Exhaustion

[watervole]

 I'm feeling really drained. Most of it is the sciatica, but some of it's Ukrainian stuff.

Kyrill is doing great, I hasten to add.  Continues to be a pleasure to have in the house.

 

There are more refugees arriving locally, all with different needs.

I'm working with a pair of dentists this week.  If ever there was a profession we need in this country, it's dentists.

But they can't practice here (and rightly so) until their English is good enough to pass the GDC exam. (Think about it, if they can't read and write patient records in English then they cannot possibly work in a dental practice as patient records are crucial to understanding the patient's history, and to leaving a detailed record for people who may treat them in the future)

I've found a qualified TEFL teacher to work for free on general English with them and a local dentist who is willing to help them with more specialised terminology.  but a lot will depend on how much time they are willing to spend learning online.  One has English at roughly GCSE level, and the other is probably a little below that.

It's going to be a steep learning curve for them.

 

 

 

Comments

[lilysea]

Thank you for doing this hard, important, work! ^_^

[watervole]

Thanks. If it wasn't for the constant pain from the sciatica it would probably be easy. Many people are willing to help -it's just a case of finding them and putting them in touch with the people who need their particular skills.

[lilysea]

I am all-too-familiar with chronic pain! :(

Mine moves around

(I have several different pain-causing conditions),

but on any given day I might have significant pain in
neck
shoulders
hands
wrists
lower back
left hip
vulva

[watervole]

That seriously sucks.

My sympathies.

[vera_j]

I am sorry to hear you are in pain, dear friend.

As for the refugees, we are between the rock and hard place...and getting worse. I am glad you have such a nice guy there.

[watervole]

Kirill struggles sometimes. Usually when there is bad news from Ukraine. His parents are in the occupied territories and he phones them every evening.

[vera_j]

Oh yes, no wonder, I feel for him and his family. Please, give him my regards and support.

[julesjones]

My own lovely NHS dentist is Greek, and when he first arrived about 8 or 9 years ago he could speak English, but very slowly and often needing to have things rephrased for him - the sort of fluency of someone who has had good education in English but little chance to practice in an English-speaking environment. It did make for longer sessions, although I think his written English was adequate for notes. I'm glad you've found a local dentist to help them out, if only so that they don't get so frustrated with trying to get up to speed with general English they've no energy left for trying to learn the professional English on their own.

[watervole]

I think their English is weaker than your Greek dentist.

My TEFL friend who is helping them says they're below GCSE level.
I can tell they are guessing at a lot of what I say, and I have to speak slowly and choose my words carefully.

[igenlode]

My dentist (back before Covid -- I haven't heard from the practice since they cancelled my last routine checkup in 2020 and don't even know if I'm still on the books at this point) was German, but you would only have known it because the name on the plate was Bernhard and not Bernard :-)
(Plus the trace of accent -- but he was completely colloquially fluent.)

[watervole]

Sounds very like my Dutch physiotherapist.