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Newham Council Community Language Survey Speakers of Farsi
1.
Characteristics of respondents
60
respondents answering the Language Survey were speakers of Farsi. Table
1 summarises their general characteristics.
·
85% of the respondents were male and the vast majority were aged under
45 (98%), with three out of four respondents aged under 35 (78%).
·
83% originated in Afghanistan, with the remainder originating in Iran
(12%, or 7 respondents).
·
More than four out of five of the Farsi speakers interviewed (83%) had
lived in this country for less than 3 years. 42% had arrived here within
the last 12 months.
·
It appears that most of the respondents had lived in Newham for most
of the time they have been in this country as the figures for how long
they have lived here closely coincide – almost half (48%) had been in
Newham less than a year.
Table 1: Characteristics of Farsi language respondents
2.
Language and communication
skills
Language most comfortable using
All
of the respondents were most comfortable using Farsi when speaking,
although 1 respondent mentioned Urdu.
With
regard to both reading and writing, a small minority in each case gave
no answer as to which language they were most comfortable using, as
Table 2 below shows.
For
reading or writing, virtually all respondents were still most comfortable
using Farsi, although again Urdu was mentioned for reading by 1 respondent.
Base
= all respondents Having
stated which language they felt most comfortable using, respondents
were also asked about any other languages they felt comfortable using
for everyday conversations. 80% volunteered no other language, but 15%
(9 respondents) mentioned Pushti/ Pushto, and 5% Russian (3 respondents).
One respondent each mentioned Urdu and Turkish.
Formal verbal communication in English/ own language
Respondents
were asked how confident they are about talking formally and understanding
what is being said when someone is talking formally to them – they were
given the examples of talking to their Doctor, the Police or the Council.
They were asked about their talking and understanding in both English
and their own language. Table 3 below compares the proportions able
to talk formally in English and understand when English is spoken formally
to them, with those able to talk or understand their own language in
a formal situation.
Respondents
were not at all confident about being able to communicate verbally in
English – in each case, well over half of the respondents (58%) say
they cannot talk formally or understand formal talk in English very
well, and some 40% cannot talk or understand English at all in formal
situations.
Over
70% of those respondents who have lived in this country less than a
year say they cannot understand English spoken in formal situations
at all, whereas 80% who have lived here over a year say they don’t understand
English very well in such situations but only 20% say not at all.
In
contrast, respondents show much more confidence about talking and understanding
in a formal situation when using their own language – 87% say they can
understand very well and 73% that they can talk very well in formal
situations.
Table 3 : Formal communication: talking and understanding
Formal written communication in English / own language
When
asked about written communication in English, respondents express very
little confidence, with over half (52%) saying they could not read
a formal letter in English at all, and a further 48% not very well.
Over 90% would not feel able to write a formal or official letter
in English at all, and the remaining 8% say not very well.
However,
respondents are much less confident with regard to reading and writing
formally in their own language than with verbal communication – just
over half (57%) say they could read and understand a formal letter
very well, and only 15% believe they could write a formal letter
very well, with the majority (62%) saying quite well. Almost one in
five respondents (18%) say that they would not be able to write a formal
letter in their own language at all.
Although
the sample of females is too small for any significant conclusions to
be drawn, the female respondents interviewed are less confident than
the males about their ability to communicate in English – all the females
said they could not write a formal letter in English at all, and 8 out
of 10 could not read a letter in English at all.
Table 4 : Formal communication: reading and writing
Reading an English newspaper/ publication
There
are no Farsi speaking respondents who are confident that they
are able to read and understand the information in a daily newspaper
such as the Sun, Mirror, Guardian or Times. 20% are not very
confident about undertaking this, but 80% of all the respondents are
not at all confident about their ability to read a newspaper
in English.
Table 5: Level of confidence in being able to read a daily newspaper
in English Base
= all respondents
3.
Contact with the Council
Use of council services
Some
three-quarters of respondents (73%) have used council services in the
past (44 respondents), These 44 respondents gave a variety of reasons
for contact, most often for housing/ accommodation matters (73%), for
social security (52%), or for health/ medical issues including requests
for a GP (52%), but also for educational matters (23%) and council tax
payment or enquiries (18%). A minority of respondents also refer to
a range of other reasons for contact - job centres, leisure centres etc..
Table
6 below shows the level of understanding in both verbal and written
contact with the Council.
(Clearly
sample sizes are small so responses should be viewed with caution.)
Table 6: Ease of understanding Council staff/ letters from Council
Verbal contact with the council
84%
of respondents had had face-to-face contact with council staff, while
7% (3 respondents) had spoken to them on the telephone and one respondent
had spoken via an interpreter.
Virtually
all of these respondents had experienced difficulty in understanding
the council staff that dealt with their enquiry, as shown in Table 6
above. Over half had only understood council staff with some difficulty
and over 40% had experienced great difficulty in understanding.
Only
23% of respondents contacting the council were presented with an option
to use an interpreter, and just 1 out of the 32 respondents not given
this option felt that this wouldn’t have helped – 97% of respondents
said it would have helped.
Of
those 10 respondents given the option of using an interpreter, all then
fully understood the council staff as a result. No respondents felt
that having an interpreter failed to improve their understanding.
When
visiting Council offices, just under half of respondents normally take
someone else with them, 52% say they go alone: - 43% take a friend - 7% take a family member (3 respondents) - 5% take an interpreter (2 respondents)
Written contact with the Council
As
with verbal contact, the vast majority of respondents only understand
letters received from the council with difficulty (Table 6). Almost
half (48%) experience ‘some difficulty’ and a third (34%) ‘great difficulty’.
Virtually
all respondents (95%) said it would help if letters were translated,
essentially because it would allow them to read it for themselves and
be independent.
4.
Communication options
Newspaper readership
92%
of all Farsi speaking respondents do not regularly read any newspaper.
A small minority read a limited selection of English-language
national and local newspapers, including 7% The Sun (4 respondents),
5% The Mirror (3 respondents) and 3% The Newham Recorder (2 respondents).
Broadcast media
The
vast majority of respondents (94%) do not regularly watch any
TV channel in their own language. 5% of respondents (3 respondents)
say they watch own language television but do not specify which channel,
and 1 respondent mentions Jame-Jam.
63%
of respondents do not listen regularly to any radio programme
in their own language either. Some nine own language radio programmes
are mentioned but none by more than 20% of respondents:
·
BBC Radio in Farsi 17% 10
respondents
·
Radio Iran 10% 6
respondents
·
Des Pardes 7% 4 respondents
·
Radio France in Farsi 7% 4 respondents
·
Voice of America in Farsi 5% 3 respondents
·
Farsi Radio 5% 3 respondents
·
Waves in Farsi 2% 1 respondent
·
German Voice for the Middle East in Farsi 2%
1 respondent
·
Iranian News 2% 1 respondent
Computer ownership
Only
10% of all respondents live in households where someone has a computer
– only 2 respondents own a computer themselves, but the remainder have
a friend or room mate who owns one. However, only 3 respondents out
of the sample as a whole said they would be able to use the computer
to access information.
Table
7 compares the proportions of the sample as a whole who can be reached
by the different media types.
Table 7: Exposure to different media types Base
= all respondents
5.
Other sources of information
Voluntary organisations visited
Only
5% of all respondents say that they regularly use or visit at least
one voluntary organisation – of the 3 respondents, one names the Bengali
Association but the others refer to their college or campus.
Religious venues visited
Just
under a quarter of respondents (22%) regularly attend a religious venue
(13 respondents).
8
out of these 13 visit a Mosque, the rest refer to a college – Newham,
Stratford or Eastham Colleges.
Sources of help and advice
Asked
where they would go for help, advice or support, by far the highest
proportion of respondents, 87%, would turn to their friends, family
or neighbours.
In
addition, 8% mention advice centres (5 respondents), 7% a Library (4
respondents) and 7% their college or school (4 respondents).
Just
1 respondent each mentions the Council Offices or Town Hall, a solicitor
or a religious venue. Usual sources of information
When
asked about ‘the most common way’ that they hear information (e.g. events,
benefits etc) by far the highest proportion, 75% of respondents, say
they rely on word of mouth, and a further 7% look to friends and family
to supply information. 8% mention the radio (5 respondents) and 5% the
television (3 respondents).
Only
a couple of respondents in each case gather such information from either
leaflets in English or leaflets
in their own language.
Table 8: Most common way of hearing information Base
= all respondents
Suggested means of publicising information
Respondents
were also asked if they could think of anywhere else that information
could be publicised to make it easier for them to access. Half of the
respondents had no suggestions to make.
Table
9 summarises the main suggestions put forward, with medical centres
and educational centres suggested the most often, by just under a quarter
of respondents in each case.
A
number of other possibilities are put forward
- Social security/ benefits offices/ DHSS by 12% of respondents,
housing offices by 10%, leisure centres and libraries by 7% and 5% respectively.
Table 9: Suggested places for publicising information Base
= all respondents
When
asked which format would be most useful for information to be
supplied in, respondents showed an overwhelming preference for text
translations (82%) rather than audio, video or telephone translations.
Text is preferred across all age groups.
The
main reasons given for this preference are that with text:
·
it is easier to understand (37%)
·
can read it myself (27%)
·
takes less time and is more convenient (22%)
Only
a tiny minority (2%) believe that a text translation is the least
useful format for information in their own language.
Asked
which format is the least useful, some 85% of respondents gave
no answer. Among the minority who did answer, telephone translations
emerged as the least useful, chosen by 12% of respondents, regarded
as being ‘more difficult’ and ‘not necessarily appropriate’.
Base
= all respondents
6.
Provision of information
by the Council in leaflet form
Ease of reading leaflets
Table
11 shows how easy or difficult respondents find it to get information
from leaflets in English and in their own language. Virtually all of
the respondents (90%) have difficulty in reading leaflets themselves
in English, with 43% saying they would have great difficulty.
Only
just under half say they would find it very or fairly easy to get someone
to explain a leaflet in English to them (45%). Most would rely on a
friend (87%) or a family member (22%) to explain it.
In
comparison, 90% of the sample said they would find it fairly or very
easy to read a leaflet in their own language, and most of these would
find it very easy (75%). As a result, most did not answer when asked
how easy it would be to get someone to explain a leaflet in their own
language to them, as the question became irrelevant.
Table 11: Ease of reading leaflets or getting leaflets explained in English
and in own language Base
= all respondents
Preferred options for receiving information from the council
When
asked initially, respondents generally welcomed the idea of being given
details with a leaflet in English of where they could go to have an
interpreter explain the leaflet to them – 82% felt this would be useful.
However,
given a number of options, having a place to go for a translation is
less popular than receiving a fully translated leaflet – 80% of respondents
would prefer to have a fully translated leaflet. This preference is
expressed across all respondents regardless of age or gender etc..
The
two options almost equally regarded as least useful are a leaflet
in English with a telephone number to receive a translation (37%) and
having somewhere to go in order to get a translation (35%), as Table
12 below shows. Conversely, only 12% of the sample regard a text translation
as the least useful of the four suggestions
Table 12: Most and least useful method for receiving general information Base
= all respondents
Full
translated leaflet Partial
translation with a system to get further information Leaflet
in English with telephone number to request a translation Somewhere
you can go) Summary Sheet - Farsi
·
Sample consists mainly
of young (under 35) men.
·
Mostly from Afghanistan,
some from Iran.
·
Short UK residency, most
under three years.
·
Very low newspaper readership,
very low TV use, quite low radio use (BBC Farsi).
·
Low level of household
computers.
·
Little use of voluntary
organisations.
·
One quarter use religious
venues (Local Mosques).
·
Information/advice/help
gained via word of mouth from local community/family.
·
English - Verbal - uncertain, around 50% feel they can
make an attempt Written - uncertain, around
50% feel they can make an attempt
·
Farsi - Verbal - good, most are confident Written - good understanding,
some difficulty in writing
·
75% have utilised council
services (for Council Tax/Benefits).
·
Contact evaluated as difficult,
especially written contact.
·
Most verbal contact is
face to face; many take a friend/family member for help.
·
Prefer full Farsi text
translations of leaflets.
·
Suggest providing this
information in Medical Facilities and Educational Centres.
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