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Lucian, The things that work for me are: - avoid too much detail - speak slowly and distinctly - use hand gestures - demonstrate by doing the required action yourself For instance, - I keep a cardboard spirometry tube on the bench [marked with my name so that it doesn't accidentally get used] - I show them several times how to place the tube in the mouth, including how not to do it - I then go through the exaggerated motions of doing the test, before asking them to do it - I removing my tube from the spiro and setting it aside for any supplementary demonstration - I give lots of loud verbal and demonstrative encouragement as they make their first attempt If they do that all right, that's it; just get them to do the required number of repetitions. If they don't get it right, you might have to go through the tuition sequence again. If that still doesn't give an adequate result, you may have to ask them to come back on another occasion with a translator or colleague who speaks better English. BTW, I use the same process with English-speakers too. A lot of people in both senior and menial posts don't get it from a verbal instruction, but most will if you visibly demonstrate to them. I trust that helps. Trevor Maze ******************************** Please remove this footer before replying. OCC-HEALTH ARCHIVES: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/occ-health.html CONFERENCES AND STUDY DAYS: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/filearea.cgi?LMGT1=OCC-HEALTH