Language is a basis to most cultures and thus it is essential to have a known and structured one in order for a society to communicate in depth. One of the most valuable things to a culture is its language, but once one steps out of their norm and enters another populous, the language barriers come into play. The repercussions of language barriers can sometimes go as far as causing one’s life to be put in danger. The idea of having a universal language has also come about, or even just declaring English as a universal language. So this raises the question, is there any solution to this issue? Or will language barriers continue to plague our world causing unnecessary confusion.
In an article from USA Today, “Language Barriers Plague Hospital, it tells how one word, “Intoxicado”, ended up costing a hospital in Florida 71 million dollars in a law suit. In Spanish intoxicado means to be nauseated, but when an 18 year old claimed of being intoxicado the hospital treated him for a drug overdose for 36 hours. Only after all that time did they realize that his symptoms were those of a brain aneurysm, which could have led to his death. The controversy that comes about when speaking of this is should the hospital have known Spanish, or being in the United States should the immigrant have known English.
There are schools across the country that offering schooling where half the day is spent learning in Spanish and half in English. This type of experience is much more valuable in terms of learning another language for you are not just learning and regurgitating information in a single fifty minute class period once a day.
From the other side of that perspective, I can see how much easier it is for United States citizens to neglect learning other countries languages due to its location. I find it to be almost inevitable that Europeans speak multiple languages due to the vast range of different cultures and languages spoken in such a small land mass. With that being said, it gives most United States citizens less of a prerogative to diversify their linguistic knowledge due to the fact that the majority of the people have already conformed.
It seems somewhat disturbing that we are starting to rely on technology like these headsets, rather than taking the time to learn the language. Even with these headsets, there can still be the confusion of certain terms that may not translate properly or have another meaning than their exact translation. I feel that society today focuses so much on finding ways to communicate any way they can besides learning the language. In some cases translators can’t be avoided, especially with all the languages and cultures in the world it would not be the least bit feasible to attempt to learn every single one. Yet there is no denying that people have become a bit lazy and really could do more to expand their linguistic ability to make the situation a bit better.