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Newham Borough
Council Language Survey Tamil Speakers
Respondent
Characteristics
The Tamil speaking group numbered 60 respondents. Table 1 below provides a general summary of respondent characteristics.
· The respondents were divided equally between males (47%) and females (53%). The majority fall into the 25-44 age groups (65% in total), and the rest of the respondents were spread fairly evenly amongst all the remaining age groups.
· The country of origin of most for the respondents was Sri Lanka (92%), with India, Pakistan and Malaysia having minority representations.
· With regard to the length of time spent living in this country, many respondents fell into the mid range categories of 1-3 years (40%) and 3-5 years (25%), and again the remaining categories had a fairly even spread of respondents.
Table 1 - Respondent Characteristics Language
and Communication Skills
General Language Skills
All the respondents stated that the language they feel most comfortable speaking is Tamil, whilst all except one preferred Tamil for reading and writing, with the exception preferring Urdu. None of the respondents felt comfortable in using any other languages for everyday conversations.
Formal Verbal Communication
Respondents were asked about their perceived ability to undertake a formal discussion, perhaps with the Police or their Doctor etc. This question was asked in terms of both their ability to understand and to talk themselves, and was asked in relation to both Tamil and English. Table 2 compares the responses given.
Table 2 Formal Verbal Communication Ability
The results show that respondents felt that their formal English skills were very poor, with 80% saying that would be unable to either understand or speak themselves, and the remaining 20% choosing 'not very well' in both cases.
Although the numbers involved are small, results seem to suggest that perception of English language ability is not linked to either age or the amount of time spent living in the UK. Those who have been resident in the UK for a large number of years show a near identical lack of confidence as those who only arrived a short time ago.
In terms of natural language skills, the results were slightly surprising as respondents showed more confidence in their ability to talk themselves than in their ability to understand. As Table 2 shows, most respondents felt they could converse very well in formal Tamil (82% talking, 73% understanding) with the remainder mostly falling into the 'quite well' category, and only a few respondents choosing anything below this.
Again, age and length of time spent living in the UK seem to bear no relation to respondent confidence in their Tamil formal conversation abilities.
Formal Written Communication Ability
Table 3 shows how respondents feel they can read and write in a formal context, again in both English and Tamil.
Table 3 - Formal Written Communication Ability For English language writing, the results are broadly similar to those for verbal communication, although respondents tended to show slightly more confidence, with only around 70% believing that they would not be able to use or understand written English at all. It was difficult to discern any connection between written English ability and either age or time spent living in the UK.
With regard to written Tamil, respondents showed almost as little confidence in their ability to write this as they did for English, with 68% believing that they would not be able to write a formal letter at all, and only 10% having any degree of confidence at all. Respondents were generally more confident about understanding written Tamil, with 86% saying that they could at least understand well, although this still leaves a sizeable minority who feel they have difficulty in understanding.
Ability to Read and Understand an English Daily
Newspaper
Respondents were even more pessimistic about their ability to read an English language newspaper, with all of them saying that they were 'not at all' confident that they would be able to understand. Contact
with Council
Use of Council Services
68% of respondents had previously made use of council services, the majority for the purpose of claiming benefits (49%) or council tax payment/enquiries (29%). 16% cited housing issues, whilst health and school issues both accounted for 10%.
Table 4 below shows how respondents rated the ease of their contact with the council, with regard to both verbal and written communication.
Table 4 - Ease of Understanding Contact with Council
Verbal Contact with Council
95% of respondents had some degree of difficulty with in understanding their verbal contact with the Council, and most of these had great difficulty, as Table 4 above shows. Most respondents did not deal with council staff on a one to one basis however, as many stated that a friend or relative spoke on their behalf (61%)
Only 13 respondents (32%) were offered the option to use an interpreter, and despite the fact that all of these were subsequently able to 'mostly' (8%) or 'fully' (92%) understand, the overwhelming feeling amongst those respondents who were not offered an interpreter was that this would not have been helpful to them (96%).
When visiting council offices, respondents said that they either take a friend (51%), take a family member (17%) or take an interpreter (7%), whilst others either went alone (15%) or relied on council staff for help (2%).
Written Contact with Council
As Table 4 shows, respondents tended to find written contact slightly more difficult than verbal contact, with 85% saying they found it very difficult to understand, compared with 73% for verbal contact, and hence it is unsurprising that 98% believed that a translation would have been helpful.
The most popular reason for this being helpful was that it would have been easier to understand and have given independence (70%), whilst 23% cited the fact that it would have saved time. 18% stated that it they would then have been able to read it themselves, whilst other reasons mentioned were that it would have saved embarrassment, or so that a friend/family would have been able to read it to the respondent.
Communication
Options
Newspaper Readership
Over half (58%) of respondents regularly read at least one Tamil newspaper, with the most popular being Vadali (50%), Anchal (42%) and Puthinam (42%), with Udayam (27%) also fairly popular. Jung was also mentioned by one correspondent.
Broadcast Media
55% of respondents did not regularly watch Tamil language television, the remainder watching TTN (Tamil Television Network 20%), CITV (13%) and Deepam (7%)
Radio enjoys a much higher profile, with only 23% of respondents not regularly listening to Tamil radio. Names mentioned were IBC Radio (72%), Sunrise Radio (60%) and BBC (24%), whilst 58% listened to other, unspecified stations.
Computer Ownership
Only 5 respondents (8%) lived in a household with a computer, and none of these believed that they would be able to use it to access council information. Other
Sources of Information
Voluntary Organisations
Nearly three quarters of respondents regularly visit a voluntary organisation (72%), with Tamil Sangam (52%) and Tamil Welfare Association being the most widely used of these.
Religious Venues
Use of religious venues is prevalent amongst the respondents, with 92% regularly attending. The Luxmi Marayanar Temple (47%) and Sri Murugan (36%) were the most popular, although Sri Lanka Temple, St Steven's Church and St Anthony's Church were also mentioned by a few respondents.
Help and Advice
When asked where they would turn for help, advice and support, most respondents said that friends and family would be their first choice (52%), with 28% suggesting Tamil Sangam and 15% suggesting the Tamil Welfare Association.
Usual Information Sources
As a group, respondents relied heavily on word of mouth for information, with all of those who answered stating that this was the most common way for them to find out about events and benefits etc.
Possible Information Sources
Many respondents felt that cultural organisations would
be useful locations for the publication of information (47%), whilst
Religious venues (45%), education centres (22%) and Libraries (13%)
also scored highly. Other options
suggested were at medical facilities, on local radio and in supermarkets. Younger respondents tended to favour using
cultural centres above the other options. Provision
of Council Information
Preferred Format for Council Information
Text translation was by far the preferred method of providing information in Tamil, with only 5% and 8% of respondents choosing Video and Telephone translation respectively, leaving 87% in favour of text.
The reasons given for this were -
· 'It is more convenient' - 67% · 'It is easier to understand' - 40% · 'I can read it myself' - 37% · 'It is more practical' - 10% · 'I can keep a record of it' - 6%
In general, those who supported either video or audio translation tended to do so due to the fact that they found reading extremely difficult.
Respondents were very unenthusiastic about the prospect of telephone translation, with 93% selecting this as the least useful option, citing reasons such as the delay in getting information, inconvenience and difficulty in accessing a telephone.
Utilisation of Leaflets
As with other forms of written English, Tamil speakers were not confident about their ability to understand leaflets, with 93% stating that they would have difficulty in doing so, with a high proportion (70%) also believing that would have difficulty in finding anyone to explain an English leaflet to them.
Respondents were more confident in dealing with leaflets in Tamil, with 92% claiming that they could easily understand, and 86% stating that they could easily find someone to explain it to them.
Table 5 shows a detailed comparison between respondents' confidence in both understanding leaflets and in getting help to understand, for both languages.
Table 5 - Understanding Leaflets
Table 6 below shows whom the respondents felt they would be able to turn to in order to get help in understanding a leaflet. In order to translate English leaflets, 40% thought that they would turn to their friends, whilst 38% believed that help would come from within the family, with 12% suggesting Tamil Sangam.
For an explanation of a Tamil leaflet, the pattern was similar with respondents likely to turn to their friends (38%), or family (40%).
Table 6 - Sources of Help with
Leaflets Preferred Options for Receiving Information from
the Council
70% of respondents felt that including details of an interpreter with an English leaflet would be useful to them, although a few expressed reservations due to not knowing the area. However, 95% of respondents felt that the most useful way of getting information to them would be a fully translated leaflet, with no other suggestions being made. Summary Sheet - Tamil
· Sample consists mainly of young/middle-age individuals, both male and female.
· Mostly from Sri Lanka
· Short UK residency, most under 5 years.
· Quite high newspaper readership (especially Vadali), radio more popular than TV (esp. IBC Radio).
· Very low level of computer ownership.
· High use of voluntary organisations (esp. Tamil Sangam)
· Attendance at religious venues is prevalent (esp. Luxmi Marayanar Temple)
· Information/advice/help gained via word of mouth from local community/family.
· English - Verbal - very poor, many unable to understand at all Written - very poor, many unable to understand at all
· Tamil - Verbal - good, most are very confident Written - very poor, many feel unable to write themselves
· Most have utilised council services (for Council Tax/Benefits).
· Contact evaluated as very difficult, both written and verbal
· Most verbal contact is face to face; many take a friend/family member for help.
· Prefer full Tamil text translations of leaflets.
· Suggest providing this information in Cultural Centres and Religious Venues. |
Base = All Respondents