Weyburn's Johnny Knox recently asked on a local Facebook group about person-to-person translators who speak Ukranian, so he could help out a newcomer family. He said Google Translate has worked for him in many cases, but he wanted a real person so he could make it easier to help them.

Settlement Advisor with Southeast Newcomer Services, Laura Eddy, said when it comes to communicating through a language barrier, you have to know how to use 'Google Translate', because it doesn't know our slang.

For this reason, she said, person-to-person translators are well-utilized in our community.

"Google Translate works great, but when you get into those conversations, it kind of loses the feeling, or, a lot of times, Canadians use slang. We don't use proper English lots of times, so Google Translate doesn't pick that up, so there are lots of times where you lose that person-to-person conversation." 

She said there is a very strong Ukrainian community here in Weyburn, even prior to the war.

"They have really come together and they do not want to lose their language and we don't want them to either. However, there are things to help navigate, and they're already going through a hard time, so having these people in place kind of softens it a bit."

"We also have people that have used our services that both speak Ukrainian and they're newcomers as well, and so they offer their services too," she noted. "There is training for people, that do speak Ukrainian and English well, through the Ukrainian Canada Council, so they're very involved in everything that's happening with the Ukrainian people and coming to Canada, so they offer training so that people can be actual translators." 

Eddy said we'll be seeing more Ukranian people moving into the area and effective communication will help tremendously, so it's good that most translators will help for free in certain situations.

"However, if it's a business we like when we use people in our office, we do give them a small stipend as their time is valuable as well," she commented, adding that any business utilizing translators should also offer an honorarium.

In many cases, the issue isn't that they don't speak any English, they just want to have someone whose first language is English in situations like medical appointments. "In that case, those people would do it probably as a volunteer."

Not only does Weyburn have a strong Ukranian presence, we also have a thriving Filipino community.

"So they do tend to you know if they have a friend or a family, a cousin or someone, somebody here who has gone through that process, and they've already bridged that gap of being the newcomer," Eddy described. "So it is easier to come here or there's maybe employment for them here, so that's taking away some of the hurdles that those people have when you're a newcomer."

"Filipinos have an advantage as they speak English in their country, right? They have many different dialects, but English is one that that country does focus on. The Vietnamese people aren't as fortunate."

"I know we have a growing Vietnamese community here, and that's a struggle if they speak [only] Vietnamese. We've had people come through our office where we have to use Google Translate sometimes," she shared. "Working with newcomers, I understand that we do use slang and they don't get our slang, so I have gone and assisted with medical appointments. I don't speak Vietnamese, but I'm familiar with how to word things that can maybe kind of bridge that, or sometimes it's just being comfortable with me. They may understand, and most newcomers that speak English think that they're going to be made fun of, or their accent is too thick, or they don't speak well and lots of times I'm like, 'you speak well, you do. It's just that you're not understanding me because I don't speak proper English'." 

Her advice for engaging with a newcomer and English is not their first language is to enunciate, and to slow down. 

"You don't have to talk super slow," she said. "I'm a fast talker. I have to adjust when I'm talking with who my audience is. Getting louder does not make them understand any more. It's going to be the enunciation and the slowing down."

Eddy added that, as Canadians, we, too, have an accent to newcomers' ears.

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