VOA慢速英语2014 It's an Emergency in Any Language

 

AS IT IS 2014-08-31 It's an Emergency in Any Language

In most countries, people can make a telephone call to ask for medical or police help using just three numbers. In the European Union, the number is 1-1-2. Some Asian countries use 9-9-9. In North America, the number is 9-1-1.

Wherever you are in the world, when you call for help, you do not want the person answering to say “I don’t understand you.”

In the United States, most of the workers who answer calls for emergency help speak just one language -- English. But many people in the United States, and people coming here from other countries, do not speak English. So VOA went to a center where requests for help are received to find out what happens when the person calling speaks a language that emergency workers do not understand.

We are about to hear a request for help. The phone call was answered by a worker in the Willamette Valley 9-1-1 Center in Salem, Oregon, in the northwestern United States. But it could have been almost anywhere in America -- in most urban areas, workers receive requests for emergency help every day in a language other than English.

Dispatcher¹: “9-1-1”

Caller: [Cannot be understood]

Dispatcher: “Do you have an emergency?”

Caller: [“Espa?ol?”]

Dispatcher: “Do you have an emergency?”

Caller: “Si!”

Dispatcher: “OK. Just a moment...”

Now, the worker will call someone at an agency² that employs people who speak the caller’s language. Every 9-1-1 center in the northwestern United States works³ with such agencies⁴, called emergency translation services.

TeleLanguage: “Thanks for calling. What language?”

Willamette Valley 9-1-1 Center: “Spanish.”

TeleLanguage: “One moment please.”

Computer voice: “Thank you. Your call may be monitored or recorded for quality...”

On this call, it takes almost one minute for a translator to be connected to the person calling for help.

Andrea Tobin is a training manager at the emergency center and a longtime worker there. She says the wait can be difficult for both the emergency workers and the person who needs help.

“We get pretty tense, especially if we know it is a medical call -- or this person that is in obvious distress⁵.”

“When it is Spanish, it is pretty quick and easy for us to understand. When it is a different dialect⁶, it becomes more complicated⁷ for us because we don’t recognize them all. And then they put us on hold while they get an interpreter for the language that we need. That can sometimes be very quick. Sometimes it is 30 seconds or a minute.”

The most-common language needing translation is Spanish. Others include Russian, Vietnamese, and Chinese. Some managers of emergency call centers in urban areas of the northwestern United States say they are experiencing an increase in requests for help from people speaking languages heard in African and Middle Eastern countries.

Translation companies like Telelanguage and LanguageLine say they can help people in 200 languages.

Mark Buchholz is the director of the Willamette Valley 9-1-1 center. He says using these services is less-costly than employing workers who speak more than one language. Only three of his 55 workers speak more than one language. Two of them speak English and Spanish. A third speaks English and Russian.

Mr. Buchholz says centers like his try to employ people who speak more than one language, but he says it is not easy to find these workers.

“It’s really tough to require a second language as a requirement to work for us. While it is important -- we do pay a bonus -- the volume isn’t significant⁸ enough for us to have that as an exclusive⁹ requirement for hiring.”

A man has called the Salem, Oregon 9-1-1 center for help. He is speaking in Spanish. He says two men in a car are chasing¹⁰ him. The interpreter is listening to the man, then talking to the emergency worker, who will send police to help the man once they know where he is.

Caller: [Words in Spanish]

Interpreter: “Lee Street, One Way?”

Caller: “Ya.”

Interpreter: “I am standing¹¹ right at the corner of One Way and Lee Street.”

Dispatcher: “We don’t have a One Way.”

It took the three people another minute to find out that the man was on the corner of Lee and 12th Street. Lee Street is a one-way street -- cars are only permitted to drive on the street in one direction. The caller thought that was the name of the street.

Interpreters who join calls like this may be in another state. The companies that employ them tell the workers they can do the work from their home. These companies also help business call centers, banks, schools and courts.

In the emergency we just heard, the police were able to quickly help the man who called.

Several managers of emergency call centers say it is important to be able to say the name of your country and your language in the language of the country you are visiting or living in. That may save you important time.

1 dispatcher   

n.调度器

参考例句：

• The dispatcher then returns the completed request to the appropriate user process.这时调度器就可以将处理完成的请求返回给相应的用户。

2 agency   

n.经办；代理；代理处

参考例句：

• This disease is spread through the agency of insects.这种疾病是通过昆虫媒介传播的。
• He spoke in the person of Xinhua News Agency.他代表新华社讲话。

3 works   

n.作品，著作；工厂，活动部件，机件

参考例句：

• We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。

4 agencies   

n.代理( agency的名词复数 )；服务机构；（政府的）专门机构；代理（或经销）业务（或关系）

参考例句：

• There are many specialized agencies in the United Nations. 联合国有许多专门机构。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The project is funded by the World Bank and other multilateral agencies. 这项计划由世界银行和其他多国机构资助。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

6 dialect   

n.方言，土语，地方话

参考例句：

• He wrote a play in a local dialect.他用当地方言写了一个剧本。
• They began to speak rapidly in dialect.他们开始叽里呱啦地说起地方话来。

7 complicated   

adj.错综复杂的，麻烦的，结构复杂的

参考例句：

• The poem is so complicated that I cannot make out its meaning.这首诗太复杂，我理解不了它的意思。
• This is the most complicated case I have ever handled.这是我所处理过的最为复杂的案子。

8 significant   

adj.相当数量的；意义重大的；意味深长的

参考例句：

• Your success today may be significant for your whole future.你今天的成功对你的整个未来可能是重要的。
• She cast him a significant smile.她向他投去意味深长的一笑。

9 exclusive   

adj.不包括的，不算在内的，独有的，独享的

参考例句：

• The hotel charges 6 pounds a day,exclusive of meals.这家旅馆一天收六英镑，不包括饭钱。
• This bathroom is for the President's exclusive use.这间浴室是总统专用的。

10 chasing   

n.雕镂术，雕刻工作；车螺丝；抛光；螺旋板

参考例句：

• My dog likes chasing rabbits. 我的狗喜欢追捕兔子。
• The children were having fun, chasing each other's shadows. 孩子们追逐着彼此的影子，玩得很开心。

11 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。