Incidentally, after filling out all that paperwork?

[conuly]

I start to understand why people get frustrated at pressing one for English.

After filling out form after form (after form), each of which asked me which language the father preferred to use (twice - once for written notices, once for speech) and the mother (twice again!) and the kid (only once, thank goodness), I was starting to get a little less enthralled with the whole process.

But what else can we do? This is a big city, and a lot of people live here, and they all speak different languages. I don't want to keep some kid from an education, keep his parents from understanding vital school information, just because I'm the one too lazy to fill out a form.

Of course, it would make sense if those forms had checkboxes for the three or four most common options (I'm guessing English, Spanish, Russian, and some form of Chinese), but that's asking a lot of bureaucrats.

So I just filled in the forms. And the other forms. And the OTHER forms.

(There really has to be a better way.)

Comments

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Funny, the DSHS forms here have a loooong list of checkboxes with a blank at the bottom for "other". If you speak only Tagalog, there is a box for you (or your translator, as the majority of the form is English) to check.

[conuly]

These forms are long enough, no need to make them *that* much longer.

Though, again, it might make sense if I only filled out a language form ONE TIME and everybody else could just reference the damn thing themselves!