Latest / Found in Interpretation Podcast / Ep. 37 - How Clear Global Is Transforming Humanitarian Aid Through Language

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Ep. 37 - How Clear Global Is Transforming Humanitarian Aid Through Language · Found in Interpretation Podcast

0:00
Hello, hello and welcome to another episode of found an
0:03
interpretation podcast. Once again I'm one of your Co
0:05
hosts. Unable to I'm here Brian.
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Brian, how you doing? I'm doing great.
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Thank you. And and we are here today with
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Stella as well. Hi, Stella.
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Hi there, nice to meet you both. Nice to meet you.
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Alright, let's kick it. O welcome Stella.
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First of all, as usual, I will introduce Stella.
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Stella is a language service industry expert with a passion
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for languages in a profound belief in the transformative
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power of global communication. Currently, Stella is a member of
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the leadership team at Clear Global, formally Translators
0:51
Without Borders, leading the language service team in
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collaboration with the Translations Without Borders
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community. With over 100,000 volunteer and
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professional linguists today, CLEAR provides comprehensive
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offering of language services and solutions to organizations
1:11
within the humanitarian and development sector, including
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translation, localization, audio, visual and interpreting.
1:21
Did I miss anything? Well, as a as a summary, that's,
1:24
that's fair. Yeah.
1:26
The organization actually does a lot more, but perhaps we'll get
1:29
into that a bit later. Yeah, let's talk about that
1:32
like. Yeah, actually that's a good way
1:34
to start. So yeah, it said that you used
1:36
to be translators Without Borders and became clear.
1:39
So we are still translators Without Borders.
1:42
I think that's the most important thing.
1:46
Translators Without Borders, which actually started out in
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France way back in 1993 as predictors from Frontier, um and
1:55
the, the immediate need was to connect volunteer translators
2:00
with NGO's who need a translation but did not have the
2:04
budget for it. And over the years, we've
2:07
evolved. Obviously, we've changed.
2:09
And we became registered in the US as a nonprofit in 2011 as
2:17
Translators Without Borders. Following that, we've then been
2:22
growing, developing, evolving, moving into different spaces, in
2:28
particular within the humanitarian and development
2:31
sectors, basically just off the back of the realization that
2:38
language within the humanitarian and development space was a
2:41
massive blind spot until fairly recently.
2:45
And indeed, a lot of the change that's happened has been thanks
2:47
to a lot of the research and advocacy work that we've done to
2:51
raise awareness around the importance of language and the
2:55
risks related to either not communicating in the right
2:59
language or not communicating in the best possible way.
3:04
The impacts that, that, the negative impact that, that can
3:07
have on humanitarian and development efforts.
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Um, so because of that, all that work that we've done, research,
3:16
advocacy, working within various crisis contexts around the
3:20
globe, and then also working on language technology.
3:25
That's another big area that we've been working within,
3:29
particularly language technology for the smaller languages, the
3:32
low resource languages. So because of all those things,
3:35
a few years ago we felt like the the name Translators Without
3:39
Borders didn't reflect to the full breadth and scope of the
3:44
work that we do, which is why we evolved to become clear global.
3:49
However, Translators Without Borders is a very important part
3:55
of who we are. And today we have the
3:58
Translators Without Borders community of over 100,000
4:03
linguists, as you mentioned. And we have our Translators
4:06
Without Borders platform, which is where the community go to, to
4:10
communicate, collaborate, to work on tasks and to do
4:13
training. So yeah.
4:16
But the the the name translators Without Borders, of course,
4:22
right off the bat will will think about Doctors Without
4:26
Borders like Mid Saints on Francia.
4:29
So by changing the name, didn't you a risk at that time to lose
4:36
that, that idea that comes with it?
4:40
Well, yes. And you mentioned medicines on
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Frontier. That was the inspiration for our
4:45
organization. However, what we were seeing was
4:50
that within a humanitarian context, if we were in working
4:53
group meetings with other UN agencies and organisations, we
4:58
would be talking about the importance of language.
5:00
But then when we said we were translators Without Borders,
5:02
they'd be like, Oh yeah, we've got a few documents who need but
5:05
need translation, whereas we were trying to engage in
5:09
conversations that would result in some kind of systemic change.
5:16
And so they, they, they, I and also because of the work around
5:21
around language technology, the fact that today we do a lot more
5:26
than translation. So translation is a still a big
5:30
part of what we do. Translators Without Borders
5:33
community is part of our DNA, but we felt we needed a name
5:39
that better reflected what we do.
5:41
Clear stands for community, language engagement,
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accountability and reach. So we wanted, we wanted a new
5:53
name to reflect better the the work that we were doing.
5:56
That makes a total sense. Yeah.
5:58
And this must be such a monumental enterprise that I'm
6:02
assuming you're not doing this alone.
6:04
How how big is your team to to be able to manage all this?
6:08
So at Clear Global today the the internal team, so we have a, a
6:15
core team working within the organisation.
6:19
I think there's maybe around 70 of us today.
6:22
And then we have all our partners that we're working
6:26
with. We have the TW community and we
6:30
have everything beyond that. So we are within the
6:33
organization more of a kind of coordination, coordination
6:38
roles. But actually the the the efforts
6:40
and the impact go far beyond the people working for the
6:44
organization. Are those type of people like in
6:47
an office or are you guys working all over the world?
6:49
Like how do you guys meet like Zoom?
6:52
I'm assuming they're. Yeah, we're all in our own
6:56
individual offices, OK, otherwise called our homes all
7:01
over the world, basically. I can relate.
7:06
So yeah, we do not have a physical office.
7:09
As I mentioned, we're registered in the US.
7:11
We actually already also have an Irish entity, which is because
7:17
again, a number of years ago we merged with another similar
7:21
organization called the Rosetta Foundation.
7:24
I don't know if you've. Heard of the Rosetta Foundation?
7:27
Yeah. Right.
7:28
So, yeah, they were an Irish NGO and so we merged with them and
7:33
we maintained that entity in Ireland.
7:35
But that's we don't have any offices ultimately.
7:38
So what does everyday life looks on your side like what what are
7:46
your old guys are working from home.
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I when I heard a translation translators Without Borders or a
7:54
clear global. Now I for a second, I imagine
7:58
people on the field or in remote locations or being at airports
8:05
and trying to go from one place to another.
8:07
That sounds really exciting. It's my imagine am I imagine my
8:11
I don't know, being too wild here.
8:14
Um, yes and no. So because my, my daily life
8:22
looks a lot like this and I work from home.
8:28
Having said that, since I've worked within the organization,
8:31
I can safely say that I have never had two days the same.
8:35
It's always been a very dynamic and, and, and my day can start
8:42
with maybe talking with a team member in Nigeria and then
8:45
talking with the UN agency in Switzerland and then talking
8:48
with tech based company in the US.
8:52
And then so it's very, very the the different stakeholders that
8:56
we are working with a very, very diverse.
9:00
Our team is also very diverse. As you will have noticed, I have
9:04
a British accent. I am based in Italy and to be
9:09
honest, despite being a US based organization, the majority of
9:13
our team is kind of within the Europe and Africa area, um.
9:19
Probably because of the translators Without Borders and
9:23
based located in Paris. Is that that?
9:26
Or in France, not particularly, it's just because so we, we we
9:31
have had to go back to your question.
9:34
We, we have had a number of different programs like physical
9:39
on the ground programs. So that is more like what you
9:43
were expecting, Alan. So we had a response in in
9:46
Greece during the Greek crisis and there we had our team leads
9:50
on the ground. We've had a team in Bangladesh
9:55
for a long time responding to the Rohingya refugee crisis.
9:59
We had a team in North East Nigeria for a very long time
10:02
where there's an ongoing crisis. When you said Greeks crisis, are
10:07
you talking about when Greece was on the verge of bankruptcy
10:11
about 20 years ago or We're very far away from Greece so we don't
10:15
really know the issues? The huge refugee crisis in
10:20
Greece in 2017. Fact checkers will check, don't
10:26
worry. Is it Thomas?
10:28
Boy joined the organization, but there was a massive influx of
10:32
migrants following the the the issues in the Middle East and
10:37
that led to there being an influx of refugees in Greece
10:41
that they could not handle. Was it the?
10:44
Still to this day, the the the refugee camps in Greece are
10:47
full. They're over.
10:49
Sorry, they're over full. That's.
10:50
Not all. Oh, wow, yeah, OK.
10:53
And they're the ones that kind of migrated as they started in
10:55
Greece, but they actually continued on to other like the
10:59
rest of Western Europe, right. I think there was like a a.
11:02
Trail the Yes, a lot of migrants were looking to move into other
11:09
parts of Europe, yeah. Was it a part of the Syrian
11:13
refugee crisis? Cause Canada accepted a lot of I
11:16
think 20,000 or 40,000 Syrian refugees at the time.
11:20
A lot of actually refugees in in Canada that yeah, actually some
11:25
of our former colleagues were were working kind of in our
11:29
community members. We have a lot of community
11:31
members in Canada. So it's it's interesting with
11:35
the various migration laws, a lot of refugees also from Iran,
11:41
I think in Canada. Hmm.
11:43
So, yeah, but these these black migrant flows obviously are are
11:47
changing and the language needs of the migrants, that's the
11:51
that's the tricky part. And Speaking of language needs,
11:56
are you focusing really on translation, or is it
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translation as a very, uh, wide term that includes
12:02
interpretation? Because I guess that
12:04
interpreting services must be required to communicate with
12:09
those populations and create some links.
12:11
Yeah. So as the as the name says, you
12:14
know, translators Without Borders.
12:16
So our core focus has been and is still on translation and
12:24
other related language services, um, because increasingly we do a
12:29
lot of different work localization or audio visual.
12:34
However, having said that, we do do interpreting, there has been
12:39
for various reasons, it wasn't our core, core function.
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But actually an area where we did start to or we and we do
12:48
specialize is actually in the training of interpreters.
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And specifically the training of humanitarian interpreters.
12:56
Because that was a need that we saw in different prices
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settings. Is that typically when there is
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a, a crisis and the, the humanitarian organizations move
13:09
into the area, the, the larger organisations and they are
13:13
looking and recruiting interpreters or cultural
13:17
mediators. But typically they're the
13:20
they're coming in and recruiting from among the local people who
13:24
do not have any interpreting experience and so.
13:28
Cultural mediator. What's the difference between an
13:31
interpreter and a cultural mediator?
13:33
So a cultural mediator tends to focus more on cultural aspects
13:38
and be more sensitive to the to the actual environment.
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And they may actually, whereas an interpreter tends to be well,
13:45
has to be very neutral and just, you know, saying, repeating what
13:49
is being said faithfully. The cultural mediator is more of
13:54
a role that accompanies the person, maybe explaining certain
13:58
things to them. So the both cultural mediators
14:03
and humanitarian interpreters can be closely related, but
14:08
generally they're people who have a much deeper knowledge of
14:10
the of the local context and are able to provide added
14:15
information also to facilitate the communication between an
14:20
operator for a a humanitarian organisation and the local
14:23
population. Now, you had mentioned that
14:27
like, you're very involved in places where there are crises.
14:32
I saw in the news yesterday that Israel bombed Iran.
14:35
So in your mind, are you thinking, oh, God, here comes a
14:40
lot of work for us that we have to manage because there's a new
14:43
crisis that just started that. Does that thoughts go through
14:48
your mind or? So, yeah, obviously we're very
14:52
sensitive to various situations going on in the world.
14:56
Having said that, we evaluate whether our intervention is
15:00
necessary depending on the specific context and various
15:04
different criteria. First and foremost, is there a
15:08
communication issue, right. So depending on where we are,
15:12
there may or may not be a need. You know, the crises we tend to
15:18
focus on tend to be complex multilingual contexts where you
15:23
have a lot of people speaking a lot of different languages.
15:26
So sometimes we, we don't need to intervene because there isn't
15:31
a communication problem. Also, if there is a, it
15:35
obviously pens on the the countries because there are
15:40
countries who do not appreciate the involvement of outside
15:45
organisations and and also ideally there are countries that
15:50
have a very strong structure themselves and are available
15:54
available are able to provide their own support as well was on
16:00
countries with a weaker, weaker health system, weaker government
16:04
system. OK.
16:05
So if like an NGO from Canada were to ask for assistance, then
16:10
I guess you'd have to evaluate that because they're in a
16:13
developed country already. So there are other forms of aid
16:16
that they can go to before going to clear.
16:18
Global, yes, we do evaluate, but it depends because so our
16:24
mission is to help anybody who is, who needs information in
16:28
local languages. And in fact, so to give you an
16:32
example, we have collaborated for years with the American Red
16:35
Cross and particularly during hurricane season, we would
16:40
support the American Red Cross to get information into the
16:43
local immigrant languages quickly, right.
16:46
So a rapid response language service within those contexts,
16:50
you could argue that the US doesn't need that kind of
16:52
support, but you know, that's why organisations like the the
16:59
Red Cross themselves exist. And then our model is is quite
17:02
similar. Well, I think everybody needs
17:04
support when there's a crisis, right?
17:06
Like it's not just language, it's everything.
17:07
Like if there's a hurricane, like there's always people who
17:10
are offering their their help and volunteer work.
17:13
That's what makes something humanitarian to begin with.
17:16
So it's just the the human involvement.
17:19
So I'm guessing that when you were talking earlier about blind
17:22
spots, of course local governments even in in the
17:26
United States have resources, but the blind spot is all these
17:33
language communities that nobody will think of.
17:36
And I'm guessing here that that's who you're trying to
17:38
reach. Yes, and we support the American
17:42
Red Cross with all sorts of languages, but yeah, our focus
17:47
is to make sure that the the most vulnerable are getting
17:51
information, and that tends to be people who speak smaller
17:54
languages. So yeah, now.
17:56
Who who provides the the training for the interpreters
17:59
for like say they have to be on site and whatnot?
18:03
Is it done through university or is it done through more
18:07
volunteers? Or how does that work?
18:10
So again, depends within the, when we had teams on the ground
18:15
in Bangladesh and Nigeria and the Congo, the Democratic
18:19
Republic of Congo, we were providing, it was our team
18:23
providing the training courses, right.
18:25
So, and we, we trained thousands of interpreters in those
18:28
contexts, but we actually had specific training, training
18:33
staff in those, in those teams. We now actually have a, we have
18:39
an e-learning platform, it's called the TW Learning Centre
18:44
and it's actually, it provides free courses.
18:47
There's 8 courses on there right now, including a course which is
18:51
the basics of humanitarian interpreting, and that course is
18:55
open to any member of the TWE community and it's also free to
19:01
join the TWB community so it's essentially a free training.
19:08
And so how does a clear get its funding for all of the these
19:13
programs and coordinating and all this?
19:17
We have various income streams, uh, since I moved to, to
19:23
Translators Without Borders and clear, I came from the private
19:25
sector and so the world of nonprofit funding is very
19:31
complex. So it's a combination of
19:34
institutional grants, so working with various either government
19:40
funding or foundations. And then we also have our
19:48
sponsors, a number of sponsors within the mostly within the
19:52
language service industry and other donations coming from
19:56
individuals and the various campaigns that we run throughout
20:01
the year. And then we also have contracts
20:05
with other UN agencies or NGO's who who work with us on the on
20:13
the different services we're providing.
20:15
Wow. And if you work with such a wide
20:19
pool of language professionals, and these are NGO, it's not a
20:23
private company. So is there a lot of pro bono
20:27
work from language professionals?
20:30
So let's say I am here in Canada, life is good, but if I
20:35
want to help out in any other way, like to provide a few hours
20:40
a week to global, is it like that or are they being paid only
20:47
the interpreters or translators are at least a minimum so how
20:50
does that? Work yes um, both let's say yeah
20:55
so the the, the community is a predominantly volunteer
21:00
community having said that we do try to we've tried to define
21:07
guidelines for establishing when something is appropriate to be a
21:11
volunteer project and when it should be a paid project.
21:14
So, for example, depending on the time commitment required,
21:18
depending on the expertise, depending on the languages,
21:21
depending on the locations. And then we, we do feel that if
21:27
we can, you know, it, we, we want to be able to pay people
21:31
because as you mentioned, not all of us have the luxury to be
21:34
able to volunteer. Having said that, we do have a
21:38
lot of people who want to volunteer, right?
21:40
So, so basically we try and we have a number of different
21:45
criteria for establishing how we're going to handle a project
21:49
and establishing rates or and we also have a recognition program
21:53
so that the volunteer translators are gaining
21:57
recognition for the tasks that they do and they have a badge
22:01
and we have different, different statuses and things like that.
22:08
And how do you, um, how do you apply to be able to do that?
22:14
You just go on the website and you become a member and then
22:16
that way you're kind of on the database automatically.
22:20
Yes. So we have actually 0 barrier to
22:23
entry. Anybody can sign up.
22:26
And again, the reason for that is because working with the low
22:29
resource languages or working within, you know, a crisis
22:32
response, then we need to be able to get people up and
22:37
running as soon as possible. And some people there may not be
22:43
translator qualifications in certain languages.
22:46
Um, the other reason is that when we run our annual survey to
22:53
the community and we ask people, you know, what motivates you to
22:57
be a member of the TWB community?
22:59
The first response is always because I want to help people.
23:05
The second response is always because I want to gain
23:08
experience and, and learn. So we also have a lot of
23:13
students, um, newly graduated people who, who come to our
23:18
community because they actually get the chance to work on some
23:21
pretty important projects with important organizations, which
23:28
is good for them. And also within the community,
23:30
we have different levels so that the work of a junior translator
23:34
is always gonna be reviewed by a senior translator.
23:37
So once people have joined, then we try to direct them, you know,
23:41
OK, you, you're, you're a, a junior or you have no experience
23:45
will direct you towards the learning centre.
23:48
We will give you some tasks. We'll make sure they're
23:50
reviewed, will monitor. And then that's how we manage
23:53
the community. Is it like an internship for
23:57
those newly graduated or do they expect to get paid right?
24:01
Away. No, no, Typically it's just ad
24:06
hoc tasks. So within the community, you
24:10
there is a task stream and you are able to claim tasks within
24:13
that task stream. To be honest, the biggest, one
24:16
of the other biggest complaints we get is that there aren't
24:18
enough tasks. So we have people who join and
24:21
then they can't find a task in their, in their language.
24:25
But no, it's just a volunteer. It's ad hoc because it depends
24:29
on the needs of the organizations that we're working
24:31
with, whether they have any projects or not.
24:34
I think this would be a great program for university students
24:36
though. Like to be able to, um, it's,
24:39
it's say like less pressure than in the private sector.
24:43
And also you're being shadowed. So like, it would be such an
24:46
incredible and valuable experience if you're say, like
24:49
doing your graduate degree in translation or interpretation to
24:53
have that added experience while you're not completing your
24:56
degree. Yeah.
24:58
And we do have a number of collaborations with different
25:01
universities. One of the issues is about
25:04
sometimes people come and say they need to do a certain number
25:07
of hours of translation and we can't necessarily guarantee
25:09
that. But we do have programs in place
25:13
with a number of institutions where the students do come for
25:16
internships. So and we have internships
25:19
ourselves, but they're more structured than the joining, the
25:23
just joining the community and and checking the task stream.
25:28
Sorry. Go ahead, Anna.
25:30
Don't have so many questions. Yeah.
25:32
Exactly. But one question that I keep
25:34
having what are the language combinations most in demand?
25:38
OK, very easy. Our largest languages are always
25:44
French, Spanish and Arabic, followed by Portuguese, Bangla,
25:49
Swahili, so basically large kind of lingua franca um languages,
25:58
the, the old colonial languages and then the the large pivot
26:03
languages as well. So.
26:06
So what would you do in a case like, say in Peru if you need to
26:11
find someone who speaks Ketchum? Like, would you have to go?
26:16
Like I don't know how you even would begin looking for a catcha
26:20
translator and interpreter. I'm assuming you have situations
26:24
like that where it's a, a Lang like an indigenous language or
26:28
something like that, that that there's no formal training for
26:30
it to begin with. So typically, I mean, we would
26:36
for Ketchum, we don't have a huge community.
26:40
Um, if there were to be a need or if we were to work on a
26:45
specific project, then we would launch a kind of community
26:52
recruitment and get outreach engagement plan.
26:56
And if possible, the best way to be able to get people to have
27:01
somebody local who's, who's helping.
27:03
Because often with the smaller languages, it's best to be there
27:08
on the ground and actually speaking to people.
27:11
And then once we we find them again, if there are no
27:15
professional translators or interpreters that then that's
27:19
why we have our training. We get people up and running in
27:24
a couple of days on the platform and then it it's, it's a process
27:29
that we're learning process. And I think that one of the nice
27:31
things is also that we have seen people progress through our
27:34
community. So come to us not knowing
27:36
anything. And then they learn with us the
27:38
basics and they get some experience.
27:40
And now they've moved on to make language a career.
27:46
Now what? Um, what, what, what does Clear
27:50
global need the most? Like what would be a big
27:52
obstacle? Like what is it funding?
27:54
Or would it be a human resources?
27:57
Like what? What is your biggest obstacle I
28:00
guess in your everyday job? Well, our biggest obstacle is
28:04
funding. Funding, OK.
28:07
Yeah. So how couldn't we help?
28:12
Is what I'm. So as I mentioned, we do have
28:17
different sponsors, different companies within the language
28:21
industry who choose to sponsor us.
28:24
Um, it's also possible to launch a fundraiser for us.
28:29
If it's your birthday or you wanna do a sponsored run or
28:32
something like that, then that's also a great way to be able to
28:36
support other than that, joining the, the, the community, lending
28:43
your expertise. One of the, yes, what we do see
28:49
is sometimes we have an influx of people, you know, offering
28:52
help and then we need to kind of match that with the needs that
28:56
we have. Um, but those generally other
29:00
ways and, and to be honest, also talking about what we do.
29:03
So following our, our channels, our social media, we do put out
29:08
a lot of content and just following that, sharing it,
29:14
mentioning to anybody, you know, you come across, uh, what we do.
29:19
I think it's also about getting the message out as well of why
29:24
what we do is important and, and again, raising awareness around
29:30
the issues of, um, well, and, and actually the, the fact that
29:36
one of the topics that we're talking about a lot today is the
29:39
fact that Internet content is dominated by a handful of
29:44
languages. So only 17 languages, which is
29:48
creating a huge Lang digital language divide because the less
29:53
content there is, the less data that is, and therefore the less
29:57
technology there is. So we, we, we, we've been doing
30:00
a lot of work to highlight that issue, which is becoming a
30:04
growing. Yeah.
30:05
Did you say 17 there? There are 17 main languages.
30:10
If I heard correctly, yes, the Internet, if you if you think
30:14
about the the content on all of the Internet, around half the
30:19
pages are in English and then the remaining, I don't know,
30:24
I've forgotten the statistics already, but let's say pretty
30:28
much the rest of the content is made-up by another 16 languages,
30:32
which tend to be the large European colonial languages are
30:38
Arabic, other languages, but that's 17 languages.
30:43
The Internet is pretty much made-up of only 17 languages,
30:47
which means that you have another 6000 languages that is
30:52
not represented on the on the Internet.
30:56
The issue with that is that all these language technologies and
31:01
chat GPTS that are being launched to be able to work,
31:04
they need data, but there isn't the data in the smaller
31:08
languages. And actually, sorry, I shouldn't
31:10
say smaller languages because some of these languages are big
31:13
languages. I was talking about Pasture the
31:15
other day, which is. Spoken in terms of numbers,
31:17
they're big. Turns off content.
31:20
They're small. Exactly.
31:22
There's a disproportionately small amount of content in the
31:25
in in languages such as Pashto. It feels like it's the same
31:30
situation as with books. Most books that are being
31:35
written will be written in English.
31:38
Uh, and then they'll be translated into other languages.
31:43
And then the smallest languages don't have access to as many
31:48
resources in as many books. Yeah, I think I've seen that
31:52
before, like on, on like at the back cover of a book like OHK
31:55
translated in 17 languages. I think that that's that's
31:59
where. That's the magic number.
32:00
Yeah, I was thinking I'm like oh damn, now that makes more sense.
32:05
But uh, yeah, no. And, and I'm just wondering too
32:08
that because we have, we had Adam Mohammed, I don't know if
32:11
you saw his, the podcast, he was with us, he's at the refugee
32:16
camp in Kenya, Kakuna. And he was telling us that
32:19
there's about 9 different languages there.
32:22
So even just filling, it's such a small area, but there's
32:26
200,000 refugees in that area and they have 9 different
32:29
languages. I mean, that's just like one
32:32
small example in on this planet where there's like that huge
32:36
need for you. And yeah, I find that the work,
32:40
I'm fascinated by what you're doing.
32:42
So I think I'm this is, this is incredible.
32:44
Like the, the commitment that you have.
32:46
Like I always find the translators, interpreters, it's
32:49
already a noble profession to begin with because you're trying
32:52
to help people understand one another.
32:54
But what you're doing is like above and beyond, right?
32:58
Yeah, I mean, we're, we're just trying to, again, a lot of what
33:03
we try to do is to raise awareness around the issues that
33:07
maybe not other people are thinking about, you know, and
33:09
just saying, oh, this, this is, this is a problem that that
33:13
needs to be fixed. And we don't have all the
33:17
answers because the problems we're trying to answer are
33:19
actually huge. These are huge, huge, huge
33:22
issues. And there are also a lot of
33:26
other organisations working in our space.
33:28
So, and increasingly actually, which is good.
33:31
Um, so I, I just think it's good to, to raise awareness that that
33:37
language is a, is a, is an issue.
33:39
Hmm. Absolutely.
33:41
In, in everyday life, in your organization, would would you
33:46
be, let's say, helping people have access to a hospital or go
33:53
to a court or something like that, doing a little bit what
33:56
the interpreting community, I mean more like the community
34:00
interpretation would do. So no, we don't, we don't
34:06
provide language services for individuals.
34:10
And that's the decision that we, we, we've taken for various
34:15
reasons logistical and that that's why I say the language
34:18
issues are huge. We've chosen to address certain
34:21
aspects of that. So we tend to work with other,
34:24
with partner organisations. And so we are not working
34:27
directly with individuals. There are other organisations
34:30
that do that, often their local organisations, but that's not
34:35
something that we do. So if it's something like say
34:37
UNHCR is that if that would be like your partner, then they
34:41
would take care of on their end of putting the interpreters or
34:44
they're supposed to be. Exactly.
34:46
Yeah, we would work directly with the UNHCR.
34:48
We, we. We.
34:49
Not the Internet. Worked with them directly, yeah.
34:52
Yeah, OK. If there's a hurricane, then if
34:57
there's a message to be spread, then you will be speaking, let's
35:01
say to the Red Cross or perhaps a state government and then you
35:05
will be providing services at that level.
35:08
More about macro level if I can say then rather than micro
35:11
level. Yes, that's exactly right.
35:13
Yeah. And so there are a number of
35:15
organizations doing what we do and then there are a number of
35:18
organized or lots of organizations providing
35:21
individual services. Do you work with any of the
35:24
translator associations like the American Translators Association
35:28
or they can? We, yeah, we are in contact with
35:34
the ATA, also CIOL in the in the UK, we sometimes go to their
35:40
conferences, they invite us to speak.
35:43
So yeah, we have relationships with professional associations,
35:47
with universities. So there's at the beginning when
35:52
you asked, what does my day look like?
35:54
It's kind of all over the place. That's awesome.
35:59
It's great with the world. Yeah.
36:01
That it's great not to have the same job and that you, it's so
36:04
repetitive, right? Like it's amazing to to just be
36:07
able to stay on your toes every day and every day something
36:10
different. So I have one question a bit
36:14
more personal this time. You said in the beginning that
36:19
do you ask people at first why are they doing this?
36:23
And the first one is you want to help people.
36:25
Is that your case as well? Yes, to be honest.
36:28
So I was working in the private sector, so for language service
36:33
providers and I just reached a point where I wanted to do
36:37
something more impactful. And I actually my first job
36:40
within the language service industry was with a small
36:44
company in the UK that we're providing public service
36:47
interpreting. And we were, we, well, we were
36:50
quite advanced for the time. We did telephone interpreting
36:53
for the hospitals, immigration, for police, social services in
36:57
the immigrant languages. And then I moved more to the
36:59
corporate side of things. And yeah, I felt like I, I, I
37:05
missed the, that feeling of making a difference in, in
37:08
somebody's lives, which I had with the, with the telephone
37:12
interpreting company actually. So when I saw this opportunity,
37:17
I decided to move in this direction.
37:21
And have you met any of your colleagues in person?
37:23
Because you said everybody's in their home.
37:25
Like do you get to meet? I'm one of the lucky ones
37:29
because every so often I do get to go somewhere and so yes, I
37:37
have met quite a few people, but that's also because I'm in Italy
37:44
and weirdly we do have quite a few team members that are in
37:47
Italy there's. Because it's beautiful, sunny,
37:50
and the food is amazing, that's why.
37:54
Smart. Nothing against British food,
37:57
but if I have to choose I'll also move to Italy.
38:03
Why could be why? So yeah, I'm because of where
38:06
I'm located in Europe and I get to travel a little bit as well.
38:10
So, um, I have met quite a number of the team, not all of
38:14
the team, um, you know, but then we have, I have a few team
38:18
members in Argentina in my team, for example, a couple of team
38:22
members in Argentina, one I have met the other one I have never
38:26
met. So it, it kind of it just, it
38:29
depends. Unfortunately, we, we can't all
38:32
get together to meet. It would simply be too
38:34
expensive. But we do have an annual virtual
38:37
retreat and, you know, a few days where we take the extra
38:42
effort to really get to know one another because it's important.
38:47
And is there like a, a board of directors or something or
38:50
someone who like guides the the organization?
38:55
So our board of directors, you can see all the information is
38:59
on the the website. We have our board of directors,
39:03
it's made-up of people from various industries, from the
39:06
humanitarian sector, from language technology development,
39:12
the development sector, language services.
39:15
So it's quite a varied board and also also the the, the
39:20
technology companies. Like a like Kudo or like um or
39:27
is there are there any AI companies or no?
39:31
Yeah, yeah, yes, OHS, obviously then the board of directors,
39:36
they move around as well, right then.
39:38
Yeah, yeah, I'm assuming that I was just asking cause the and as
39:42
you said, everything's online, so it's public information.
39:46
There on the on the website, but we have a really great diverse
39:50
board as well. OK.
39:53
I have one more question as we conclude the podcast.
39:57
I I have to mention the elephant in the room, AI.
40:01
So is AI something that will help you because you're dealing
40:06
with all these situations and you don't always have the
40:09
resources? Or how do you see the impact of
40:11
artificial intelligence? In your work.
40:13
So yeah, it's, it's huge obviously.
40:17
Um, and that is, I mean, we, we have seen because we do have a
40:22
very strong kind of tech focus. So we have been working within
40:26
the language technology space for some time, collaborating
40:31
with big tech, with universities, with academia to
40:34
develop the data. Because that's, as I was
40:37
mentioning before, there isn't the data in the low resource
40:39
languages. So right now one of our big
40:41
focuses is on voice data, gathering voice data and
40:46
validating voice data for low resource languages.
40:49
So to build language technology for those languages where it
40:52
doesn't exist, for the languages where it does exist, we always
40:57
embrace technology because why wouldn't you, you know, if
41:02
again, in terms of respecting the time of our volunteers,
41:06
right. So if they were a translator,
41:09
then why would you expect the the translator to translate
41:13
everything by hand if they can be helped by a machine
41:15
translation and then do the the post editing.
41:18
And it's also about efficiency as well.
41:21
Of course, with all of this, you need to know how to use the
41:23
technology and I think in your line of work interpretation, I
41:27
think it gets very interesting in terms of quality control,
41:32
quality processes, very. Good.
41:35
It's a good adjective. Interesting.
41:39
Not to say controversial. But no, yes, you're right.
41:44
Yes, it's a yeah, AI is, is taking more and more of a
41:48
presence. But I mean, like Alan, I think
41:50
I've learned to embrace it and to use it as a, as a guide and,
41:55
and to help us do our job better.
41:58
I think that's basically our, the way that we use it.
42:01
We don't expect it to do our job.
42:03
We expect it to help us do our job.
42:07
About understanding the risks, the limitations, how to mitigate
42:10
those, making sure people are aware, you know, of the tools
42:14
that they're using. Because I think that that's the
42:18
danger, right? Using tools without being fully
42:21
aware and and that could lead to some negative consequences.
42:26
Absolutely, yeah. Alright, so I'm sure that you
42:31
have a pretty busy day because I heard your your message popping
42:36
a few times. I heard the Ding Ding a few
42:38
times. So that we want, we don't want
42:41
to hold you too much, but I would like to thank you for
42:44
taking the time for participating on this podcast
42:48
and everyone, the link will be in the description below if you
42:53
want to learn more about the organization.
42:56
But on that note, please don't forget to like, share,
43:01
subscribe, comment and all of that and also visit their own.
43:05
You told me that you have a YouTube channel, right?
43:08
That the websites we have social media, social media.
43:12
Alright, yeah, we'll make sure to post everything up there and
43:15
yes, they sell a. Thank you so much for coming on
43:17
our podcast. We are really appreciative of
43:19
the time that you gave us in your busy everyday life.
43:23
That sounds very hectic, but hopefully you get to enjoy the
43:27
weekend. In Italy they don't work on the
43:29
weekends, so you. No, no, not, not at the moment.
43:34
Thanks so much for inviting me. Really appreciate the chance to
43:37
come and talk about the organisation and the work, so
43:40
thank you so much. All right, everyone, so we'll
43:44
see each other next time. Thank you.