AGEING SOCIETY AGEING CULTURE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN

AGEING SOCIETY, AGEING CULTURE? LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN THE SPECIAL SETTING OF THE HOME FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE GIOVANNI BEVILACQUA 1 SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF UNECC UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR, 18 th OCTOBER 2012

Language and culture in the special setting of the home for elderly people. • The choice of the subject • Some definition of culture and language • Illustrating the results of the empirical research − Cultural aspects in home for elderly people 2 SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF UNECC UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR, 18 th OCTOBER 2012 Giovanni BEVILACQUA, Lessius / KU Leuven

Language and culture in the special setting of the home for elderly people. • The empirical research • • • 3 collecting statistical data participating observation focus group questionnaire video recording and analysis of 3 sessions in presence of a CI, a patient and a medical staff member SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF UNECC UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR, 18 th OCTOBER 2012 Giovanni BEVILACQUA, Lessius / KU Leuven

Language and culture in the special setting of the home for elderly people. • The empirical research: collecting the data 4 SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF UNECC UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR, 18 th OCTOBER 2012 Giovanni BEVILACQUA, Lessius / KU Leuven

Language and culture in the special setting of the home for elderly people. • Culture and language: − culture versus nature (Asperen, 2003: 35) − Culturale relativisme → interculturality (Ibidem: 37) − Acculturization is a phenomenon which results when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact with subsequent changes in the original culture patterns of either or both groups…under this definition acculturation is to be distinguished from culture change, of which it is but one aspect, and assimilation, which is at times a phase of acculturation (Redifield et al. 1936) 5 SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF UNECC UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR, 18 th OCTOBER 2012 Giovanni BEVILACQUA, Lessius / KU Leuven

Language and culture in the special setting of the home for elderly people. • Aspects of culture (Asperen, 2003: 48) −Individuals are connected because of their culture, their language and the values and standards of this culture. −Culture is an invisible steering mechanism that determines the way of thinking, acting and the viewpoint of the world. −Culture is something limited to a geographical area and is connected to a historical past. −One cannot get to know a different culture from the inside; culture is absorbed by socialisation and one cannot judge other cultures. −Cultures are all of the same value and have to be respected. 6 SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF UNECC UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR, 18 th OCTOBER 2012 Giovanni BEVILACQUA, Lessius / KU Leuven

Language and culture in the special setting of the home for elderly people. • Aspects of culture (Giarelli, 2008: 30 -31) − Those cultures change constantly; contradictions and innovations stem from the influence of cultural elements from the outside; − Societies are open for globalization so that their culture is no longer definable as a territorial entity but is characterized by more than one center of reference: − The result of the presence of many realities is not the coexistence of parallel cultures isolated from each other but a process of creolization. By exchange and interpenetration the cultures become more and more heterogeneous and at the same time connect themselves to the outside by means of networks of transnational communication. 7 SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF UNECC UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR, 18 th OCTOBER 2012 Giovanni BEVILACQUA, Lessius / KU Leuven

Language and culture in the special setting of the home for elderly people. • Culture and communication (Gudykunst & Kim, 1997: 18) Culture → Socialization →Individual characteristics →Communication behavior 8 SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF UNECC UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR, 18 th OCTOBER 2012 Giovanni BEVILACQUA, Lessius / KU Leuven

Language and culture in the special setting of the home for elderly people. • Culture and communication 9 SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF UNECC UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR, 18 th OCTOBER 2012 Giovanni BEVILACQUA, Lessius / KU Leuven (Gudykunst & Kim, 1997: 45)

Language and culture in the special setting of the home for elderly people. • communication in medical sector − the communication is intercultural if there are cultural differences that question “the cultural presuppositions of a communication” (Baraldi, 2008: 210) − assimetry (Merlini und Favaron, 2007: 105) − communication in medical sector follows a pre-organized plan 70) − some risks for the patient 10 (Valero Garcés & Lázaro Gutiérrez, 2008: 260) SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF UNECC UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR, 18 th OCTOBER 2012 Giovanni BEVILACQUA, Lessius / KU Leuven (Meyer, 2003:

Language and culture in the special setting of the home for elderly people. • communication in medical sector − assimetry (Merlini & Favaron, 2007: 105) − communication in medical sector follows a pre-organized plan 70) (Meyer, 2003: −the physician has the responsibility to solve the problem and therefore plays a dominant role, influencing the role of the patient and the interpreter (Kaufert & Putsch, 1997: 72) 11 SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF UNECC UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR, 18 th OCTOBER 2012 Giovanni BEVILACQUA, Lessius / KU Leuven

Language and culture in the special setting of the home for elderly people. • communication and language − Which role does the language play in the relationship between physician and patient? • language seen as described by Bordieu (1982: 16) • the linguistic exchange acquires a sociological importance • […] l’usage du langage, c’est-à-dire aussi bien la manière que la matière du discours, dépend de la position sociale du locuteur qui commande l’accès qu’il peu avoir à la langue de l’institution, à la parole officielle, orthodoxe, légitime. C’est l’accès aux instruments légitimes d’expression, donc la participation à l’autorité de l’institution, qui fait toute la différence […]. (Bordieu, 1982: 107) 12 SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF UNECC UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR, 18 th OCTOBER 2012 Giovanni BEVILACQUA, Lessius / KU Leuven

Language and culture in the special setting of the home for elderly people. • The empirical research: − the need of assistance of the old immigrant population • less studies about the specific needs of the elderly immigrant population (RVZ, 2000; KWF, 2006) • language problems » access the services (Roelfsema et al. , 1996; Holt, 2002; Chiarezza, 2008) » have more operations (Verrept, 2000) » have more difficulty to understand a medical encounter (Pena Diaz, 2005) 13 SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF UNECC UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR, 18 th OCTOBER 2012 Giovanni BEVILACQUA, Lessius / KU Leuven

Language and culture in the special setting of the home for elderly people. • The empirical research: 14 SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF UNECC UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR, 18 th OCTOBER 2012 Giovanni BEVILACQUA, Lessius / KU Leuven

Language and culture in the special setting of the home for elderly people. 15 SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF UNECC UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR, 18 th OCTOBER 2012 Giovanni BEVILACQUA, Lessius / KU Leuven

Language and culture in the special setting of the home for elderly people. References: -Asperen, Evelien van. (2003). Interculturele communicatie & ideologie. Utrecht: Pharos. -Bourdieu, Pierre (1982). Ce que parler veut dire. L’économie des échanges linguistiques. Paris: Fayard. -Giarelli, Guido (2008). “Il contesto della mediazione: la sfida dell’interculturalità nella società multietnica. In: Baraldi, Claudio/Barbieri, Viola/Giarelli, Guido (eds. ): Immigrazione, mediazione culturale e salute. Milano: Franco Angeli, 15 -46. -Gudykunst, William B. /Kim, Young Yun (1997). Communicating with strangers. An approach to intercultural communication. Boston: Mac. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. -Kaufert, Joseph M. /Putsch, Robert W. (1997). “Communication through Interpreters in Healthcare; Ethical Dilemmas Arising from Differences in Class, Culture, Language, and Power”. In: The Journal of Critical Ethics 8/1, 71 -87. -Merlini, Raffaella/Favaron, Roberta (2007). “Examing “the ‘voice of interpreting” in speech pathology”. In: Pöchhacker, Franz/Shlesinger, Miriam (eds. ): Healthcare Interpreting. Discourse and Interaction. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 101 -137. -Meyer, Bern (2003). „Dolmetschertraining aus diskurs-analytischer Sicht: Überlegungen zu einer Fortbildung für zweisprachige Pflegekräfte“. In: Gesprächsforschung – Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion, 4, 160 -185. -Valero Garcés, Carmen/Lázaro Gutiérrez, Raquel (2008 c). “Investigación sobre la calidad de la comunicación en la atención sanitaria al inmigrante”. In: Valero Garcés, Carmen/Pena Díaz, Carmen/Lázaro Gutiérrez, Raquel (eds. ): Investigación y práctica en traducción e interpretación en los servicios públicos: desafíos y alianzas. Alcalá de Henares: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Alcalá, 255 -275. 16 SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF UNECC UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR, 18 th OCTOBER 2012 Giovanni BEVILACQUA, Lessius / KU Leuven