Speak Out October 2017 LOW RES

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36 Speak Out October 2017
Branch News
THANKS TO THE Australian government’s
New Colombo Plan funding, myself and five
other students from the University of Newcastle
travelled to Singapore. The aim of this trip was
to build connections between students from the
University of Newcastle and speech pathologists
working in organisations in South East Asia.
The New Colombo Plan is an initiative
by the Australian government that allows
undergraduates and young professionals to
foster relationships with their peers in the Indo-
Pacifc. The trip was an observation placement
and was an exciting opportunity to dive into
another culture. We learnt about the different
ways speech pathology services are delivered in
Asia, especially in a country with a diverse range
of cultures and languages. Over the course of
our week of observation in Singapore, we were
warmly welcomed by the Speech Pathology
Department of Singapore General Hospital, THK
Charities, Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore,
Techable and Auditory Verbal Department of
the Centre for Hearing and Ear Implants. We
walked away with a new perspective on our
undergraduate studies.
Singapore is incredibly diverse. One of the
amazing things about Singapore is it has four
official languages: English, Malay, Tamil, and
Mandarin. This had real impacts on the care
administered by the speech pathologists we
observed. This diversity in spoken language
made the way the speech pathologists work
fascinating to watch, as they often only spoke
two of the four official languages but provided
treatment in whatever language the client could
understand. The communication between the
speech pathologist and client depended on
gestures and, hopefully, a language that they
could both partially speak and/or understand.
This gave us a positive new perspective for
the importance of communication with CALD
populations, and some insight into how I can
improve my own skills when working with this
population.
It wasn’t all serious though, we immersed
ourselves in the Singaporean culture while there.
The experience included some sightseeing,
shopping, and the odd sneaky cocktail. I count
myself to be extremely lucky to have been given
the opportunity to travel to Singapore. Australia
is such a multicultural country that is ever
increasing in diversity, and it was invaluable to
have experienced speech pathology in a country
that truly epitomizes multiculturalism.
Alison Kershaw
University of Newcastle
ACT/
New south wales
ACT 83
NSW 2478
members
as at September 2017
Building connections in
South East Asia