Hey everyone,
I'm new to this forum but with a very specific goal.
I work as a police officer in Sweden and very often I need to be able to communicate with people in a very basic manner. Usually the purpose of this communication is to get answers to basic questions or to provide basic information such as:
"- Are you hurt in any way?"
"- You are under arrest/being detained."
"- What is your name? Where do you live?"
"- How can we help you?"
etc.
If the person is going to be formally interrogated a translator will be provided but it would help me and make a lot of those I interact with a lot more comfortable and less afraid if I could explain what is happening right now and what is going to happen next. Also it would make things easier if I could answer basic questions.
So my question really is which languages I should prioritize and in what order to reach a basic-basic level so to speak. I am aware that nationality and language doesn't always correlate perfectly and I'm not trying to offend anyone by doing some generalization. These are the nationalities I encounter the most:
Romania (a lot of times from the Romani community)
Poland
Ukraine
Georgia
Syria
Afghanistan
Iraq
Lebanon
Somalia
Ethiopia
As of right now I speak somewhat functional english and very basic german (besides swedish) but I want to find out which languages would make it possible for me to communicate with the most people from the above mentioned countries. Obviously it won't be the mother tongue of all of those mentioned but as long as we can understand each other on a basic level it would be good enough.
How do you think I should prioritize?