HUMAN RESOURCES - Administrative Services-Cultural Linguistics
Cultural Linguistic Services
Links
Index
Cultural Information for Healthcare Providers
- The Queensland, Australia Government's Multicultural Health Website -- This comprehensive site has information on cultural norms, working with patients from different cultures, health information in other languages, and more. It is a really great resource for Health Care Professionals.
- The Provider's Guide to Quality and Culture from Management Sciences for Health -- This helpful site has information on cultural groups, patient-provider interaction, a quiz to test your openness to patients from other backgrounds, and more.
- The Cross-Cultural Healthcare Program -- Provides profiles of the following ethnic communities' beliefs about healing and medical care: Arab, Cambodian, Eritrean, Ethiopian, Lao, Mien, Oromo, Samoan, Somali, South Asian, Soviet Jewish, and Ukrainian. These profiles also offer recommendations for overcoming potential obstacles to effective healthcare. The site also has a list of recommended books, and links to other organizations that talk about healthcare and culture.
- EthnoMed -- EthnoMed focuses on immigrant communities that are common in the Seattle, WA area, providing special information on working with refugees from war-torn areas. This site has information on these communities: Amharic, Cambodian, Chinese, Eritrean, Ethiopian, Hispanic, Oromo, Somali, Tigrean, and Vietnamese. You can also download nurse-to-patient communication pages. These pages have questions nurses commonly ask in both English and other language, allowing some communication without and interpreter (if patients can read their native language). These pages are available in: Amharic, Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Greek, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Oromo, Polish, Russian, Somali, Tagalog, and Tigrinya.
- Resource Guide to Cutlural Diversity in Health and Illness (College of the Sequoia's Library) --An excellent resource list, this site offers and extensive list of books and websites. All the links are provided with a description of exactly what information the site or book includes.
- Cultural Diversity in Health -- This is another Australian website designed to help health care professionals with the challenges and opportunities presented by cultural diversity. Over 40 Community Profiles provide a range of information on specific cultures. These will inlude details on communication styles, traditional health practices, approach to and expectations of the health system and social customs. There is also information on some of the other issues that shape identity (Religion, Gender, AGe and Torture and Trauma), and a st of links to other information and general guidelines for handling cultural diversity in healthcare.
- Multi-Cultural Palliative Care Guidelines (Palliative Care Council of South Australia, Inc.) -- This group provides information on caring for dying patients in regards to general beliefs on family involvement, workds to avoid when discussing death, burial customs, religion, attitudes towards pain relief, and more. The groups they provide information about are: Arabic, Bosnian, Chinese, Croatian, Greek, Hini, Italian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Macedonian, Maltese, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Servian, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese.
- The Rehabilitation Provider's Guide to Cultures of the Foreign-Born (Center for International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange) -- This site profiles China, Cuba, Cominican Republic, El Salvador, India, Jamaica, Korea, Mexico, Philippines, Vietnam, and Haiti, with discussions about negotiating meaning across cultural backgrounds. The focus is on information that will help with successful rehabilitation programs, but the information is also very useful for other medical fields.
Similar programs in other locations
- University
of Wisconsin-Madison --
A very successful program for helping English-language learning employees
that has been in operation for 5 years. They focus on the Hmong refugee
population and Spanish speakers.
- The
CALS Project, University of California-Berkeley --
This program has been in operation for 14 years, and offers tutoring or mentoring
relationships between non-native speakers and English speakers in addition
to other courses.
Other important types of assistance available at the University
- University of Iowa Human
Resources --
This page describes services and resources available to faculty, staff, and
departments. Some programs described offer counseling, management and computer
training, child care referrals and assistance, complaint resolution assistance,
and more. This should be your first stop if you are looking for help. Most
services are confidential and accessing them will not affect your employment.
- Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity --
This office handles complaints about discrimination and sexual harassment.
Their website details complaint procedures, but they also have great pages
of links to diversity and disability resources.
- Office of the Ombudsperson --
The Ombuds office is a great place to get confidential help about University
of Iowa policies and procedures if you are having a problem. They are a
good information resource and can help make referrals or outline options
for dealing with your concerns.
- University of Iowa Council
on the Status of Latinos --
This group meets monthly to talk about issues affecting Latino employees
at the University. Any employee is welcome to attend. Their meeting schedules
do sometimes change, and the information on the website may not be completely
up to date.
Translation/Interpretation
- Iowa Interpreter’s and Translators Association -- This site lists contact information for translators and interpreters available
in Iowa.
- American Translator’s Association --
This website offers a free booklet on what it takes to make a good translation.
- UIHC
Department of Interpretation and Translation (in the Department of
Social Services) -- They maintain a database of interpreters
who can interpret for over 40 languages. They also have some good links
to resources related to the rights of English Language Learning employees.
- Iowa
Division of Latino Affairs --
This state organization is starting an interpreter training program for
Iowa, and they will also be maintaining a list of qualified interpreters
for the state. In addition, they have information on Latino cultural festivals
and other fun events.
- Protect Iowa
Health --
This site has translations of emergency preparedness fliers in 9 different
languages.
- OSHA --
Many training documents are available in Spanish. They also have the site
translated into Spanish, with a link available from the main page. Every
year they offer grants to help increase OSHA training to minority groups.
- Department
of Labor --
There are some documents on retirement planning and getting the most out
of your health benefits that have been translated into Spanish. Also check
the Department
of Labor Office of Small Business Programs site for posters available
in Spanish versions on FMLA and other DOL policies.
- The American
Red Cross --
Their website and many documents on emergency preparedness are translated
into Spanish.
- National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences --
They have a version of their website translated into Spanish that includes
descriptions of common ailments related to environmental causes.
- Los recursos
humanos --
A website from Argentina that has some definitions of Human Resource concepts
such as retirement plans and health benefits in Spanish. However, not all
of these will be applicable to benefits offered in the United States.
Cultural Information
- On-line cultural
awareness tutorial --
This tutorial is aimed at students who are about to study abroad, but it
is actually a very good tutorial for anyone interested in exploring their
cultural biases. The tutorial includes stories of cultural miscommunication,
and has interactive activities to complete.
- The Cultural
Orientation web site --
This site is aimed at assisting refugees, but there are links to cultural
profiles of selected cultural groups.
- Office
of International Students and Scholars Global Certificate Program --
This is a set of courses offered at the University of Iowa. You can explore
your own cultural perspective and compare it to that of international students
and employees. This series can help make your interactions with foreign
students and employees easier and more enjoyable.
- Some
books online on Books 24/7 that talk about culture:
- 52 Activities for Exploring Values Differences
- American Cultural Patterns: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Revised
Edition
- Americans at Work: A Guide to the Can-Do People
- Communication Highwire: Leveraging the Power of Diverse Communication
Styles
- Cross-Cultural Dialogues
- The Cultural Advantage: A New Model for Succeeding with Global
Teams
- Cultural Intelligence: A Guide to Working with People from Other
Cultures
- Experiential Activities For Intercultural Learning, Volume 1
- Exploring Culture: Exercises, Stories, and Synthetic Cultures
- Figuring Foreigners Out: A Practical Guide
- Randomia Balloon Factory: A Unique Simulation for Working Across
the Cultural Divide
- Understanding Arabs: A Guide for Westerners, Third Edition
- Understanding Spanish-Speaking South Americans: Bridging Hemispheres
- When in Rome or Rio or Riyadh…Cultural Q&As for Successful Business
Behavior around the World
- Some
Skillsoft Classes online that talk about culture (Note that classes
are periodically retired. If you can’t find one of these courses,
please contact Learning and Development to request an equivalent.):
- The Impact of Culture on Communication
- Around the World in 80 Cultures
- Why Diversity Matters
- The Art of Global Communication
- A Short Course in International Business Culture
- Business Etiquette: 101 Ways to Conduct Business with Charm & Savvy,
Second Edition
- Delivering Knock your Socks off Service
- Global Smarts: The Art of Communicating and Deal Making Anywhere
in the World
- Business Protocol: How to Survive and Succeed in Business,
Second Edition
- When Cultures Collide: Managing Successfully Across Cultures
- Direct and Indirect Communicators
- Universal, Cultural, and Personal Behaviors
Language links
- Center for Applied
Linguistics --
CAL has links to information on learning English, learning foreign languages,
adult education, and publishes reports about different cultures and U.S.
statistics.
- The University of
Iowa Language Media Center (LMC) --
The LMC has language learning books, tapes, computer programs, and videos
that can be checked out by students and staff. They have materials for a
variety of languages, and also links to web-based resources for language
learning.
- Thor’s
Big ESL Links page --
This site has links listed by category and contains probably any link you
could want about learning English as a speaker of another language.
- ALLNet --
This program is designed to help staff and students learn languages that
are not normally taught (such as Dutch, Ewe, Turkish, Dari, or Bengali).
- Word Reference
-- A site with dictionaries that translate between Spanish, English,
French, and Italian.
- The Linguist List
-- Find out more about linguistics, the study of the structure of languages.
- The University
of Iowa’s Art and Life in Africa Project --
Find out more about the beauty and dignity of African culture and art.
- George Mason University’s
Accent Archive --
The accent archives contains recordings of hundreds of individuals from all
over the world reading the same passage in English. You can hear what different
foreign accents or U.S. regional accents sound like.
- UCLA Phonetics Laboratory --
Our anatomy lets us create and use all kinds of sounds, but each language
only chooses a few of these. Hear some of the sounds chosen by other languages
at this site (like clicks in Zulu).
Facts about Iowa
- The State Data
Center --
They maintain databases of census information on Iowa, and also publish reports
of the status of selected minority groups in Iowa.
^ top of page
