It bothers me to find someone in need of help and not be able to help them.

My Spanish is really rough and though I got the basics of her post, understanding it and speaking it (especially medial terms) are outside my capabilities. Our main site gets hits from 86 different countries or more each month, the Internet is indeed without borders. Our tracking service lists them. We have lots of European visitors but a surprising number of Russians and Middle Easterners. It is quite different there, as I spent part of my youth growing up in Europe, in that English is a mandatory second language class in most countries when they are in the equivalent of our high school. Clearly those that visit our main site have some English capabilities, because it is hardly a rare occurrence to have them on our pages at length in in great numbers (hundreds of thousands)

Unless we have a spanish speaker on the boards there is little we can do here, and even then we have the advice of a singular person helping another� better than nothing, but not the same kind of experience as everyone else has.

There are limitations to who OCF can help, I wish it were not so, but it is a reality. The obligation has to be on others to participate, even in broken English, or we have no means to help them. We also do not well understand the medical services available in their countries, insurances, socialized medicine, and so much more.

We need to let her know of these issues, and our sympathies but lack of ability to seriously be of help.

Thanks Brian.

So will someone please communicate with her and let her know that she can always have her comments translated into English and post them here and we will respond as best we can in English and she can then translate that back into Spanish or whatever Hispanic language she prefers. Tell her there may be translation interpretation difficulties but we are willing to do our best to help her.

I will try to ask some of my Spanish speaking friends if they can help. If someone wants to send me a response in English, I will see if they can translate it for her. I will also take the above response and see if I can get that translated over to her asap. Will do my best, and reach out to some friends now.

Thank you to Chris, Anne-Marie and Nancy for helping to communicate with this new member! I forgot to say thanks in my previous post.

She may have access to some resources in her own country. Maybe they have some kind of a cancer survivors group she could join for moral support.

Im hoping that she would be able to get someone to post her questions in English and they could help her interpret them. That would be the best way for her to be able to get the most out of the OCF forum.

Might be easier, quicker and more productive to ask that any Spanish speaking posters to use Google Translate to translate their comments into English, giving them the choice to also include their Spanish version. That way all communication on the forum could be in English which would afford them the advantage of getting more help from everyone. The poster could then use Google Translate to get the replies back into Spanish.

In communicating the helpful info given by our Admins to our new poster, I would be happy to put something together in Spanish or maybe Chris would or any other Spanish speaker that Nancy mentioned? But I would feel better if an English version explaining OCF's position on why English is preferable for posting, could be available and approved by the Admins for us to translate to Spanish - something that would include Brian's and David's and Christine's helpful comments.

Just two thoughts:
1) I wonder if we might be hi-jacking Valenta's thread with our discussion and whether our comments re how to proceed should be moved to a different topic.
When or if she returns, it might be stressful for her to see so much English that she may not understand. Although, for anyone learning a new language, it's always easier to read than it is to write in the new target language. People learn a new language the way we all as babies begin to use spoken language - first comes understanding and responding without actually speaking until later. That's why it's easier for a native american English speaker having learned Spanish to translate the target language to English than to translate from English to Spanish.

2) If those of us on OCF (with the benefit of our OC experience), who can translate English into Spanish could submit our translations of the best way to explain why it is best to stay with English on OCF, they could then be submitted to a native speaker and it would be easier for the translator to correct or improve the Spanish translation. Translation is much more than just translating word upon word. Attention needs to be given to word order, correct grammar, being aware of the differences in types of Spanish used in different Spanish speaking countries and being able to translate not just words, but the feeling and intentions of the author of the original language.

OK, I'm done now. . . . need to go do yard work before it rains again!

Please review Brian's post. His post explains how we get thousands of hits every single day from other countries and also OCF's limitations.

Unless we have some members volunteer to help her themselves there isnt much that can be done here on the forum. I think it would be best if someone who is fluent in Spanish would volunteer to reach out to her (thru email). They first will need to explain (by translating) exactly what Brian wrote in his post.

My concern is that by helping one person on the forum with their posts in a non-English language it could potentially open up the flood gates to many other posts in all kinds of other languages. This would not be something OCF could ever keep up with. Try to think about it this way, by having posts on the forum in Spanish, anyone who reads and writes in Spanish and who does internet searches for OC or anything discussed in those posts will find this and could also begin posting. Since none of the admin are fluent in any other language it would take an incredible amount of one on one time which takes us away from our regular admin duties. Brian, David and myself all do not have that kind of time on our hands. While I want to help and its really hard for me to say we cant help her, its just not anything that we could keep up with.

I would like to ask for someone or even better 2 members to volunteer to send her emails. Please PM me as I would like to have you include some info.

Thank you!



PS.... All the posts need to stay on this thread so they are together in one place.

Also consider that not all "Spanish" is the same. My wife was born in Cuba and is obviously fluent in "Spanish" but often I will ask her what someone just said in "Spanish" and she will reply, I don't know, that's Portuguese or some other Hispanic dialect. As Brian points out OFC has limitations and unfortunately we just can't be everything to everyone.

Hi Valentina,

Sorry you find yourself here but this is a wonderful site for support and information. Unfortunately, many here, including the administrators of the site do not speak Spanish.

To answer your question. Yes, radiation in conjunction with chemotherapy is one of the standards of treatment for oral cancer. The chemotherapy acts as a radio-sensitizing agent and helps the radiation kill the cancer cells. It also helps to kill any stray cancer cells that may have gotten away from the original site.

The best way to communicate here would be to use Google Translate http://translate.google.com/. My partner and caregiver is from Ecuador and is fluent in Spanish. Please feel free to write and we'll do what we can to help.

The goal of OCF is to help everyone with oral cancer but please understand that there are limitations concerning language.

Positive thoughts and prayers,

"T"


(using Google Translate)

Hola Valentina,

No te encuentras aqu�, pero este es un sitio maravilloso para apoyo e informaci�n. Desafortunadamente, muchos de los presentes, incluyendo los administradores del sitio no hablan espa�ol.

Para responder a su pregunta. S�, la radiaci�n en combinaci�n con la quimioterapia es una de las normas de tratamiento para el c�ncer oral. La quimioterapia act�a como un agente de radio-sensibilizaci�n y ayuda a la radiaci�n mata las c�lulas cancerosas. Tambi�n ayuda a eliminar las c�lulas cancerosas callejeros que pueden haber salido del sitio original.

La mejor manera de comunicarse en este caso ser�a utilizar Google Translate http://translate.google.com/. Mi pareja y cuidador es de Ecuador y es fluido en espa�ol. No dude en escribir por favor y haremos lo que podamos para ayudar.

El objetivo de la OCF es ayudar a todas las personas con c�ncer oral, pero por favor entienda que hay limitaciones respecto de los idiomas.

Pensamientos y oraciones positivas,

"T"

Valentina, lo siento pero no hablo espa�ol, s�lo Ingl�s por favor.