Shazia grew up speaking Urdu at home, which is very similar to Hindi. She is now a staff nurse in an Emergency Care unit in a London hospital and often finds her language skills come in handy. She told us of a young mother who once  arrived at the ward in a panicked state because her child was very sick and she didn’t have the English language skills to explain what had happened or even to give the child’s name. Shazia was able to carry out her job in the mother’s own language, and this was invaluable.

In medicine and social care you’ll find yourself working with people from all sorts of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The ability to speak to them in their own language, even if it’s just a few words, would make a huge difference.