Language Line popular with Chinese community

After just nine months in operation, Auckland City Council’s partnership with a phone translation service has proved popular, mostly with customers speaking Chinese dialects.

Language Line provides a telephone interpreting service for non-English speaking customers. It is operated by the Office of Ethnic Affairs and can be accessed by calling Auckland City Council on 379 2020. It can service 37 languages and an interpreter is usually available within two minutes of a request. A three-way call then takes place between Auckland City Council, the customer and the interpreter. The service is available Monday to Friday between 9am and 6pm.

“Language Line has been a significant step towards improving communication between the council and ethnic communities,” says Councillor Cathy Casey, chairperson of the Community Development and Equity Committee.

Auckland City Council uses Language Line for about 50 calls per month. The majority of calls relate to food safety and hygiene courses. Other callers want general information about things like rates, parking, building consents and dogs.

“Now that we understand who is using the service and what they are asking about we can have relevant information translated both over the phone and potentially in print as well. Our goal is to make it as easy as we can for people to participate in the life of the city,” says Dr Casey.

The largest number of calls (75 per cent) are from Chinese customers speaking Mandarin, Cantonese and Chinese dialects. Korean, Samoan and Japanese are the next most frequent callers.

ENDS

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