How to bust language barriers
By Alaina Lancaster on Sep. 27, 2016The incredible diversity of the foodservice workforce can create day-to-day communication challenges, which aren't likely to go away any time soon. Minority populations in the U.S. will grow by 37% in the next few years, and many members of the largest minority groups, such as Hispanic and Latin Americans, prefer to speak a language other than English, according to the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance. However, these foodservice directors from multilingual properties have some helpful hints to smooth out miscommunication among staff and guests.
Strategic signage
Besides the nearly 200,000 multilingual residents in Austin, Texas (according to Alta Language Services), Austin Independent School District also must seamlessly communicate with several Spanish and Vietnamese dual language schools. Anneliese Tanner, nutrition and food services director for the district, says signs are a key part of what keeps her operation running smoothly. All procedural signs are written in both English and Spanish to convey health, safety and food handling guidelines. The department also offers staff complimentary English as a Second Language classes.
To ensure that students and parents can navigate nutrition services, Tanner prints menus in English and Spanish. This year, Tanner’s team introduced icons that depict the type of meat in a menu item or if it’s vegetarian. “By using these recognizable animal icons on our menus and signage, our international students can more easily determine their options each day,” she says.
Multilingual meeting resources
The culinary team at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., is predominantly Latino and mostly bilingual. But a few members of the team speak mainly Spanish, and two speak Greek. Translating for Spanish is never really an issue, says Jon Webster, senior director of dining services, because there’s always someone nearby who can translate. However, the team sets up a Spanish-speaking table at staff meetings so that information can be quickly disseminated. “That way the information can be translated in real time, which allows for feedback from our entire staff and makes our meetings more inclusive,” Webster says.
For the Greek speakers, communication is often more improvised, with miming or drawing. However, Webster has formed relationships with a few Greek students on campus who have helped translate in the past.
A big challenge for Webster is putting the non-English speakers in the front of house where they are a point of contact and service for guests. However, one of students’ most beloved team members only speaks Spanish. “She is Cuban and knows all of our students by name, but only speaks to them in Spanish,” he says. “They all call her ‘mom’ because she makes up for her lack of comprehension with energy and care—I don’t know if this particular strategy can be duplicated, but energy and charisma definitely overcome language barriers.”
Translation services
In the 2014-15 school year, 49.5% of Oakland Unified School District students spoke a language other than English at home, according to the district’s Research, Assessment and Data department. Jennifer LeBarre—nutrition services director for the Oakland, Calif., district—bridges linguistic disconnects with translated materials. She also has access to clerical employees that are bilingual in Spanish and Cantonese, two of the top languages spoken in the area.
For employees, meetings are translated in different languages. However, it’s the daily operational grind that LeBarre finds difficult. “How do you effectively communicate all the regulations both with the federal meal program and food safety?” she says. In order to overcome that feat, she translates wherever she can and provides extensive training.
Test prep
At Frisco Independent School District in Frisco, Texas, over 70 different languages are spoken at home and English is not the first language for many employees, says Debera Tredennick, director of child nutrition programs. Tredennick’s biggest challenge is helping her team become certified food handlers, which requires passing a proctored written test. “While our employees are very well educated, national tests written for English speakers can be difficult to understand,” she says. “We now have a ‘bank’ of test questions and drill our participants on those questions.”
Although the test is offered in Spanish, her Spanish-speaking employees found the wording difficult because dialect varies across regions and nationalities. Many opt to take the test in English. “We have a supervisor who is Spanish speaking and received that certification taking the test in English,” she says. “She is nationally certified to teach and proctor the tests. She tried once to take the Spanish test and almost failed.”
Individual attention
At Children's Hospital Colorado, based in Aurora, Colo., foodservice staff members speak English, Spanish, Polish, Russian and African languages. John Killeen, foodservice director for the hospital, relies on managers and other employees to translate or demonstrate using the show-don't-tell method. If the message is still stalled, Killeen's team schedules meetings with an employee, an interpreter and a manager for training.