This is the video documentary to be shown at today's language rights town hall.
Produced by Minji Yi, a high school student volunteer at KRC.
Transcript
Life is hard when I can't communicate in English.
Not being able to read it...
The language barrier...
Having a college education doesn't warrant that you will be proficient in the language...
Not being able to speak it...
Not being able to communicate with others...
Because I can't speak English...
The language issue is a headchae...
Being forced to speak English is very hard...
It's very difficult to communicate...
I went to the hospital after making an appointment for a surgery. I thought everything would go smoothly but because they did not provide interpretation I was unable to communicate with them and I was refused treatment.
Today I brought my Medi-Cal notice letters to KRC's office to get help reading them. This is not my first time. The notice letters are all in English so I spend hours visiting various social service organizations asking people to read the letters for me.
When I walk in to hospitals and ask for an interpreter they tell me to sit and wait and it can be 30 minutes or even hours waiting for the interpreter. At the end, I give up and head back home.
Not being able to speak English is a great pain. It's very hard to learn. I tried attending adult school for a few months. but with an impaired hearing and bad eyesight it just won't work.
English is very difficult to learn even for the college educated. Most seniors from Korea haven't had access to formal education. We can't imagine how much harder it is for them to navigate the system.
Not being able to speak English just makes everything hard. Language truly is a "barrier". All letters only come in in English. You can't read them without someone else's help. This hardship is just beyond words.
There's this community group called the Community Health Promoters. I joined the Community Health Promoters. We carried out surveys on language access and visited the Department of Public Social Services to campaign on our issues demanding the Medi-Cal letters be sent in our language. We also visited the L.A. County Supervisor.
We all are joining our forces to solve this issue. We are giving our all in this movement to move the Language Access Campaign forward.
I joined the Community Health Promoters upon a friend's invitation.
By getting involved I realized that this group's work is essential for our seniors' rights.
I joined this campaign, and visited the L.A. Supervisor's office and visited the Department of Public Social Services.
I hope our efforts will bear fruit and we will start receiving the letters in our language. Please support our campaign.