Email journal: June 13, 2006, Worcester Part of the project that I am working on is doing standardized surveys about the concerns of residents living in Main South. The questions in the surveys mostly refer to safety and health problems that the residents may face on a day to day basis. We have a specfic area where we are collecting data and the survey has to be given to everyone in the same fashion with all the questions asked in the same way. Even if a person does not understand a question, we are not allowed to clarify it for them. This can be somewhat frustrating because the surveys are fairly complex but it is necessary that all the surveys done are the same. Last weekend I went to do a survey in Spanish with an older woman who lives in the Clark area. I don't speak Spanish myself but we have a graduate student on the project named Karen who is from Puerto Rico and can conduct the survey in Spanish for people who feel more comfortable with Spanish than English. Two people always go out to do a survey not only for safety reasons, but also because there are two jobs to be done when doing a survey. One person needs to read all the questions and directions with the survey taker and the other must write down all the person's responses word for word. However, because I could neither read nor write in Spanish, Karen had to do both jobs and I tried to follow along as best as I could. When we got to her apartment, the woman was very friendly, welcomed us in and offered us a snack. I tried my best to say my "hello" and "How are you?" but I don't really know if the woman understood my poor Spanish. However, when Karen started actually doing the survey, I was surprised at the amount of Spanish I could pick up. I took it for four years but I hadn't actually practiced it since about junior year in high school. From what I could understand, the survey went very well. All in all it was a good experience doing my first Spanish survey! Jill