Whilst delivering a Train the Trainer session, we came to the point where we needed to think about barriers to learning. English being a second language or in some cases third or fourth came up as a barrier to learning. As a trainer I’m very aware that, when delivering content, you need to mind your language (and not just from a profanity perspective!), depending on your part of the country or experience, people call different things by different names. And this training session threw a classic example of what I mean.
I threw into the ring that whilst the person’s English is very good, they have probably learnt ‘Social English’ which is fabulous but like anyone else whether our first language is English or not, when going into certain sectors such as Care or Hospitality, we end up having to learn a whole new language, or as I like to call it, ‘Sector Speak’. For example, UTI (Urinary Tract infection), PRN’s (as and when medication) in care, or in Hospitality, Rack Rate, CDP (Chef de Parti) being just a couple of examples.
One of the learners was from India and he learned English in India in English classes, as do the majority of those who attended school.
He considered himself to be fluent in English, he understood it, he can write it and he could speak it. But when he came to this country, he realised that the English language was completely different….it was the slang, or rather some of the terminology.
He recollected his first stumbling block when someone asked, ‘Do you fancy a cup of tea?’ It was the word ‘Fancy’ that totally threw him, he just did not understand and was busily working out that question in his head to fathom out how the word, ‘Fancy’ fitted in the sentence.
He eventually had to confess that he didn’t understand the question to which the response was, ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’…that, he understood.
Someone else in the class piped up, ‘OMG I hadn’t thought about it like that, if that was me, I would have said, ‘Would you like a cuppa?’.
This morning, I looked up the word, ‘Fancy’ and it comes as an adjective, a verb and a noun. Here are some examples.
There is a LOT to unpick there, so if you are working with someone who’s English is not their first language, it might not be as bad as you think, so just stop and think for a moment about how you are communicating to that person …it certainly made me think.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?