended with 'I don't understand your answer.'
Did you experience something similar? Are we so unimportant customers that they don't even think about leaving the possibility of talking to human being?
Of course there were many discussions about unusual experiences concerned with using foreign languages. This time I'd like to focus on asking for directions.
Nowadays everyone has at least one GPS-based application in his phone. A few years ago many people used separate devices serving as car navigation. But over 20 years ago the best solution for a traveler was a good road map, sometimes accompanied by the list of towns and other useful landmarks on our route. And what happened when the map seemed unclear, our written directions appeared to be useless and our electronic devices went out of order? In such situations we had to use our tongue, review quickly the vocabulary needed... and ask locals.
Of course the people are usually very helpful when the stranger asks them for directions, but it may happen that the language we know best is not the language they can speak. And we have to rely on our tourist-level knowledge of other language (or sometimes only on the mutual intelligibility with an other language we know). It may lead to many misunderstandings and funny situations.
The source of problems is usually that we don't understand something the local person tries to tell us. But sometimes the local person seems to be tired of giving directions and gives us something useless, e.g. 'If I were you, and wanted to go to Dublin, I wouldn't start from that place!' (It was actually a joke about American tourist in Ireland, which I heard from a Scottish professor).
If such a situation happened to you, please share it. I will share my stories in a comment soon.
Strange question. Isn't it? Of course we are - whenever we need it...
I will start with one of my favorite topics: 'Language and medicine'. After starting the discussion about medical language (https://www.italki.com/discussion/166839) and at least trying to discuss using emergency medical services while being abroad (https://www.italki.com/discussion/170324) I return to the topic, because one of my friends asked me the question today:
'Are doctors allowed to write the patient's documentation in a foreign language?'
His friend needed to get his chest X-ray report in English. People usually need it when going to work abroad, but this situation was a different one - he applied for Postgraduate Studies on a Polish university and was asked to provide all the documents in English (because the studies were opened for international students... at least it was the way they have explained it to him). He tried to obtain the X-ray report in English, but he was refused everywhere.
I knew nothing about this matter so I tried to look for it in the internet and found rather long discussion, which was concluded that the only legal way is to get the report in Polish (as the official language of the country and only one acceptable in legal documents) and have it translated by the professional certified translator, eligible for translating legal documents for courts and public administration.
How do you think? When the doctor decides that his level in foreign language is satisfactory to translate (or create in a foreign language) this short simple text, strictly connected with his profession, is there the any reason in forbidding him doing that? Of course it is understandable that he should take the responsibility for both medical and language mistakes then.
And what about any other profession? The doctor was just an example. But when we create any document (and sometimes in a foreign language) there is always a probability it may be needed by a court or public administration in the future. How is it solved in other countries?
Nowadays we travel a lot. Of course we try to be cautious, but sometimes accidents happen. Sometimes even temporary indisposition or a sudden onset of a more serious disease may make us seek a doctor's advice. Did it happen to you? Can you share your story?
What are your experiences with foreign Health Care?
1. How did you find the health service you needed? Did you call the emergency service (like the 112 number)? Or maybe you called your insurance agency hotline? Or asked local people?
2. Were you insured? Was your national insurance accepted (because of some international regulations, like between EU countries)? Did you buy a private insurance in your country or in your travel destination? Did it cover the type of services you demanded?
3. Did you have to pay in cash or with card? Did the insurance agency arrange everything for you? Or maybe it refunded your expenses later?
4. Did you experience any other problems? Was the language communication with the foreign staff easy?
Thanks for the correction made in the notepad entry:
https://www.italki.com/entry/891924
I've found an interesting article today. The author of the article says that we should be immune to both positive and negative feedback when we want to achieve our goals. The link to this article you can find below:
http://thomasmondel.com/positive-feedback-is-just-a-disturbing-distraction/
But can we go on without any feedback at all?
Why am I asking this question today? On the first of April I had some free time and I decided to read a few discussions here on italki, and to comment some of them. Unfortunately I had no access to any computer, so I used my mobile phone's application. I've heard that app had some technical issues and the 2.5.1 version didn't work as it was supposed to. Or maybe it was some other kind of problem. I'm unsure of it.
Anyway... I've started with commenting the interesting discussion (thanks for this one @Snarling) about the frustration concerned with being downvoted here. My opinion was that it shouldn't matter at all, but I feel some disappointment and frustration about the votes. After that I commented a few discussion more and to my surprise the votes I got in all these threads were exactly '0'. I've started to think: 'Were my comments so bad? Too long to read them? Italki team decided to show me the voting system is necessary? Or was it just the application bug?'. I don't know. But it tells me something about me - I'm addicted to getting a feedback.
And you? What do you think about the article I mentioned in the first paragraph? Do you consider a feedback being useful? Are you addicted to it (here on italki? in other social media? in your real life?)?
You can comment it here. If you want to make a correction, please do it in this notepad entry:
https://www.italki.com/entry/889994
Many of us were learning more than one foreign language during our education. Sometimes it wasn't our choice and we decided not to continue, sometimes we just had no possibility of using it (Now it is much easier while we live in a 'global village', but before the Internet Era - it wasn't so easy).
The wisdom says 'Use it or lose it!'. I've noticed that I have problems with understanding the languages I've learned at school, even though I used to be good at them.
And what about you? Have you forgotten any language you've learned long time ago? Or maybe you noticed that your level significantly decreased? Did you try to refresh this knowledge? Or maybe you just keep on saying 'The time will come and I will surely return to it... but it's not today yet.'?
There are many first names which exist in one or more languages, though their spelling and pronunciation may be different. It is very common among European languages, because of their common roots, religion, migration of people.
When I introduce myself in a foreign language, I usually say something like 'My name is Marcin. But it's the same like Martin in your language, so you can call me the way you prefer.' Many times I had been surprised by the declaration like: 'Oh no! We will call you by your proper name, exactly as it is!'
And here is where the fun begins, because it's not difficult to switch between 't' and 'c' while writing, but the pronunciation may be the real challenge. This 'c' is very soft in my language, because of the letter 'i' following it (this sound is written like 'ć' when not followed by 'i'). And in the end they pronounce it according to their language's rules - mostly like 'Marsin'.
And what are your opinions? Should we stick to the original pronunciation, even when speaking a different language? Or should we be more flexible about that?
Of course I don't mean official situations when the name must be written exactly as in documents... And the literature (I've read in one of Italki discussions recently about 'Piotr' who became 'Pedro' in Spanish translation of the book).
