Professional Practice within intercultural and global contexts.

 

Reflection level 

Liverpool is such a diverse local government area with so many ethnicities and cultures which means catering for each and every person is extremely important to make everyone feel welcomed and proud to call the Liverpool LGA their home. I had experienced this first hand when I was completing footpath inspections in Wattle Grove. 

 

While I was taking data about the condition of the footpath, a resident on that road had walked up to me and began speaking in his native language. I was quite confused and did not know what to do. I also began feeling anxious as I did not know how to help the resident or even respond. However I soon realised that he had understood some english as when he was conversing, he would also say some words in english. I had soon realised that he was raising a concern about a footpath that he had seen in the adjacent lane while he was walking that had uplifted severely and had nearly caused him to fall. This had made me feel that I had to act on it quickly as I have a strong belief that an individual must feel safe and have the right to do so.

 

Due to the difficulty in communicating in language barrier, I had devised a temporary solution to communicate to him in small sentences and words. I had said the words “we will fix quick” and “Don't worry”. I had given the resident a sense of hope and made sure the issue was going to be fixed. I had to make sure that the rest of the residents in the neighbourhood were also aware of the renewal works in a way that respected their culture and made sure they were seen.

 

I had spoken to my manager about my experience on the site and what I had done in order to make the resident feel safe. I had also claimed my next steps of putting up signs in the neighbourhood in the 4 main languages which make up the Liverpool area. My manager was impressed and told me to follow my plan.  I also wanted to make this more seen in the office by organising cultural events in the workplace as workplace cultural diversity is important for increased productivity due to worker satisfaction (Nighbor,2024).

The experience on the field has provided me with great insight on how multicultural the area is and how to deal with it. The situation had also taught me to always practice empathy even in a professional environment.

 

Nighbor, C. (2024) State of workforce productivity in 2024, SIMOS. Available at: https://simossolutions.com/insight/state-of-worker-productivity-2024/