--- On Tue, 7/28/09, Lydia de Raad <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

To understand breastfeeding and to work with
> mothers you are not obliged to speak English, don't you
> think? And for those of you who consider a certain knowledge
> of a foreign language as a minimum of intellectual
> capacities necessary to pass the exam, I am most happy to
> read your reactions in German, French of Spanish.
> 
> Nevertheless.............I'm sure you passed Karin!
> 
> Lydia, LLL, Netherlands

Interesting thoughts, Lydia. 

I certainly agree that you don't need to speak English in order to understand breastfeeding and to help breastfeeding mothers. But - it helps tremendously, I should add.

My language is not a common one and if I was to learn something about breastfeeding only in my language it would be very difficult unless there were someone to translate for me or teach me by showing and explaining every single thing. There is only one available book on breastfeeding in my language and it is a very basic (and very old!) text aimed at mothers (fortunately there are a number of translated articles available about an array of situations too and it gets expanded almost every day).

I am currently involved in training other bf councellors, part of which don't speak another language and I am seeing for myself the difficulties they face. I do translate for them, parts of studies, some articles etc, but it is still difficult and they really envy the others who can read more.

I see the same thing among the doctors too - there is a vast percentage of them who don't speak another language and are stubbornly refusing to see or learn different things (for example why bf babies thrive without water supplements and that you really can stimulate the breasts to produce more milk etc).

Of course the answer to this problem is not that everyone should learn English, but that the information should be available in other languages as well :)

Christina Yaneva
BF Counsellor - who is making a living as a German language teacher :)
Bulgaria


      

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome