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Now You’re Speaking My Language

November 2nd, 2020

I recently conducted training for a client here in Connecticut. When I arrived on site, I immediately noticed that a lot of the employees were speaking Polish. While this isn’t unusual in Connecticut, it had special significance for me. My parents came to America from Poland searching for new opportunities. My parents only knew how to speak Polish, so I grew up learning that language in the earliest years of my life.

I trained the employees on respirator protection, hazard communications, and personal protective equipment. When I was done with the trainings there was a lot of chatter going on between the employees trying to complete the quizzes. One employee came up to me and began to ask me a quiz question. I could tell English was not his first language, and I started to speak to him in Polish. If you saw the way his eyes lit up you wouldn’t believe it! This employee yelled to a table of Polish people, to tell them I spoke Polish. They all came running over to me and started asking me an abundance of quiz questions they didn’t understand.

Once that happened, I got all the Polish speaking employees that needed help together at a table. I then started reviewing the quizzes by simply translating the questions. If the employees still didn’t understand the questions I would try to explain and simplify them. Whenever they didn’t understand something, I would ask if they remembered that part of the training. I would quickly reference the PowerPoint and start translating the slides so they would not only hear it, but also understand it. At the end of the day I had to make sure everyone was on the same page and recognized what could happen if the trainings were not understood. I’m glad I was able to use my first language to help those employees to be safer at work.

HRP is here to help you Przenieś swoje środowisko do przodu (move your environment forward).

Arek Myszka, Consultant at HRP Associates, Inc.