Multilingual Services Research Articles

Determinants of consumer adoption of multilingual self-service ordering systems in fast food restaurants

Due to the increasing number of international exchanges, foreign users have gradually become a significant consumer segment. Many of them are not proficient in the local language. Providing them with native language services will be an important trend, both from a business and a humanistic perspective. The purpose of this study is to investigate the fast-food restaurant ordering system that can provide multilingual services for foreigners, and to investigate factors that influence fast food restaurant consumers to adopt multilingual self-service ordering systems. Based on the characteristics of foreign users, we have proposed experience factors such as convenience, translation quality, social anxiety, and the Flow. According to research, the convenience of the service has a strong direct impact on consumers' intention to use, social anxiety has a weak direct impact on consumers' intention to use, and translation quality has a weak direct impact on consumers' intention to use through the intermediate variable of social anxiety. Particularly, Flow experience is not associated with intention to use. The Flow state is one in which users are completely immersed and do not notice time or the surroundings when the perceived difficulty of a task matches their abilities. The purpose of this study is to improve our understanding of the customer evaluation criteria for multilingual self-service systems, as well as to establish the MSSS model for future research on multilingual self-service systems.

Mobility for the people: Equity requirements in US shared micromobility programs

Shared micromobility services including bikeshare and shared e-scooters have proliferated in the U.S., but barriers continue to limit their use by some travelers. Cities and transportation agencies have attempted to overcome access disparities by establishing equity-oriented policy requirements for shared micromobility programs. Yet no clear picture exists of either their prevalence or specific components. To address this gap, we asked and answered two questions: 1) What equity requirements do shared micromobility programs include? and 2) to what extent are programs monitored and evaluated? We collected policy data for 239 shared micromobility programs across the U.S. We focused on equity requirements across three dimensions: process, implementation, and evaluation. We found that 62% of shared micromobility programs had at least one equity requirement, although fewer than half (46%) included more than one, suggesting potential challenges for travelers facing intersectional barriers. Less than one-third of programs (29%) included process-equity requirements for targeted outreach to marginalized or underserved communities. Implementation requirements included smartphone alternative (36% of programs), cash payment compatibility (33%), reduced rates (32%), multilingual services (26%), adaptive vehicles for users with disabilities (5%), and mandated geographic service areas (30%). Finally, while most programs (83%) required data reporting from private companies, far fewer published public-facing evaluation reports (27%) or specified compliance language related to equity (15%). The language and conditions of requirements varied dramatically across programs. Findings reveal implications for transportation policy, including a need for micromobility programs to focus on access and outcomes during program evaluation.

Improving Client Experience and Charitable Food Reach and Access at Food Pantries: A Qualitative Study.

Food pantries are promising community partners in health promotion. This study explored client perspectives in food pantries to inform new approaches to improve client experience, reach, and access. We interviewed 52 adult clients who visited participating food pantries two or more times over 12 months in Cook County, Illinois in English, Spanish, or Cantonese. We analyzed transcripts using the Health Equity Implementation Framework. Participants were 69% female, 48% Black, 29% Asian, and 15% Hispanic/Latino. Participants identified availability of healthy and high-quality foods, client choice models, client-personnel interactions, multilingual services, and wait times as influential to pantry reach and access. Participants felt that client feedback opportunities and client-led community outreach could successfully engage community members who avoided food pantries due to stigma. Creating opportunities for client-centered feedback may improve client experience, reach, and access of food pantries, reduce stigma, and optimize a novel setting for community-based health promotion in diverse populations.

Inequities in Mental Health Care Facing Racialized Immigrant Older Adults With Mental Disorders Despite Universal Coverage: A Population-Based Study in Canada.

Contemporary immigration scholarship has typically treated immigrants with diverse racial backgrounds as a monolithic population. Knowledge gaps remain in understanding how racial and nativity inequities in mental health care intersect and unfold in midlife and old age. This study aims to examine the joint impact of race, migration, and old age in shaping mental health treatment. Pooled data were obtained from the Canadian Community Health Survey (2015-2018) and restricted to respondents (aged ≥45 years) with mood or anxiety disorders (n = 9,099). Multivariable logistic regression was performed to estimate associations between race-migration nexus and past-year mental health consultations (MHC). Classification and regression tree (CART) analysis was applied to identify intersecting determinants of MHC. Compared to Canadian-born Whites, racialized immigrants had greater mental health needs: poor/fair self-rated mental health (odds ratio [OR] = 2.23, 99% confidence interval [CI]: 1.67-2.99), perceived life stressful (OR = 1.49, 99% CI: 1.14-1.95), psychiatric comorbidity (OR = 1.42, 99% CI: 1.06-1.89), and unmet needs for care (OR = 2.02, 99% CI: 1.36-3.02); in sharp contrast, they were less likely to access mental health services across most indicators: overall past-year MHC (OR = 0.54, 99% CI: 0.41-0.71) and consultations with family doctors (OR = 0.67, 99% CI: 0.50-0.89), psychologists (OR = 0.54, 99% CI: 0.33-0.87), and social workers (OR = 0.37, 99% CI: 0.21-0.65), with the exception of psychiatrist visits (p = .324). The CART algorithm identifies three groups at risk of MHC service underuse: racialized immigrants aged ≥55 years, immigrants without high school diplomas, and linguistic minorities who were home renters. To safeguard health care equity for medically underserved communities in Canada, multisectoral efforts need to guarantee culturally responsive mental health care, multilingual services, and affordable housing for racialized immigrant older adults with mental disorders.

Early Pandemic Access to COVID-19 Testing in the Somali Community in King County, Washington, USA: a Mixed-Methods Evaluation.

Racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 infection and outcomes have been documented, but few studies have examined disparities in access to testing. We conducted a mixed methods study of access to COVID-19 testing in the Somali immigrant community in King County, Washington, USA, early during the COVID-19 pandemic. In September 2020-February 2021, we conducted quantitative surveys in a convenience sample (n = 528) of individuals who had accessed PCR testing, recruited at King County testing sites near Somali population centers and through social media outreach in the Somali community. We compared self-identified Somali and non-Somali responses using Chi-square and Wilcoxon rank sum tests. We also conducted three Somali-language focus groups (n = 26) by video conference to explore Somali experiences with COVID-19 testing, and in-depth interviews with King County-based policymakers and healthcare workers (n = 13) recruited through the research team's professional network to represent key demographics and roles. Data were analyzed using qualitative rapid analysis to explore the county's COVID-19 testing landscape. Among 420 survey respondents who had received COVID-19 testing in the prior 90days, 29% of 140 Somali vs. 11% of 280 non-Somali respondents tested because of symptoms (p = 0.001), with a trend for longer time from symptom onset to testing (a measure of testing access) among Somali respondents (median 3.0 vs. 2.0days, p = 0.06). Focus groups revealed barriers to testing, including distrust, misinformation, stigma, language, lack of awareness, and transportation. Stakeholders responding from all sectors highlighted the importance of community partnership to improve access. Somali communities experience barriers to COVID-19 testing, as evidenced by the longer time from symptom onset to testing and corroborated by our qualitative findings. These barriers, both structural and community-derived, may be overcome through partnerships between government and community to support community-led, multilingual service delivery and racial representation among medical staff.

‘God is against Nationalism’: Averbuch and the Jewish Christians of Interwar Romania

The Romanian government encountered unexpected difficulties after the First World War with the increase of religious minorities, particularly evangelicals in the newly acquired border region of Bessarabia. International affiliations and increasing success in rural areas led government officials and the Romanian Orthodox Church to label these groups as foreign pawns or socially deviant sectarians. The Baptist Church in Chișinău proved a special case of concern as its leadership included a Jewish man, Lev Averbuch. Averbuch's congregation was a diverse religious community, filled with Romanians, Russians, Bulgarians, Jews, Greeks, and others. Their multi-ethnic composition, multi-lingual services, ties to international organisations, and controversial sermons speaking out against nationalism and antisemitism were used by police and Orthodox Church authorities to paint them as a threat to national security. The analysis of Averbuch's interwar community of Jewish Christians in Chișinău shows the region was not a homogenous religious space and that religious identity was of greater value than national identity. It provides insight into the fluidity of religious, ethnic, and even geographic borders, and how policies of national consolidation were challenged at the local level by religious minorities during Europe's tumultuous interwar years.

Zero-shot language extension for dialogue state tracking via pre-trained models and multi-auxiliary-tasks fine-tuning

Dialogue state tracking (DST), a crucial component of the task-oriented dialogue system (TOD), is designed to track the user’s goal. Existing DST models mainly focus on monolingual dialogue input, failing to meet the growing needs of a TOD to provide multilingual services. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel Zero-shot Language Extension scenario for DST, extending the monolingual DST to multilingual DST without extra high-cost dialogue data annotation. In this scenario, the multilingual DST only needs a single shared model to handle multilingual input and generate a unified dialogue state. This setting makes deploying a complete multilingual TOD easy since it could be reused by the downstream components from existing monolingual TOD. Specifically, we achieve the language extension by multi-auxiliary-tasks fine-tuning of multilingual pre-trained models, where five relevant auxiliary tasks are jointly designed, including monolingual DST, cross-lingual DST, forward word translation, utterance recovery, and semantic similarity. The extended multilingual DST model can be enhanced through joint optimization with all the auxiliary tasks by capturing multilingual context understanding and cross-lingual alignment characteristics. Comprehensive experiments on Multilingual WOZ dataset (English → German and English → Italian) and cross-lingual MultiWOZ dataset (English → Chinese and Chinese → English) demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.

Sustaining multilinguality: case studies of two multilingual digital libraries

Purpose This study aims to understand the technical and operational challenges encountered by multilingual digital libraries and their strategies to solve problems in sustaining multilinguality services for digital libraries. Design/methodology/approach Using the multiple-case method, this study investigated two digital libraries that have sustained multilinguality for over a decade: the World Digital Library and the Digital Library of the Caribbean. Findings This study identified eight factors that contributed to the success of the two multilingual digital libraries and eight technical and operational challenges they have faced. A framework for digital libraries to sustain multilinguality is proposed. This framework illustrates the challenges and strategies to address the challenges in 11 aspects: creation, leadership, collaboration, content, metadata, translation, funding, technology, preservation, staffing and copyright. Research limitations/implications This study focused on two multilingual digital libraries administered in the USA, though they do not fully represent multilingual digital libraries in the USA. Therefore, the findings from the study may not apply to multilingual digital libraries the USA or other countries. As on-site interviews of both digital libraries were conducted at the beginning of 2019, the timeframe of this study is up to that date. Practical implications With more users worldwide seeking information online, more digital libraries will be providing multilingual services. This study provides guidelines to digital library developers and archivists for building and sustaining their digital libraries or archives. The experience and lessons learned from these two digital libraries may also help to better understand challenges and use effective strategies in building and sustaining multilinguality. Social implications The users and communities of digital libraries will be able to learn the benefits and challenges as related to building and sustaining digital library services. These services always need support to better serve their users and communities. Originality/value As the first multiple-case research that investigates in-depth challenges and approaches of digital libraries in sustaining multilinguality, this study presents a general picture of how the two digital libraries have succeeded in sustaining multilinguality. Theoretically, the study enriches the literature by providing a more comprehensive sustainability framework for multilinguality. This framework specifies possible aspects to consider for gaining sustainability of multilingual digital libraries and offers useful guidelines and insights for the digital library community to build multilingual services.

Social Work with Transnational Families in Japan – Transnational Social Work in the Multicultural and Integrated Community

This paper examines social work needs for transnational families within their local areas, based on the results of a research conducted on communities with connections to Afghanistan and Sri Lankan who live in Chiba Prefecture, Japan.
 The research focused on speakers of three languages which are not covered by the multilingual services of the local governments despite their presence. The impact on their economic situations and daily lives due to Covid-19 arose from constraints and barriers in their surrounding environments from five primary factors, and the complex intertwining thereof: language; daily life customs/norms; residency status; employment, housing environment and community; and separation from family/relatives.
 We conclude that it is crucial to position transnational families within community social work along with to develop multicultural and integrated communities in order to provide transnational social work services across borders in future.

COVID-19 prevention and control strategies: learning from the Macau model.

Background: Macau is a densely populated international tourist city. Compared to most tensely populated countries/territories, the prevalence and mortality of COVID-19 in Macau are lower. The experiences in Macau could be helpful for other areas to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. This article introduced the endeavours and achievements of Macau in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic.Method: Both qualitative and quantitative analysis methods were used to explore the work, measures, and achievements of Macau in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.Results: The results revealed that Macau has provided undifferentiated mask purchase reservation services, COVID-19 vaccination services to all residents and non-residents in Macau along with delivering multilingual services, in Chinese, English and Portuguese, to different groups of the population. To facilitate the travels of people, business and trades between Macau and mainland China, the Macau government launched the Macau Health Code System, which uses the health status declaration, residence history declaration, contact history declaration of the declarant to match various relevant backend databases within the health authority and provide a risk-related colour code operations. The Macau Health Code System connects to the Chinese mainland's own propriety health code system seamlessly, whilst effectively protecting the privacy of the residents. Macau has also developed the COVID-19 Vaccination Appointment system, the Nucleic Acid Test Appointment system, the Port and Entry/Exit Quarantine system, the medical and other supporting systems.Conclusion: The efforts in Macau have achieved remarkable results in COVID-19 prevention and control, effectively safeguarding the lives and health of the people and manifesting the core principle of “serving the public”. The measures used are sustainable and can serve as an important reference for other countries/regions.

Factors that Influence Co-production among Student Interns, Consumers, and Providers of Social and Public Health Services: Implications for Interprofessional Collaboration and Training

ABSTRACT Providers of public health and social services (“providers”) develop and deliver services by engaging in interprofessional collaboration (IPC), from seeking external advice to making referrals and linkages to various social and public health services. Providers collaborate with consumers of social and public health services (“consumers”) and student interns (e.g., social work, public health) to explore, determine, and deliver relevant services through a process referred to as co-production. Both IPC and co-production are widespread strategies with the potential to improve service accessibility and quality. However, the intersection of co-production and IPC remains understudied. This study examines factors that influence co-production in IPC among service providers, consumers, and student interns. We used cross-sectional survey data from an NIMH-funded study, including 379 providers in 36 HIV-service organizations in New York City. We examined the relationships between providers’ perspectives on co-production in IPC and multiple provider- and organization-level variables using random-effects logistic regression. Most respondents said that consumers and students in their agency participate in IPC on the issues that concern them. Providers who perceive greater flexibility in the IPC process were more likely to agree that their organizations’ providers co-produced IPC. Organizational service offerings (i.e., multilingual services, a comprehensive range of services), job positions, and full-time employment status were strong predictors of co-production. Our findings indicate that intentional and inclusive models of flexible IPC are needed. Fostering co-production in the HIV service field requires more institutional support and incentives for organizations, providers, and student interns. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

한일 양국의 재난안전정보 다국어지원 현황 연구

In this thesis, the current status of multilingual emergency disaster information in Korea and Japan is examined for ways that foreigners residing in Korea can more accurately understand ‘emergency disaster information’ in a situation of disaster that needs to be responded to urgently. In the case of Korea, the scope of multilingual support services and information delivery media has been expanded based on the multilingual support measures established and implemented at the Government level so far, and there have been tangible results ranging from local governments and private sector activities. However, the type and degree of services provided differ by each institution and local government, and the focus was mainly on marriage immigrants and foreign workers. Therefore, international students, foreign nationals, refugees, seasonal workers who are short􋹲term residents, tourists, etc. still can’t get information in case of a disaster. So, the problem of blind spots needs to be solved. In contrast, in the case of Japan, they are preparing a plan to provide the disaster safety information in a timely manner to protect them, not only for foreign migrants and workers, but also for all foreign residents including international students and tourists. For the purpose, a system that can effectively deliver information to foreigners is being established by utilizing “Foreigner support information coordinator in the event of a disaster” and establishing a “Disaster Multilingual Support Center.” In the future, with reference to Japan's disaster information provision policy, etc., it seems that measures should be prepared to protect them by expanding the scope of policy targets, so that any foreigner residing in Korea, regardless of the purpose of their stay or institution, can obtain the disaster safety information without being alienated. In addition, the establishment of a multilingual service support institution should be promoted to integrate and systematize multilingual disaster safety information produced and distributed separately through a conservative approach in each case of a major disaster so far.

A survey of health information source use in rural communities identifies complex health literacy barriers

Access to health information is critical for good health. However, residents of rural communities may face more difficulties in accessing health information than residents in rural areas. Problems may be structural, socio-economic and cultural. The study assessed sources and challenges concerning health information access and use among residents of five rural communities in Ibadan, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was adopted, and data were elicited from forty respondents through focus group discussions (FGD). Elicited data were thematically analysed. Several informal and primary information sources were often used. Residents used the radio to access health information, and they also visited hospitals/health centres, asked doctors, participated in health sensitisation programmes and consulted traditional herbalists. However, the barriers included financial problems, infrastructure problems (bad road network, unreliable electricity supplies), living far from health centres and finding suitable health information in their own language. These are individual and systemic/structural challenges. The focus group participants were aware of the importance of reliable health information sources, but often had to use a mixture of sources. Traditional herbalists were valued sources (more available and affordable). Health literacy problems concern education and language. Service provision could be improved to make health information more efficient and effective for rural communities, by building on what works (e.g. health sensitisation programmes, radio programmes providing health education) and providing more multi-lingual services. The study also confirmed the importance of evaluating traditional herbal medicine.

The Effects of Customized Multilingual Services of Academic Libraries on the User Satisfaction of Chinese Students

The Effects of Customized Multilingual Services of Academic Libraries on the User Satisfaction of Chinese Students

Milestones, challenges and prospects in the implementation of the Language Provisions of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No.20) Act

This article examines the progress made so far in the implementation of the language provisions of the 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No.20) Act. It is almost seven years since the 2013 Constitution became law. Given this timeframe, this study evaluates the milestones, challenges and prospects in the implementation of Sections 6, 7, 22, 56, 63, 70 and 249 of the 2013 Constitution. The study employs a multi-method approach to data collection and uses Critical Discourse Analysis and the Language Management Approach as its theoretical frameworks to account for the non-implementation dilemmas bedeviling these provisions. The findings of this study show that despite the provisions for functional multilingualism and multilingual service provision enshrined in the said Sections, limited success has been achieved in as far as their implementation is concerned. The State and all institutions and agencies of government at every level still give prominence to English, Shona and Ndebele.

다문화가정 다국어 서비스 지원 현황 연구 -서울특별시 영등포구를 중심으로-

본 연구는 1990년대 이후부터 외국인 노동자들의 유입과 농어촌 총각들의 국제결혼 이주여성들의 증가 등 여러 가지 사회 전반적인 문제들로 인해 우리나라도 다문화사회로 급속히 변화되고 있다. 다문화사회로 이행하면서 우리 사회는 이주민이 증가하고 있으며, 외국인 주민 다수 거주 지역이 형성되고 있어 앞으로도 지속적으로 증가할 것이다.BR 이주민 증가에 따라 한국사회에서 새로운 문화를 만들어내는 다문화가정의 한국사회 적응을 위해 정부와 지방자치단체의 정책 중 다문화 다국어 서비스는 어떻게 이루어지고 있는지 탐색하였다. 다문화가정이 밀집한 지역을 중심으로 기초 지방자치단체가 다문화가정에게 어떠한 서비스를 제공하고 그에 따른 결과는 어떠한지를 면밀하게 탐색하였다.BR 다문화가정 다국어 서비스의 선행연구와 조사 자료를 바탕으로 서울시의 기초 지방자치단체를 선정하여 다국어 서비스 제공 운영체계와 지원 현황과 다문화가정의 만족도를 살펴보았다. 다문화가정의 대다수는 한국문화에 대해 막연한 인식만을 가지고 있으며 한국 생활을 시작할 때부터 한국어 구사능력에 차이를 보이는 등 어려움을 토로하였다. 다문화가정 구성원들은 보편적으로 민간단체나 종교시설에서 실시하는 한국어 수업을 받고 한국에서의 사회활동과 결혼생활을 시작하지만 한국에 대한 관심과 서로 다른 문화차이 등의 많은 어려운 문제들을 안고 생활하고 있는 것으로 나타났다. BR 대한민국 사회에 다문화가정 외국 거주자들이 안전하고 빠른 정착을 위해 정부지원 정책, 지방자치단체 특히 기초 지방단체가 제공하는 다문화 다국어 서비스를 제공의 만족도 조사결과에 기초하여 이들의 한국 생활 정착과 문화를 이해하는 기초자료를 제공하는데 본 연구는 의의를 두고자 한다.

The Challenges of Public Health, Social Work, and Psychological Counselling Services in South Korea: The Issues of Limited Support and Resource.

Public health, social work, and psychological counselling professions in South Korea are facing challenges of human resource shortage and shortage of professionals who can provide multilingual services. The purpose of this study was to explore and understand why public health, social work, and psychological counselling services degree graduates and professionals with multilingual skills in South Korea decide to leave their professional field to the hospitality and business industries, particularly for those who completed their initial training at one of the international universities. Based on the approach of the Social Cognitive Career Theory, individuals’ self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, and goals were examined and considered. The data were collected from 12 participants with the methodology of interpretative phenomenological analysis. The general inductive approach was employed to categorize the themes for reporting. The results indicated that public health, social work, and psychological counselling services-related positions are not available, modelling from peers, and lack of career development skills are the primary difficulties of public health, social work, and psychological counselling services graduates. The completion of this study provides clear recommendations to educators, policymakers, school leaders, human resource planners, and university administrators to improve their curricula and school counselling for public health, social work, and psychological counselling services graduates and the next generation.

Multiculturalism in a “homogeneous” society from the perspectives of an intercultural event in Japan

In this paper, I demonstrate how long-term multigenerational minorities and Japanese residents engage in the current socio-political discourse of “multicultural coexistence” society (tabunkakyōsei shakai), which had not previously been integral to the vocabulary of national rhetoric in Japan until the 2000s. I argue that the lack of clear definition and goals of multicultural coexistence by the current Japanese government generates obstacles in the attempt to build a multicultural society. While local municipalities’ programs, such as multilingual services and lifestyle support, are certainly needed, long-term foreign residents with linguistic and cultural competence are suspicious of the concept of multicultural coexistence due to their own embodied marginalized positions. Taking a local municipality’s intercultural event as a point of reference, this paper explores how long-term minority residents perceive their positions at the crossroads of seemingly paradoxical forces of multicultural trends and an ongoing national identity founded upon ethnic homogeneity.

Transforming Data, Talent and Communications into Impact at Sheraton Okinawa Sunmarina Resort

In an effort to transform business operations and to integrate the property into the Sheraton chain of the hotel after a recent acquisition of the Okinawa Sunmarina Resort, the Starwood group was exploring opportunities for revamping talent operations, organizational architecture and internal communications. Shifting from pure intuition and just “doing one‟s best” to a data-driven business operation was one of the first initiatives the management implemented. Along with this, the Starwood Group introduced a series of new talent operations, geared at hiring and successfully on-boarding international talent needed to provide multi-lingual service to a rapidly diversifying clientele. These initiatives were complemented by a combination of carefully devised data utilization and cognitive architecture techniques, which were meant to induce awe and to create agile employee and customer engagement. The main purpose of this article is to analyze the effectiveness of the techniques utilized by the Starwood Group to revamp organizational architecture and to modernize communications and talent operations in order to illustrate the effectiveness of digitalization, built architecture and user engagement initiatives in creating modern organizations, integrated communications, and agile talent operations.

Advancement of 22.2 Multichannel Sound Broadcasting Based on MPEG-H 3D Audio

This study proposes improvements to 22.2 multichannel (22.2 ch) sound broadcasting service. 22.2 ch sound is currently used in the 8K satellite broadcasting in Japan. In this study, the audio system is migrated from channel-based audio to object-based audio. The object-based audio equips 22.2 ch sound with alternative and adaptive functionalities: the alternative functionality is related to dialogue controls such as multilingual services, while the adaptive functionality enables 22.2 ch sound to be adapted to the audio format of the playback equipment. Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)-H 3D Audio (3DA), which is the latest audio coding standard, is used as the audio coding scheme. A real-time encoder and decoder based on 3DA was developed to verify the practicability of the proposed system. The encoded audio data is packetized and transmitted by MPEG-H MPEG Media Transport (MMT) to be multiplexed with video data. A transmission experiment with 8K video was carried out in which the proposed system was proved to operate as designed in this study.