Translating RESPECT's Message
It would be tempting to think that translating RESPECT's message into different languages is as simple as copying the text into an online translator and transposing the results onto the website. Yet the reality is not so simple.
Although web translations are increasingly sophisticated, they lack the subtlety and refinement which a human translator can offer to create engaging and accessible text - a fact which is especially important with the delicate nature of some of the issues which RESPECT covers.
In an effort to maintain accessibility RESPECT therefore works with 'real life' translators who are fluent in the desired languages and who have expressed an interest in RESPECT's work.
This arrangement means that RESPECT's website is currently available in one form another in 11 languages (12 if you count the simplified version of Chinese) including Japanese, Hindi and Arabic.
Marc Schaeffer, RESPECT President, says that he is constantly looking for new opportunities to translate Respect's work into new languages and says his latest focus is to work with Israel-based RESPECT volunteer Lisa Zilberpriver to translate the website into Hebrew.
'[W]e are looking to update our Chinese pages, translate RESPECT's handbook into French and produce a quarterly Spanish ezine,' he said, adding there are also plans for a Portuguese portal for the site along with moves to translate into additional languages spoken by refugee participants.
As the world's second and seventh most widely spoken languages, Spanish and Portuguese would be useful additions in reaching new audiences and, as Marc points out, this also makes the website open to a variety of search engines for specific languages.
However the challenges of representing RESPECT in different languages does not stop at the translation stage. As Will Wallace, webmaster and Vice-President of Information Technology points out, some languages pose their own difficulties in terms of presentation.
'Languages that don't use Latin characters are a little more difficult because I'm not familiar with the characters. It's hard to know where I can make breaks in sentences, and if I've created problems with the text,' said Will when asked about potential technical difficulties.
'We are doing our best to comply with World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards which helps the pages display more consistently in any language. Part of that process is specifying which fonts the visitor's web browser should use to display the page.'
He added: 'It's not easy to identify which fonts are included on a computer using Hindi, or Azeri for example. But those issues are normally solved with the help of the translators.'
Ultimately, the time consuming work of translating RESPECT's website into new languages is dependent on volunteers, and there are therefore obvious constraints on how much can be done. But as the network of associates and affiliates grows, the opportunities presented by new volunteers with a range of language skills should enable RESPECT meet the challenge of spreading refugee awareness to new and diverse audiences across the globe.