Citizens of the world: Sharing experiences
Solving problems and helping people understand each other has been the main goal of Two Worlds Language Services.
As a multilingual world we live it is important to deliver the right message to others. Speaking different languages, living multicultural experiences is the story of many of us. My experience inside of the translation world has given me many stories to share (happy, sad, learning life skills, and many more) with you, my beloved readers.
I will start with this happy story of the immigrant family from Oaxaca, speaking a dialect call: “mixteco”. This dialect belongs mainly to the south of Mexico. Specifically: Oaxaca. One of the main challenges I faced in this story was to find a multilingual translator (Spanish-English- mixteco). The woman from Oaxaca and her family only speak mixteco. They were living in a small town in Illinois close to the border with Missouri. One morning I received a phone call requesting a mixteco- English translator for a woman who was in labor, almost ready to deliver a baby. This was a real emergency, with no time to get an interpreter on site. Nurses were scared and worried trying to explain to this pregnant woman the delivery room procedures, I told them to be calm. I will help you with this endeavor. I called my contacts inside and outside of US, finally I got the Spanish – mixteco interpreter, but with only one problem. An interpreter didn’t speak English at all. With no time I decided to do a three-way conference call (me, the interpreter and nurses). For me this was one of the most incredible experiences in my life, helping the family, and nurses. Finally a healthy baby boy came into this world. Nurses and family feel satisfied with the translation. It wasn’t easy, however at the end we accomplished our mission. Tears of joy between family and staff could be heard on the phone. Communication is the keystone of human being.
I have translated love letters, legal, medical documents and others. We share so many stories and to those TWLS helped to communicate in any language everywhere.
An unusual letter to translate came to my office, I opened and it was a love letter from a client who wanted me to translate Spanish into English for his beloved American girlfriend whose doesn’t speak Spanish. Communicate love, care and affection while finding the right words was an important and emotional task. At the end, the message was delivered with happiness and hope.
Communicate the right words and a meaning is crucial, especially in legal cases like this sad story with a happy ending. A foster home requested a Spanish interpreter by phone (they called from a rural small town) they tried to explain a little girl (5 years old) why she was on the foster home instead her family home (dad), at the same time spoke with the father, why she was taken from his side. It was an emotional conversation by phone between parties; in the end both daughter and father were reunited. Helping them with the legal translation at the end (documents) and the phone interpretation was so important for the legal process in this case. Again TWLS helped the community solving their problems with professionalism and expertise. Working inside of TWLS has given me the opportunity to meet amazing people with their own stories, helping them to translate documents like a birth certificate into Arabic dialect from Morocco, a death certificate from Spain, or France. Phone calls requesting a Russian interpreter required in a mediation process.
I have helped to develop a book of poems into several languages. I worked hand in hand with immigration lawyers translating in many languages for each case. Interesting stories from a multilingual world we live in. There are stories I wanted to share with you. In TWLS every translated words matters.
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU?
