mental health care limited for immigrants

[pedroh 21]

there is also a little bit of discrimination towards non-native english speakers too when they get hired... I wouldn't think of discrimination (which, yes it is) but rather I guess they don't trust the english level of a non-native speaker.. of course they are not gonna tell u 'oh well we're not hiring you because u're not a native speaker'.. but, they're gonna send u a letter 'ah yes.. we found a better candidate, yadda yadda'...

[Satisfaction 1]

Nobody speaks English in NYC! The funny thing is that if you take out the Jews and the Asians, I wonder who will make your diagnostic here!?

I don't care what language one speaks. It's a human being regarless.

Let's ask Freud what he thinks about that. Maybe in German.

[Chicky 0]

Yes I know that pedroh, but also a lot of companies will hire them over me because it creates a diverse workplace under, ahhh ###### I can't remember the name of that bill, about hiring minorities. I'm tired and can't think. Our company has done that, hired more diverse people over others because they are of a differnet race. I wish I could think of the damn name of that, oh well I'm sure someone will. It looks good for them

[pedroh 21]

is it affirmative action?

[Chicky 0]

Yes thanks pedroh thats it, was driving me nuts LOL

[Fischkoepfin 1]

Regardless of whether you believe that Mexican should learn English, the problem described in the article goes much deeper. It also has nothing to do with Mexican immigrants besides the fact that the woman who inspired this article happens to be Mexican.

However, the lack of accessible psychological health care is a widespread problem in much of the US anyway. And even in areas or communities that are relatively well served, chances are that counseling will be in English. However, that is a true handicap when trying to find help in your new surroundings; because of the stigma attached to mental illness, for most people it is already hard enough to bring up the courage and see a counselor in the first place. Now imagine you needed to bring a family member, neighbor or friend in order to talk about your mental health issues with a stranger (and at the first session, the counselor will be a stranger too).

What truly horrifies me about this situation is the realization that this lack of accessible mental health services even affects university campuses which have generally good access to mental health services. Yet, I doubt that my school which happens to have the highest number of international students in the country has any counselors that speak other languages fluently enough to do counseling in them. As I know from working with some of these international students as an editor and tutor, many of them could use help to get over adjustment issues and deal with the pressure of school. In the last 2 years, there have been two murders committed by highly intelligent graduate students from abroad and there have also been several suicides of international students. Similar things happened to international students at every other university I've attended, and I do think that there is a correlation to a general lack of native language services.

I'm certain that if the situation at a university that devotes a lot of resources to international students is that desolate, then it must be worse in other communities across the country. Something needs to be done to prevent murders and suicides, and complaining about the immigrants' willingness to learn English won't cut it.

[almaty 19]

Nobody speaks English in NYC! The funny thing is that if you take out the Jews and the Asians, I wonder who will make your diagnostic here!?

I don't care what language one speaks. It's a human being regarless.

Let's ask Freud what he thinks about that. Maybe in German.

Melo, you rock....

Regardless of whether you believe that Mexican should learn English, the problem described in the article goes much deeper. It also has nothing to do with Mexican immigrants besides the fact that the woman who inspired this article happens to be Mexican.

However, the lack of accessible psychological health care is a widespread problem in much of the US anyway. And even in areas or communities that are relatively well served, chances are that counseling will be in English. However, that is a true handicap when trying to find help in your new surroundings; because of the stigma attached to mental illness, for most people it is already hard enough to bring up the courage and see a counselor in the first place. Now imagine you needed to bring a family member, neighbor or friend in order to talk about your mental health issues with a stranger (and at the first session, the counselor will be a stranger too).

What truly horrifies me about this situation is the realization that this lack of accessible mental health services even affects university campuses which have generally good access to mental health services. Yet, I doubt that my school which happens to have the highest number of international students in the country has any counselors that speak other languages fluently enough to do counseling in them. As I know from working with some of these international students as an editor and tutor, many of them could use help to get over adjustment issues and deal with the pressure of school. In the last 2 years, there have been two murders committed by highly intelligent graduate students from abroad and there have also been several suicides of international students. Similar things happened to international students at every other university I've attended, and I do think that there is a correlation to a general lack of native language services.

I'm certain that if the situation at a university that devotes a lot of resources to international students is that desolate, then it must be worse in other communities across the country. Something needs to be done to prevent murders and suicides, and complaining about the immigrants' willingness to learn English won't cut it.

amen..

[Traviesa 0]

I just want to comment on whoever said that Americans don't seem to want to learn foreign languages...I find that to be very untrue, increasingly more untrue every day. Walk through the children's section of a bookstore and see how many books, CDs, and DVDs are dedicated to teaching foreign languages-I can think of Baby Einstein's in particular, Dora the Explorer, Maya and Miguel, etc. The point is...people DO want to learn foreign languages. I don't know about other school districts, but it was a requirement to graduate high school that you have at least 2 years of foreign language...ANY language. There were kids taking Latin, for Heaven's sake. There's certainly nothing wrong with learning a foreign language-it doesn't hurt you at all, if it does anything, it makes you smarter and more valuable in the workforce. And like I said, the schools are starting to recognize this as they are teaching foreign languages now in elementary school, at the time when the children will be able to learn them best. The fact of the matter is, whether you like American being bilingual, we are living in a global market and I can almost guarantee you that at some point you are going to have to interact with someone from another country. In my short less than 2 year career already I've interacted with people from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, and the UK. I can tell you that my knowledge of Spanish has helped me immensely...an example: in my last job, we were trying to figure out some invoice from France and my boss was like what does this word mean? The word was "Facture." I just happened to remember the Spanish word for invoice which is "Factura." Mystery solved. All I'm saying is that we need to recognize that just as difficult as it would be for my boss at the age of 50 to learn Spanish (we were having this discussion a few weeks ago) imagine how difficult it would be for a Mexican (or any foreigner) of around the same age who immigrates to learn English which is an exceedingly difficult language to learn, adding in the factor that more than likely said immigrant does not have the same educational level and aptitude to learn as my boss. I think a little acceptance and tolerance is in order here. You may not want to learn Spanish, but your kids probably will, and does it really hurt you to see signs or instructions in Spanish? Just ignore them. It's amazing-some of these same people are probably the ones I always overhear in the Mexican restaurant so proud of using their limited Spanish with the waiter and having the main topic of conversation being how much Spanish they know and how important it is to know Spanish anymore.

[pax 0]

While I agree that Spanish-speaking immigrants (and any immigrants for whom English is not a first language, for that matter) would do well to acquire English skills, I hesitate to take a hard line "Welcome to America, Now Speak English" stance. I suppose this is because I'm a language enthusiast myself in some part, but also because many, many other countries seem to get by just fine with a plurality of languages spoken and used, even officially.

I know of a Canadian man, for example, who was offered an excellent job with the Canadian government, but his hiring was probational until he completed a French-language certification. All government business in Canada is conducted in English and Quebecois French, and Canada as we know it has not crumbled. Quebecois children are required to take English classes, and Anglophone children are required to take French, yes? (Maybe one of the Canadian post-ers can enlighten us on the pros and cons of a truly bilingual society.)

Absolutely, immigrants should be strongly encouraged to learn English. But that will not solve the problem in the article Almaty posted; ESL classes will allow immigrants to conduct their daily business, but possibly not to pour their hearts out to a therapist. Heck, I imagine that pouring one's heart out in one's native tongue is hard enough! Nor will it somehow eliminate any trace of other languages used either colloquially or officially, nor should it. When it comes to certain things, it makes good business and ethical sense to provide people with the opportunity to converse in their native tongues.

[Chicky 0]

Erm Melo Dean Satisfaction posted that. I'm confused

[almaty 19]

Erm Melo Dean Satisfaction posted that. I'm confused

oh sorry... Satisfaction you rock...thanks chicky..i am such a chopf##k

[pedroh 21]

I just want to comment on whoever said that Americans don't seem to want to learn foreign languages...I find that to be very untrue, increasingly more untrue every day. Walk through the children's section of a bookstore and see how many books, CDs, and DVDs are dedicated to teaching foreign languages-I can think of Baby Einstein's in particular, Dora the Explorer, Maya and Miguel, etc. The point is...people DO want to learn foreign languages. I don't know about other school districts, but it was a requirement to graduate high school that you have at least 2 years of foreign language...ANY language. There were kids taking Latin, for Heaven's sake. There's certainly nothing wrong with learning a foreign language-it doesn't hurt you at all, if it does anything, it makes you smarter and more valuable in the workforce. And like I said, the schools are starting to recognize this as they are teaching foreign languages now in elementary school, at the time when the children will be able to learn them best. The fact of the matter is, whether you like American being bilingual, we are living in a global market and I can almost guarantee you that at some point you are going to have to interact with someone from another country. In my short less than 2 year career already I've interacted with people from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, and the UK. I can tell you that my knowledge of Spanish has helped me immensely...an example: in my last job, we were trying to figure out some invoice from France and my boss was like what does this word mean? The word was "Facture." I just happened to remember the Spanish word for invoice which is "Factura." Mystery solved. All I'm saying is that we need to recognize that just as difficult as it would be for my boss at the age of 50 to learn Spanish (we were having this discussion a few weeks ago) imagine how difficult it would be for a Mexican (or any foreigner) of around the same age who immigrates to learn English which is an exceedingly difficult language to learn, adding in the factor that more than likely said immigrant does not have the same educational level and aptitude to learn as my boss. I think a little acceptance and tolerance is in order here. You may not want to learn Spanish, but your kids probably will, and does it really hurt you to see signs or instructions in Spanish? Just ignore them. It's amazing-some of these same people are probably the ones I always overhear in the Mexican restaurant so proud of using their limited Spanish with the waiter and having the main topic of conversation being how much Spanish they know and how important it is to know Spanish anymore.

to a certain extent you are right.. I can tell new families are very interested in spanish, as I saw how well these new 'bilingual' laptop toys sold... I heard the mothers of kids explaining them they needed that toy to learn spanish and such.. My co-workers they try to learn a few words each day to help customers.. that's also true.. I can see that businesses are very interested too.. but missliss.. lolol.. read the comments against spanish speaking people in this site, and you know what im talking about.. I've never seen so many 'ur in America!! speak english!!' as i've seen it in VJ, added to that well known anti-hispanic sentiment that is also part of VJ..

so, how can I expect to believe all americans are interested in learning spanish, while americans in this 'immigrant site' which I'd think they've a more relaxed and tolerant attitude start with the 'In America we speak English'! 'Im a proud ####### and I hate other languages'.. etc etc...

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

We're talking Arkansas here people. Not exactly 1st world (joke). I knew a guy from there and he would say "thank God for Mississippi". Because AR was 49th in everything and only MS was lower at 50th.

[pedroh 21]