Tackling Communication Problems Head-On

​​The youth welfare office contacts the family of a pupil with a behavioural disorder, a woman is diagnosed as having breast cancer, a refugee tries to work through his traumatic experiences in therapy … In difficult situations, people need to talk to specialists in government agencies or medical or social institutions about their needs and possible solutions. Such dialogue is more difficult when the people who come together have different cultural backgrounds and different native languages, for example, migrants and specialist staff.

It is not infrequently the case that linguistic or cultural misunderstandings lead to frustration and uncertainty on both sides and involve more time and additional costs. Sometimes friends or relatives help out as lay interpreters.

However, that may involve new difficulties if they are not up to the task linguistically, interculturally or in terms of the specialist content, or if they are themselves drawn into the discussion, for example, when a child is suddenly interpreting at a parents' evening between his parents and the teachers and the discussion is about his own behaviour. Or when someone gets into the unpleasant situation of having to tell a friend a serious medial diagnosis.

Training to become a neutral mediator

In response to this problem, a large number of local and regional projects have been developed in recent years in which bilingual and bicultural people who have experience of migration themselves are trained to become so-called language and integration mediators and who go on to work as neutral mediators at relevant institutions. During their training, they not only learn interpretation techniques, but also reflect on cultural differences in dealing with illness, gender roles, taboos and shame, learn to intervene appropriately when misunderstandings arise and to defuse conflicts.

​​The mediators-in-training acquire medical, psychosocial and legal knowledge and specialist knowledge about the education, health and social systems in Germany. In addition, they are familiarised with principals of professional ethics, with care structures in Germany and with the role of specialist staff in the relevant institutions. This puts them in a position not only to facilitate communication, but also to create a confidential and secure atmosphere, thereby raising the quality of dialogues.

Career opportunity for migrants

Helîm Yusiv is one of 23 migrants currently being trained by the Diakonie Wuppertal to become professional language and integration mediators. When he came to Germany as a political refugee ten years ago, the Syrian-Kurdish writer and lawyer did not speak a word of German. Thus, during his first months here, he was dependent on the help of friends he had got to know just by chance, for example when dealing with government agencies. Because his Syrian degree was not recognised in Germany and he did not have the German language skills required to study in German, he was unable to work here as a lawyer.

​​Yusiv sees training to become a language and integration mediator as an opportunity to ease communication between specialist staff and his Kurdish and Arabic-speaking compatriots, to improve his German and to continue to stand up for his native language, Kurdish, which is prohibited in his native country.

During his internships he has already interpreted for various clients and institutions more than thirty times. He not only enjoys his work very much, but realises how important his practical work is: "At the moment I am doing an internship in a psychiatric clinic. The doctors report major communication problems in dialogues with migrants."

Development to become an officially recognised job

In order to assure the quality of the training and to offer it nation-wide, Diakonie Wuppertal joined forces with other agencies in 2005 to form a federal working group to develop a career profile, which aims to establish the career profile of the Language and Integration Mediator and have it officially recognised. The training is to consist of at least twelve months of full-time study and to include internships.

The training admission requirements are a school-leaving certificate equivalent to the German mittlere Reife (i.e. a General Certificate of Secondary Education), a good knowledge of German and a second language and work experience.

Anyone who is socially committed, who has demonstrated experience of interpretation and who is familiar with the social and administrative structures in his or her country of origin will probably have a better chance of being awarded a training position. The federal working group is currently contacting potential employers to promote the scheme so that the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training will soon pass the regulation for the new job of "Language and Integration Mediator".

Janna Degener

© Goethe Institute 2001

Translation: Eileen Flügel

Editor: Lewis Gropp/Qantara.de

Qantara.de

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