Image: custardbasket.blogspot.com Today is Christmas. It's a time when many of us come together with our families to give thanks for our friends and family, and maybe give each other a few presents. For those of us who don't celebrate Christmas, there are also a number of holidays, both religious and secular, that fall during this time of year and whose purpose is basically the same: a celebration of the good fortunes we may have had during the year, and of the happiness those around us bring to us all.
But though some of us may have the good fortune to be able to take time off to celebrate Christmas and other holidays, others do not. Recently, it was revealed that the crisis in Syria and other countries in the Middle East and Africa has prompted over 1 million refugees to seek shelter in Europe. In the United States, unrest in Central America has generated a new wave of migration from these countries similar to the spike of migrations experienced in 2014. And these are just two of the most visible cases of migration crises being felt around the world. Migration is a hotly contested issue worldwide. Some have seized on migrations as an opportunity to stir up nativist sentiments for political gain. And it is true that, among the immense number of migrants around the world, there may be a small percentage who are criminals or other people who pose a threat to those in the lands they come to. But even the most hard-hearted among us would admit that, despite these problematic refugees, the vast majority are not criminals but regular people like you and me, who are living through a time of extreme need and could use our help. This holiday season, some of us are lucky enough to be able to take time off and be with our families and friends. But others aren't. And there would be nothing more fitting for the holiday spirit than to lend a hand to those less fortunate than ourselves, living through one of the many crises going on in the world at this time. There are many ways we can help those in need. Many great, hard-working charitable organizations exist whose goal is to improve the lives of people in need, and you can help them by donating money or, depending on where you are located, showing up as a volunteer. But if neither of these are possible, there's another way you can help: by volunteering as a translator or a corrector. At first, the thought of volunteering as a translator may seem trivial. But Translators Without Borders, an organization dedicated to helping organize volunteer translators, issues a stark warning on its homepage about how essential translating can be in critical situations around the world: "Language barriers cost lives." If you happen to know another language, your ability to translate can help people around the world. Though it's true that machine translations can help bridge the gap, in certain translations (especially medical translations and translations of technical material) critical information can be misinterpreted or simply translated incorrectly by software, meaning that human translations are still essential in many cases. If you happen to speak or be proficient in another language, your ability to translate can make a difference, and you can choose to help by signing up with groups like TWB or many others. Even if you don't know another language, you can help translation efforts by volunteering as a corrector in your native language. Though this role is not as strongly emphasized by groups like TWB, correction is still a key part of translation, especially cases in which translators may not be native speakers of their target language, which can be the case in large scale volunteer projects. As a corrector, you can help to make sure the translated document is fully comprehensible in the target language, and also flag areas where essential details are written in a way that is unclear or unintelligible. And the other advantage of this work is that you don't have to be located in a crisis area to do it, you can easily work on it from wherever you are located. Of course, translating and correcting as a volunteer won't solve the massive problems the world faces overnight. But for every person in need of a translation - a refugee who needs his documents translated, a patient in critical condition in a conflict zone, or one of the millions of other people around the world who desperately need something written in another language - your work can make all the difference. You may never meet the people you're helping. But perhaps next year when the holidays come around, there will be one more person who is no longer in danger of sickness, grave injury, or even death, and can instead take time to celebrate with his or her family and friends. And that person will have you to thank. |
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