Building an English-Hmong Medical Resource Through a Community Intergenerational Approach
Nathen Badenoch
Associate Professor of Japanese and Asian Studies
Program Director of Asian Studies
Villanova University
Maichou Lor
Helen Denne Schulte Professor of Nursing
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Medical interpretation in the clinical setting involves both language and cultural knowledge and skills. Differences in how patients and providers prioritize and frame “important” health information can complicate medical interpretation, as clinicians and patients often assign varying significance to symptoms, concerns, and health goals. The Hmong American community, particularly older patients, often tell stories about their health condition, while health practitioners value precise information. Interpreters, who are mediators of the communicative space, experience these challenges in unique ways. A common challenge in medical interpreting is the perception that Hmong “lacks” the vocabulary needed to enable effective communication. In response to this challenge, we engaged in a multi-generational process that brought interpreters together with academics and community members to produce an English-Hmong dictionary of medical terms. The process was more than a matter of “translating” words, as we engaged with issues of dialect, notions of wellbeing, and practices of communication and cultural perceptions of linguistic appropriateness. In this talk, we will share how we built the dictionary and the space it occupies in the multilingual, multicultural clinical and community setting.