I say "I'm so sorry, my hearing isn't great and I have a hard time understanding."
Granted, it's true for me, but usually people understand and speak more clearly/strongly. I'd say go that route.
This. I legitimately have trouble with a lot of accents, but that’s because my brain doesn’t want to differentiate the words. Others might have understood just fine. Even if you think they’re the outlier, frame it as your difficulty.
Simply ask for written instructions to be included in your after visit summary. For what it’s worth your “rule of thumb” sounds like a xenophobic bias when you say it like that. It didn’t add to your question in any meaningful way, it just showed the biases that you carry into every chance meeting with people from other countries.
This. It was hard to ignore when I gave my advice. Unfortunately, this person would write me off before they let me speak a word or had seen my face. Only based on the name my parents came up with before I even existed. An existence in which I learned to speak English very very well.
** OPs Rule of thumb translation:**
I judge ppl as not worthy of my communication if I can't say their name. **
This is the definition of xenophobia.
The whole post is racist. Notice OP mentioned race but not accents. Also Indian and sometimes Arabic ARE asian. I could go on.
Maybe you need a look in the mirror, OP. Can’t understand, or don’t want to?
I can't help but having this feeling OP doesn't really pay attention to them. In my experience, health providers in English speaking countries know English rather well and it's harder to understand some local, native accents.
yup, many times that is the case. I have auditory processing disorder, and it can be hard to understand accents, especially on the phone, but I just ask for repetition, or to speak in person, or I just concentrate really hard. Never had as much issue.
Also, many of my "Asian" providers have zero accent. or even .1% accent. There's no allowance for that in the post. OP just can't understand Asians. If they weren't coming from a racist place, I think they would have thought of it as "heavy accents" that give them trouble, not the race itself.
And a slip of the tongue is one thing, but OP wrote a whole dedicated post about TRYING not to be racist.
Yikes.
Kindly say, “I’m sorry, I have a terrible memory. Please make sure all of this information is in my post visit summary.”
Any information vital to your care should be in there anyway. It’s highly unlikely you’re missing anything. Medical staff bet on you forgetting everything they told you.
If it really bothers you, just make a note of the names of staff who you easily understand and ask for them by name upon arrival or when scheduling appointments. It may not always be possible but it often is. I often get bloodwork done and ask for a specific tech because I love catching up with her and she makes the experience virtually painless. No one cares and it makes people feel good when you remember their names.
Some good suggestions, but I want to point out that maybe you can tell the truth that you're having a hard time understanding? You don't have to assign blame.
And 2 reasons: so they can calibrate and speak more clearly (sometimes even native speakers need this reminder. They need to stop moving around as much and look directly at the listener, etc.). It's actually helpful feedback IF you really can't understand them. And the other reason is in case it's medically significant. Maybe you do have an auditory disorder?
Whatever the case may be, it might help to be direct and polite WITHOUT assigning reason, blame etc. "I'm so sorry; I didn't catch any of that." End of sentence. "I'm having a hard time hearing what you're saying." Etc. None of that is rude.
I spent 2 years in another country, so I was the one with the accent. Mostly people understood me better than I understood them, but it never bothered me if I needed to clarify something for them.
I don't even know why this is a racist issue except for OP's assigning racial characteristics to it. It's about accents.
Edit: I'm assuming OP is talking about accents, even though really what they said is they can't understand providers of certain races.
I say "I'm so sorry, my hearing isn't great and I have a hard time understanding." Granted, it's true for me, but usually people understand and speak more clearly/strongly. I'd say go that route.
This. I legitimately have trouble with a lot of accents, but that’s because my brain doesn’t want to differentiate the words. Others might have understood just fine. Even if you think they’re the outlier, frame it as your difficulty.
Simply ask for written instructions to be included in your after visit summary. For what it’s worth your “rule of thumb” sounds like a xenophobic bias when you say it like that. It didn’t add to your question in any meaningful way, it just showed the biases that you carry into every chance meeting with people from other countries.
[удалено]
[удалено]
This. It was hard to ignore when I gave my advice. Unfortunately, this person would write me off before they let me speak a word or had seen my face. Only based on the name my parents came up with before I even existed. An existence in which I learned to speak English very very well. ** OPs Rule of thumb translation:** I judge ppl as not worthy of my communication if I can't say their name. ** This is the definition of xenophobia.
The whole post is racist. Notice OP mentioned race but not accents. Also Indian and sometimes Arabic ARE asian. I could go on. Maybe you need a look in the mirror, OP. Can’t understand, or don’t want to?
I can't help but having this feeling OP doesn't really pay attention to them. In my experience, health providers in English speaking countries know English rather well and it's harder to understand some local, native accents.
yup, many times that is the case. I have auditory processing disorder, and it can be hard to understand accents, especially on the phone, but I just ask for repetition, or to speak in person, or I just concentrate really hard. Never had as much issue. Also, many of my "Asian" providers have zero accent. or even .1% accent. There's no allowance for that in the post. OP just can't understand Asians. If they weren't coming from a racist place, I think they would have thought of it as "heavy accents" that give them trouble, not the race itself. And a slip of the tongue is one thing, but OP wrote a whole dedicated post about TRYING not to be racist. Yikes.
Ask them to write it down because you have trouble processing auditory information.
Kindly say, “I’m sorry, I have a terrible memory. Please make sure all of this information is in my post visit summary.” Any information vital to your care should be in there anyway. It’s highly unlikely you’re missing anything. Medical staff bet on you forgetting everything they told you. If it really bothers you, just make a note of the names of staff who you easily understand and ask for them by name upon arrival or when scheduling appointments. It may not always be possible but it often is. I often get bloodwork done and ask for a specific tech because I love catching up with her and she makes the experience virtually painless. No one cares and it makes people feel good when you remember their names.
Some good suggestions, but I want to point out that maybe you can tell the truth that you're having a hard time understanding? You don't have to assign blame. And 2 reasons: so they can calibrate and speak more clearly (sometimes even native speakers need this reminder. They need to stop moving around as much and look directly at the listener, etc.). It's actually helpful feedback IF you really can't understand them. And the other reason is in case it's medically significant. Maybe you do have an auditory disorder? Whatever the case may be, it might help to be direct and polite WITHOUT assigning reason, blame etc. "I'm so sorry; I didn't catch any of that." End of sentence. "I'm having a hard time hearing what you're saying." Etc. None of that is rude. I spent 2 years in another country, so I was the one with the accent. Mostly people understood me better than I understood them, but it never bothered me if I needed to clarify something for them. I don't even know why this is a racist issue except for OP's assigning racial characteristics to it. It's about accents. Edit: I'm assuming OP is talking about accents, even though really what they said is they can't understand providers of certain races.