by Margaret on November 4, 2009
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The legendary Relaxation Centre of Queensland and Margaret Bornhorst have joined forces to bring a new opportunity to people living in Brisbane. If you’ve never had the chance to have a satisfying conversation with someone from a cultural background or ethnic background or linguistic background different from your own, this three-evening series might appeal to you. Margaret Bornhorst spent 14 years designing and delivering cross-cultural seminars and workshops around Queensland for Multicultural Affairs Queensland. She saw how much Anglo-Australians and Australians born in other countries were fascinated by each others’ personal stories when exchanged in a friendly and safe environment. Many barriers and fears were reduced in the process. Each of these sessions will be loosely structured around a specific theme drawn from the cross-cultural communication literature. All proceeds go to support the Relaxation Centre.
Dates: Tuesday 24 November; Tuesday 1 December, Tuesday 8 December
Venue: The Relaxation Centre, 15 South Pine Road, Alderley
Fee: $20 for 3 sessions or $8 per session. Bookings essential: 07 3856 3733.
by Margaret on June 15, 2009
Simultaneously entertaining and informative
A fifth generation Anglo-Celtic Queenslander on my mother’s side, as well as an immigrant myself to Queensland, I believe I’m in a unique position to provide valuable insights into the ever growing cultural and linguistic diversity of Queensland. My academic background in languages, history, and teaching, and my obsessive research and attention to current affairs, have provided me with a solid theoretical grounding and broad-ranging knowledge which I love to explore with others. My 14-year career with Multicultural Affairs Queensland gave me wonderful opportunities to explore the immigrant issues encountered in every corner of this state by a wide range of government and non-government agencies, not to mention the personal experiences of the settlers themselves.
Go to the Guest Speaker page on my website for more information, including a list of topics that people have found interesting in the past. But don’t be limited by those. I am happy to address whatever topic a club or society would like addressed in a short talk.
You can contact me by email: margaret@mbcross-cultural.com.au or by mobile: 0409 062 610
by Margaret on May 10, 2009
2006 is the third Census that I’ve been through since I have specialized in cross-cultural training. Up until the 2006 Census, Tagalog and Filipino were treated as one language. In the 2006 Census, however, the two languages were separated. I am mystified by this since my understanding has always been that Tagalog, as the language of Manila and the island of Luzon, was first the unofficial lingua franca of the Philippines (which has a total of something like 800 languages across the archipelago) and was later given official status as the national language, when it was renamed ‘Filipino’. Same language, different names: ‘Filipino’ indicating national official status.
But the fact that the Australian Census has separated the two languages would indicate that linguists are now saying that they are separate languages.
Anyone who can solve this mystery, please let me know!
by Margaret on March 29, 2009
A group of refugees from Bhutan has arrived in Cairns for resettlement.
I must admit I was a bit mystified when I heard that Bhutan had refugees. Wasn’t this the country that valued human happiness so highly that it was held up as an example to the rest of the world for promoting the concept of Gross National Happiness? (See: http://www.developments.org.uk/articles/bhutan-where-happiness-outranks-wealth/)
Well, yes. But a group of Nepali-speaking Hindu Bhutanese from southern Bhutan were apparently ejected from their own country about 17 years ago, when they rebelled against the government’s decision to promote the dominant Buddhist culture.
The government was evidently concerned about the increasing Hindu population upsetting the power balance in the country. The Hindu Bhutanese sought refuge in neighboring Nepal and have lived in refugee camps there ever since. (India refused to allow these Bhutanese refugees across its border.) It is estimated that the number of refugees in Nepalese camps is about 100,000. (For more information: http://www.amnesty.org.au/refugees/comments/10628/)
A concerted effort has been made in recent years to find a solution for this group of people. A BCC report says that the USA agreed to take 60,000. Bhutanese refugees have also been resettled in New Zealand.
Bhutanese refugees who have expressed a desire or willingness to be resettled in western countries have been attacked by those refugees who believe they should all continue to fight to return to Bhutan, so the refugee community is very much split.
I’m not sure who made the decision that this group should go to Cairns. Aren’t Bhutan and Nepal in the Himalayas? Hobart might have been more appropriate.
But they are very welcome in Queensland. I am sure that they are being looked after very well by the team at Migrant Settlement Services in Cairns.
The Amnesty International website with its links to relevant BBC news items is a good source of information on this group.
by Margaret on March 25, 2009
I’ve just come back from running a cross-cultural skills for community workers program in Toowoomba for those community workers involved in providing information sessions on a range of issues to recently arrived settlers from African communities. (I don’t know what it is about the air in Toowoomba, but the most exciting things seem to happen there. If you’d like to know more about the project, you can contact David Barton at Mercy Family Services.)
In the course of running the working with professional interpreters section of the program, a question came up that I didn’t know the answer to (not an uncommon situation), and I promised to follow-up with the answer and to post it on my blog.
The question was: have all ‘NAATI-recognized’ (as opposed to ‘NAATI-accredited’) interpreters had training on the interpreters’ code of ethics? One of the participants had had an experience with a non-accredited interpreter (she wasn’t aware of whether the person was ‘recognized’ or not) supplied by TIS which showed that this particular interpreter appeared to be lacking in awareness of his/her responsibilities in relation to professional behaviour.
The only person to answer this question definitively is Jim Duncan, the Queensland manager of NAATI (National Authority for the Accreditation of Translators and Interpreters). So I called him. (Jim is very approachable and if you have any questions about NAATI accreditation, he is the person to talk to.)
(’NAATI-recognition’ is very important for service-providers trying to communicate with refugees who speak languages with small populations in Australia. They are usually recently arrived languages and so NAATI has not had time to put in place an accreditation testing system. ‘Recognition’ is the only way that NAATI can provide some assurance of competence for interpreters of these languages prior to the full testing system being set up. ‘Recognition’ depends on the person being able to show proof that they have acted as an interpreter in the past. All references are checked by NAATI before ‘recognition’ status is granted.)
Jim’s answer: It is only in the last two years that NAATI has required code of ethics training for newly ‘recognized’ interpreters. Anyone ‘recognized’ before that time was not required to do any training. So it is possible that there are ‘recognized’ interpreters who do not understand their responsibilities as interpreters under the interpreting code of ethics, and may be breaching the code of ethics.
(For full detailes of the interpreting code of ethics, go to the AUSIT (Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators Inc) website: www.ausit.org)
This is important information for all service-providers to recently arrived refugees (particularly from Africa and Myanmar) to be aware of. An additional question to be asked at the beginning of an interpreting session with a ‘recognized’ interpreter may be: have you been trained in the interpreting code of ethics?
by Margaret on March 22, 2009
Reading is a great way to increase your cross-cultural awareness.
My usual obsession is with non-fiction and I have my favourite historians, anthropologists, psychologists and linguists whose books are gradually finding their way onto my website so that more people can become aware of them.
But fiction, provided it is based squarely on historical fact, is for many people even more persuasive. A couple of years ago I discovered the multi award-winning Australian-Bangladeshi writer, Adib Khan, whose books Seasonal Adjustments (1995) and Spiral Road (2007) explore the issues around cultural transplantation that many Australians of many origins are constantly grappling with. I loved these books, but on the whole I find non-fiction more trustworthy.
I did a cross-cultural training program at the Gold Coast last week which was attended by, among others, a group of young women who handed me a slip of paper at the end of my program with a list of novels (by Khaled Hosseini, Guy Mortenson and Greg Roberts) that they had found riveting. These are now on this blogsite. You can also find them by choosing the ‘Books’ tab on my website. If you have other books, fiction or non-fiction, that have had a big impact on you, send them to me and I’ll put them up, too.
And do you think fiction is trustworthy as a source of cross-cultural knowledge? I’d like to know.
by Margaret on March 8, 2009
I am delighted to be able, at last, to offer to the broader community some of the insights and knowledge that I have gained over the past 15 years specializing in cross-cultural training.
Queensland’s cultural and linguistic diversity is astonishing. (226 birthplaces and 221 languages-spoken-at-home identified in the 2006 Census.) The world has come to us! There is now no need to travel the world to explore cultural difference and languages. They are all here. And increasing all the time, particularly as new world trouble spots throw up new groups of people seeking refuge from victimization.
If we, as Queenslanders, have a goal of a harmonious and prosperous Queensland now and in the future, then every one of us needs to make an effort to support the settlement of these new arrivals, whether they are independent settlers, 457 visa holders or refugees.
Many Anglo-Australians feel trepidation about large numbers of settlers who look very different from themselves. (The settlers experience this trepidation, too.) This is entirely natural. But the process of overcoming the trepidation is not all that painful. Much can be achieved through information and direct contact with, getting to know personally, individuals from these groups.
If you think your club, society or community organization might enjoy exploring these things through having me as a guest speaker for a short session of 20 minutes to an hour, contact me.
My contact details are on my website: www.mbcross-cultural.com.au
by Margaret on February 27, 2009
by Margaret on February 26, 2009
I’m running two of these programs in the 2009 Calendar, and will add more if there is sufficient interest. Cross-Cultural Skills for Teachers is also available for in-house delivery.
Drawing on my 14 years’ experience running cross-cultural training for every level of Queensland educational institutions, Cross-Cultural Skills for Teachers identifies the cultural and language issues that teachers need to be on top of if they are to support the acculturation and educational needs of their immigrant, refugee and 457 visa students.
It is hard to overestimate the role of the classroom teacher in the successful settlement of these students into their new home in Queensland. The issues involved are many and complex. Too often the cultural and linguistic needs of immigrating students have been neglected in teacher training and in-service programs in Queensland.
Cross-Cultural Skills for Teachers is one way for professional teachers and schools to start, or continue, the process of integrating cultural competence skills into their teaching practice.
My colleague and associate, Ann E Oliveri, will be delivering a two-hour segment in the afternoon of this program. This will focus on practical classroom techniques that all teachers will find useful to consider. Annie is an exceptionally skilled and experienced ESL teacher. See her profile on my website.
All details of Cross-Cultural Skills for Teachers are available on the information sheet downloadable from my website: dates, prices, content details, and registration options.