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Translators and Interpreters without Borders in Haiti: Breaking Linguistic Barriers

by Milena Rampoldi, ProMosaik e.V. – Breaking linguistic barriers is an essential issue for ProMosaik e.V. Therefore we believe that translators can contribute to intercultural dialogue and empathy because they build bridges between cultures and languages. We talked to Darlin Petithomme of Translators and Interpreters without Borders in Haiti (TIWB).
Milena Rampoldi: What are the most important objectives of TIWB?
Darlin Petithomme: TIWB
is a translation agency where we recruit young translators / interpreters with
an acceptable level to ensure contracts with foreigners of different
nationalities. We work with Americans, Canadians and Japanese people. But our target
audience is the youth so we only work with youth, but they must have the will
to grow in the profession of translation and interpreting because we give a
training session before each mission that we will entrust to one of them.
Why
this training session?
The
answer is simple; we always want to have good results from the foreigners to
ensure the future of the agency.
Our
goal is to recruit more young people as possible but with different language
skills, so we can show the world that linguistic barriers can be broken with
the will. Show them how much the exchange; communication can bring more to our
surroundings, the people around us. For now, we translate only 4 languages in
the agency who are Creole, French, English and Spanish but we would like to
have the Portuguese, Italian and why not Japanese and Chinese.
MR: What are the most important principles of
interlinguistic and intercultural dialogue?
DP: A new science is developing, Interlinguistics – that branch
of the science of language which deals with the structure and basic ideas of
all languages with the view to the establishing of a norm for interlanguages, i.e. auxiliary languages destined for oral
and written use between people who cannot make themselves understood by means
of their mother tongues. Interlinguistics contend, and to my mind, rightly,
that there is here a field that can be treated according to scientific methods
and which it is of the utmost importance to civilized mankind to see thus
treated in order to obtain a satisfactory solution to a really harassing
problem.
Intercultural and Interlinguistic dialogue have an important
role to play in this regard. They help us, firstly, to prevent ethnic,
religious, linguistic and cultural.
They allow us, secondly, to move forward together and
recognize our different identities constructively and democratically on the
basis of shared universal values Intercultural dialogue may help appreciate
diversity while maintaining social cohesion.
MR: Can you tell us the story of the foundation of TIWB?
DP: The history of the foundation of TIWB briefly
TIWB agency has been created with the help and
ideas of a young lady, powerful lady, with a Haitian nationality. She loves
languages and has the ability to speak them too; eager to see more young people
push the linguistic barriers, so it’s as well took place our Agency. It is a
dream of many years happens to come true.
MR: ProMosaik e.V. is convinced that
there is no language without culture, and that translation is an act of
intercultural communication. What do you think about it?
DP: The language is considered as the raw
material of culture. So all that is cultural is transmitted by means of
language. Our morals, our thoughts and our tradition trancendent generations
using the language as a mode of transmission. It is through language learning
begins the integration process within a group or society. It enables a culture
to impregnate the thought and allows individuals to avoid any acts of deviance.
Made in, one cannot talk about culture or translation without having thrown a
glance into the language supported on its importance and its contribution in
the transmission of knowledge or popular knowledge.
MR: What are the most important achievements of TIWB until now, and what you want
to achieve in the near future?
DP: The
greatest achievement we’ve had up to date is the contract we have with the
Japanese people and the mark of appreciation that they gives us after every
mission … Our goal for the coming years would be this one, to create an Inter
Linguistic and Cultural Center, where the youth can come not only to exchange
but to learn and also to acquire new knowledge about other languages and cultures
as well.
MR: Why is translation so important to promote
tolerance, peace, and empathy on our globalized planet?
DP: It
is through translation that one succeeds in to grasp the social historical context
of a people. It allows apprehending the reality of another world and avoiding
any prejudice. So this is through translation that the unknown can make his
complaints, and his desire to get his frustrations…