Insights March 21, 2024

Learning in a language close to your heart

By Living Word

Tradition, religion and culture are commonly named as culprits when inequality of access to sex and relationships education is on the agenda. But what if you have access to services – in a language you don’t fully understand? A new government-funded initiative in Sweden seeks to respond to situations exactly like that.

It is true that growing up in a family where bodies and sexuality aren’t spoken about can be a disadvantage to a young person in need of access to information as they grow up. That’s part of the reason why sex and relationships education is on the school curriculum. But for some, education in Swedish can fall a little short – as focus groups in Ukrainian, Somali and Arabic showed recently. When it comes to topics like sexuality, getting to talk about it in a language that’s close to your heart matters, the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU) found.

As a result, the organization set out to create a website with information about sex, bodies and health in 16 different languages – and earlier this year, it was announced that the Swedish government would fund the project. In addition to the website, migrant communication professionals will host sessions in their mother tongue on topics like pregnancy and access to healthcare. The outcome, an RFSU representative says, won’t just be increased awareness around sexual health and wellbeing, but a stronger, less segregated and less discriminatory society.

As a creative translation agency, naturally we’re advocates for access to information in local, native languages, and we often beat the drum for localisation even in situations where the majority of an audience understands some English. We also recently wrote about the importance of translation in healthcare settings specifically, not least in relation to informed consent. As such, we’ll follow this project with interest.

That language concordance between patients and healthcare practitioners makes for better results is hardly a contentious point. For Paula Wawrzynczyk, herself an immigrant to the UK, it’s clear that language barriers are of particular concern when it comes to sexual health services for young people – and that goes for lack of information on how to access NHS services as a new arrival to the UK, as well as concerns around judgement and cultural and religious differences. Now a specialist at sexual health and wellbeing charity Brook, she has helped to develop a sex education glossary among other things, as part of her work with young refugees and others who speak English as a second language.

It makes sense, when you think of it, that topics that are deeply personal and related to a person’s identity and sense of self are better dealt with in the person’s mother tongue. After all, research has shown not only that children learn better when taught in their mother tongue, but also that their native language is closely linked to their personal, social and cultural identity. Their self-esteem even appears to be higher when they’re learning in their native tongue. Picture, then, a perhaps anxious teenager with burning questions about their body and emerging feelings. Which language would you choose to help them in? We know which one we’d choose.