MCIS ATA 2017 on Why Language Professionals Matter by Rodas, Costea & Trinaistic
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
1 like•440 views
MCIS is a Non-profit organization founded in 1989 to address community needs for interpretation services and is the largest non-profit language service provider in North America, providing interpretation, translation, transcription, dubbing and other services, as well as free interpretation services for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, free translation services as part of our social impact. Our focus is on ensuring that access to critical information and services to vulnerable persons who are experiencing a language barrier will be provided. This presentation describes our ongoing efforts in redefining and transforming the role of interpreters and translators from service mediators to engaged activists, passionate narrators and informed citizens.
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
Similar to MCIS ATA 2017 on Why Language Professionals Matter by Rodas, Costea & Trinaistic
Similar to MCIS ATA 2017 on Why Language Professionals Matter by Rodas, Costea & Trinaistic (20)
More from Eliana Trinaistic
More from Eliana Trinaistic (7)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
MCIS ATA 2017 on Why Language Professionals Matter by Rodas, Costea & Trinaistic
- 1. From Theory to Real Change Gabriela Rodas, Veronica Costea and Eliana Trinaistic MCIS Language Solutions, Toronto, Ontario
- 2. AGENDA 1. Background 2. Food for Language 3. Documentaries for Change 4. #Interpreters4Syria 5. Social Impact of Translation
- 3. BACKGROUNDMCIS’ MISSION: IMPROVING ACCESS TO CRITICAL INFORMATION AND SERVICES THROUGH HIGH QUALITY LANGUAGE SOLUTIONS
- 4. ARE WE MEDIATORS OF SOCIAL DIALOGUE? Complex migration patterns changing the role of language professionals “There is an identifiable set of basic information needs that individuals need met to navigate everyday life, and that communities need to have met in order to thrive. […] A large body of research suggests […] that access to information and, equally, the tools and skills necessary to navigate it are essential to even a minimal definition of equal opportunity and civic and democratic participation. Further, both traditional and contemporary analyses have demonstrated access to information […] to be essential to community economic wellbeing and democracy.” (Friedland et al., 2012) From mediators of social dialogue, language professionals are turning into agents of social change
- 5. HOW DO WE KNOW WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE? Challenges: How to connect language professionals to positive, measurable social impact How to measure individual impact How to measure the industry impact How to create partnerships with various stakeholders for shared impact
- 6. MEASURING SOCIAL IMPACT IN THE LANGUAGE INDUSTRY
- 7. FOOD FOR LANGUAGE – A COLLABORATIVE STORYTELLING EXPERIMENT (2013)
- 8. WHAT, WHO, HOW? A recipe book based on personal stories and recipes in four main categories (appetizers, mains, sides and desserts) shared by MCIS Language Service staff, interpreters and translators and Sandgate Women’s Shelter staff and clients Focused on issues of how food transcends cultures and contributes to the Canadian multicultural fabric and our global citizenship The goal Promote diversity and understanding about how we change our communication through the medium of food when we are exposed to a dominant language Translators and interpreters as story tellers Translators and interpreters as interviewers, photographers and cultural mediators
- 9. CREATING COMMUNITIES By providing additional opportunities for skills building for translators and interpreters (event planning, book production, marketing, fundraising and book launch) By using social media to create and maintain special interest groups By increasing internal capacity to manage volunteers and loyalties
- 10. DOCUMENTARIES FOR CHANGE –HARNESSING THE POWER OF DOCUMENTARIES TO CREATE SOCIAL CHANGE (2014-15)
- 11. MCIS’ interpreters and translators are interviewers and documentary makers 1 year of workshops (e.g. The Art of Collaboration, Diversity of Voices, Telling Meaningful Stories, Building Trust, The Idea Workshop, Visuals and Sound in the Story) 1 year of community work WHO & HOW
- 12. 4 mini-documentaries produced: BEATING BARRIERS BLURRED MINDS CIRQUISH UNTIL THE THIRTIETH
- 13. INADDITION: 24screeningsof 17Canadiandocumentaries over11months in19locations reachingupto1650peoplebyDecember2015 • DfCMobileTheatre(portableprojectionsystem, freelicenses) • 25 trainedFellows • Relationships withcommunitygroups • Connections: 11filmmakers+19communities;19 communities+40resources • 10Amplifiedsocialissues • 1Conference • Endlessopportunitiestoempowerexpression, voicesandengagement
- 15. OUR INTERPRETERS AT WORK! 309 Arabic Interpreters mobilized in Toronto and Montreal (Including 6 who spoke Western Armenian + 1 deaf interpreter) 98 flights served (Toronto 54; Montreal 44) 7 Hotels served (Toronto 1, Montreal 7) 26,176 Refugees welcomed by MCIS interpreters “When the US invaded my motherland, Iraq, in 2003, it caused the largest exodus in history. […] Millions of Iraqis fled their hometowns with barely the clothes they had on. One million, same say more, sought refuge in Syria. Syria, despite its meagre resources, harboured them. […] Sadly, when the time came for my homeland to turn back the act of kindness, it turned its back on the Syrians . It made me feel very bad. Fortunately, my land of option, Canada is opening its doors for Syrian refugees. Gratitude, for the act of kindness . And thank you MCIS for making me part of this act.” Yasmine, Arabic Interpreter
- 16. “This is a wonderful night where […] we get to show the world how to open our hearts and welcome in people who are fleeing extraordinarily difficult situations. […] Tonight they step off the plane as refugees. But they walk out of this terminal as permanent residents of Canada […] This is something that we are able to do in this country because we define a Canadian not by a skin colour or a language or a religion or a background. But by a shared set of values, aspirations, hopes and dreams that not just Canadians but people around the world share. And how you will receive these people tonight will be something they will remember for the rest of their lives, but also I know something that you will remember for the rest of your lives.” Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
- 17. SOCIAL IMPACT OF TRANSLATION– RAISING AWARENESS OF THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF LANGUAGE PROFESSIONALS’ WORK “The quality of our results in a system is a function of the awareness from which the people in that system operate.” (Otto Scharmer, 2011)
- 18. MCIS’ interpreters and translators interested in defining social impact of translation 1 year of gathering lead by working Committee Outputs: Manifesto and video Currently open to larger community and managed thorough Meet-Up Groups WHO & HOW
- 19. GABRIELA RODAS is a Spanish into English translator and reviser, holds a BA in Hispanic Studies, and a Spanish-English Translation Certificate and a Masters in Translation Studies from Glendon College, York University, Toronto, Canada. She has worked as a project manager and translation supervisor in the language services industry for several years, managing large teams of translators for multilingual translation requests. Gabriela is now managing the development of MCIS’ unique language independent translator training. VERONICA COSTEA, MCIS’ Translation and Special Projects Manager, is a certified translator and accredited community interpreter with over 10 years of experience in the language services industry. Prior to joining MCIS she has worked as a freelance language professional, language teacher, as well as in computational linguistics research. She has also coordinated the development of MCIS’ Online Training Initiative to Address Human Trafficking. ELIANA TRINASTIC’s background is in non-profit (NP) and project management, program design/ delivery, civic engagement, PR, communication and social innovation. She has a Master’s Degree in Information and Environmental Sciences, and her current research interests include social enterprises, social innovation and open data advocacy. In her role of MCIS’ Social Impact Manager Eliana’s task is to help with unpacking complex and dynamic relationships between NPs as social enterprises and NPs as community change- makers with focus on measureable evidence of impact. Eliana contributed to several MCIS’ projects, among others, Food for Language and Documentaries for Change.
- 20. THANK YOU! JOIN US - @MCISLANGUAGES @FOODFORLANGUAGE @DOCUMENTARIESFORCHANGE @SOCIALIMPACTOFTRANSLATION
Editor's Notes
- MCIS is a Non-profit organization founded in 1989 to address community needs for interpretation services and is the largest non-profit Language Service Provider in North America, Providing interpretation, translation, transcription, dubbing and other services, as well as free interpretation services for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, free translation services as part of our social benefit initiative. Our focus is on ensuring access to critical information and services to vulnerable persons who are experiencing a language barrier. Primarily focusing on victims of domestic violence, sexual violence, human trafficking, child and elder abuse, the homeless and refugees.
- And we do this in the “brokerage” model that is common to most translation/interpretation agencies. We connect service providers/organizations trying to reach a multilingual audience to translators and interpreters, who work as freelancers. The translators and interpreters then assist the service provider/organization in assuring access to their services/information to those who have limited or no proficiency in English/French. This means we inhabit an “in-between” space, where we mediate these interactions. Through our interpreters/translators we believe we are mediators of social dialogue, ensuring participation of groups that would not be able to participate otherwise due to linguistic barriers. There is a solid body of research that suggests that in the information age, individual and communities have basic information needs that need to be met in order to thrive. This helps bring about increased levels of civic engagement and participation in communities that would otherwise be isolated and marginalized. Access to critical information and services is one of the cornerstones of individual and community wellbeing and true democracy. And in this space social change is born. By mediating access to this critical information in allophone communities, translators and interpreters are not simply mediating communication or social dialogue, they are in fact agents of social change.
- However, as language professionals and language organizations working in this in-between space of mediation, it is very challenging to actually see, feel and truly measure the impact of our work. We feel it in our gut that we are making a difference, we know of negative outcomes that would come about if people did not have access to translation/interpretation in certain critical situations (we have all heard the stories about mistrials and misdiagnosis, about the fatal consequences of failing to provide language services). However, we hear much less about the positive outcomes that result from actually providing these services. So, while we “feel” we are making a difference – how do we actually “know”, how do we prove the impact and our relevance? Here are some of the challenges we were faced with, over the past few years, as we were trying to define our theory of change and measure the impact we are making in the world: How to connect language professionals to positive, measurable social impact How to measure individual impact How to measure the industry impact How to create partnerships with various stakeholders for shared impact
- To address these challenges, earlier this year we went through a coached strategic planning process that helped us determine our theory of change by answering the question :What is the change we want to bring about in the world and how are we going to achieve that? It was a long process, sometimes frustrating, but also very rewarding, that included coaching sessions, a lot of brainstorming, and internal discussions and arguments, a landscape analysis, stakeholder interviews, research and then more discussions. In the end it helped us define our focus. We had always known that our work revolves around removing language barriers, but through this process we gained clarity and focus. We were able to narrow down our beneficiaries from the very broad “persons with language barriers” to “vulnerable population who are marginalized and disadvantaged by lack of access to information and services due to language barriers”. We gained added clarity on the types of information and services that qualify as critical based on extensive research in the area of access to information. We also produced an infographic (through another small grant) to visually represent our findings and illustrate the scope of the impact that translators and interpreters make on their communities. We are planning to use this tool to raise awareness on the importance of language services, in our advocacy efforts, but also to encourage other organizations to share similar information so that we can together build a complete picture of our industry, embracing open data, transparency and collaboration.
- Another example of an initiative where we were aiming to connect language professionals to real, measurable social change is Food for Language – a collaborative storytelling experiment we conducted in 2013
- With this initiative our main goal was to engage with our over 5000 interpreters and translators who had made Toronto their home, bringing with them new cultures, languages, and culinary traditions. It was a project about building communities: By providing additional opportunities for skills building for translators and interpreters (event planning, book production, marketing, fundraising and book launch) By using social media to create and maintain special interest groups By increasing internal capacity to manage volunteers and loyalties Book sold online and proceeds donated to Sandgate women’s shelter to fund their community kitchen program – supporting recovery of victims of domestic and sexual violence.
- Another initiative in collaboration with our translators, interpreters and the Documentary Society of Canada It was a unique initiative aimed at harnessing the power of documentary film to encourage community dialogue, inspire civic engagement and combat isolation in newcomer communities across the Greater Toronto Area. The project was generously funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
- MCIS’ interpreters and translators participating in a two year program, divided between 1 year of workshops with documentary film makers touching on topics such as The Art of Collaboration, Diversity of Voices, Telling Meaningful Stories, Building Trust, The Idea Workshop, Visuals and Sound in the Story.. This was followed by a year of community work, organizing documentary screenings in various communities across the GTA, followed by panel discussions and engagement with the audience.
- When the Canadian government announced that it would sponsoring 25,000 Syrian refugees to come to Canada – of course, that also meant 25,000 people who would need a lot of settlement and related services, and who, most likely, would have limited or no proficiency in English. Communities mobilized in a way that we had never seen before, everyone trying to help out in any way they could. The entire initiative, that has made the headlines around the world, would not have been possible without the wonderful contribution of our translators and interpreters.
- This was a unique interpretation project, nothing like the regular appointments we are used to, that brought us all together in new ways. The sheer magnitude of the project meant that our traditional approach would not work. For every flight bringing in about 250-300 refugees, teams of up to 65 interpreters were dispatched, working collaboratively with Border Services, Service Canada, and the Red Cross. There were days when up to 3 flights landed, and interpreter took shifts. And we were deeply impressed and humbled by the dedication and passion that all these interpreters put into this project. Some taking unpaid leave from work, others juggling a full time day job while spending the night at the airport welcoming refugees. Students that were studying between flights. Pot lucks for those times when two flights were scheduled on the same evening, and a most memorable New Year’s Eve spend welcoming refugees. And all of this surge of energy was possible, because we could all see, first hand, the difference our work was making, the smiles of those children, and the relief reflected in their parents’ exhausted faces.
- Finally, - our experiment with launching a social impact of translation maneifesto was an attempt to raise awareness about the social significance of our work as language professionals – because “The quality of our results in a system is a function of the awareness from which the people in that system operate.” (Otto Scharmer, 2011)
- So these are some of the projects/initiatives we have worked on in the past 4 years. We have had a lot of fun along the way, we learned a lot about ourselves, our language professionals, our industry and the social sector. But most importantly, we have learned that this type of work is always dynamic, in constant flux, forever work in progress. And if any of you is interested in being part of this adventure, let us know!