The Art of Communication: - Derry City Council

• Chinese focus group responses supported the view that verbal communicationwith EHOs in English is difficult and could be improved by interpretation. This wascorroborated by Chinese questionnaire responses.4.3 Written Communication• In their respective questionnaires both groups agreed that letters written inEnglish were the most common form of written communication (EHOs 84% -see figure 3 below; Chinese 70.2%).• Use of translated letters was reported by 26% of EHOs and 24.3% of Chineserespondents.• Emails in English were reported by 6% of EHOs and 10.8% of Chinese employers.Figure 3:Written communication used by EHOsResponses (%)1009080706050403020100In EnglishBy LetterWithInterpretationYesNoIn EnglishBy EmailWithInterpretation• In focus group responses EHOs indicated that translated letters were kept as clearand to the point as possible.• Chinese focus group responses supported the view that written communicationfrom EHOs in English was a barrier to effective communication and could beimproved by the provision of translated letters, reports and information. This wascorroborated by Chinese questionnaire responses.• Environmental Health focus group participants expressed the view that onlinetranslated material should be more readily available.20The Art of Communication: A landscape shared between regulator and ethnic employer