Crisis Translation - Chloe Sierra Leone

Delivering community translation training in Sierra Leone

1 October 2021 - Chloe Franklin, freelance translator

On our first day of sessions, excited nerves kicked in as I waited to see the faces of the participants who would be joining us throughout the course. It felt a touch bittersweet to be delivering this training through a computer screen as opposed to face-to-face, but these rising technologies have opened my eyes to the endless possibilities and opportunities becoming available to us, in spite of incessant lockdowns and travel bans. As the Zoom call connected, the smiling faces came into view, ready to get the day started. The first round of sessions started with announcements from our sponsors, welcoming the participants to the course, and each day started with prayer, a lovely routine to follow.

After personal introductions all around, the sessions dove straight into a discussion of what translation actually means, so that participants had a clear definition to work from when applying their knowledge practically. Following this clarification, we moved on to discussing the core elements of translation, including the consideration of audience, register and tone, the importance of accuracy, and the potential implications which could arise from inaccurate translation production. Each topic was brought up for consideration through participative discussions, to ensure that participants were using their own initiative, something which would be extremely useful in future work. These discussions often incorporated personal experiences from other employment fields, and brought a number of areas not previously considered to the table. Participants even took it upon themselves to offer explanations in different ways, using a number of examples, to ensure that anyone who either misunderstood or didn’t understand something had a means to comprehend the study material.

Of course, as has been the case for many of us working with Zoom and similar videoconferencing tools during the pandemic, there were a number of issues which interfered with our ability to work at times. Power cuts occurred frequently, with one such occasion being solved by hooking up a generator to a car battery, so that the sessions could continue (highlighting the enthusiasm of the participants to engage with the materials). A major issue highlighted by both staff and participants was actually one of the driving forces behind the need for the training: limited resources available in the local languages that participants were working in. Since these languages are often marginalised in favour of others, accurate written resources were hard to come across, and many participants found that they would struggle to access them, even if they did exist.

Following a hiatus after the initial sessions through which participants worked to translate UNDRR terminology material, we returned together to work in language-specific groups, so that translations could be reviewed and completed for publication in a multilingual dictionary. Due to some participants’ inexperience in writing in their local languages or their inability to find reliable resources to justify their translation choices, we re-framed the layout of the workshops from reviewing translations to working in teams to translate the material, and review it together. We give our thanks to the language experts who came to support these efforts, and their help in ensuring consistency and accuracy in translation work.

Each group approached the workshop tasks differently, so as to work most efficiently to complete the translations. Some workshop sessions split themselves into two groups, dividing up the terminology to be translated; others worked together, bouncing ideas off of one another; some groups decided to take regular breaks throughout the day to review their translations, while others dedicated time at the end of each session to complete this. Most importantly, everyone worked collaboratively, recognising that improving their team’s work also helped to improve the ability of each and every member of that team.

The teaching during these sessions certainly wasn’t one-sided. We were fortunate to work alongside ICOON, who produced pictograms for each terminology entry in the dictionary, designed to improve understanding, particularly for those readers who may have been less familiar with the specific terminology in the local languages used. Participants were asked to comment on each image, to see if they were easily understandable, and to suggest any ways in which images could be localised so that they made more sense to readers. The collective experiences each group produced incredible feedback and recommendations for localisation, due to their extensive knowledge of the local cultures and encounters with different types of disaster, contributions which were beyond valuable.

These sessions helped to develop skills in our participants, which they can take back to their communities, to help prepare them for the next crisis situation. While some crises may not be avoidable, improved preparedness in the form of increased communication capacity in lesser-translated languages can help to improve resilience to these situations.

About the author: Chloe Franklin

Chloe Franklin completed an MSc Specialised Translation (Medical, Scientific and Technical) with a Distinction at CenTraS, University College London, where she also attended the Crisis Translation module. She is a freelance proofreader and translator specialising in medical, scientific, and crisis translation. Currently looking for PhD opportunities.

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