By Paula Sifredi

I personally believe that as a multilinguist we can really help make a difference in the world. That is why a lot of translators from a lot of languages combinations, including myself, dedicate part of their time to volunteer work. As translators, we can help for information and education to reach people who do not have language skills. This way, we make a difference in society, because, for example, we make health education or instructions easier to follow. Also, we expand the number of people that can reach to certain information, like sexual and reproductivity health and STD's.    

I can also use my language skills as a citizen journalist because I can help expand the number of people that be part of the movement. For example, as a woman, I can help carrying the feminist message around the world, I can translate famous feminists speeches into Spanish so that Spanish speakers can benefit from them, and also, I can translate Spanish speeches into English to share the talent and conviction of Spanish people.

The social media and technologic advances also help a great deal on expanding the messages around. Not only can you translate a speech, but also images with quotes, and you can send it to every person in your list of friends. These resources make it so much easier to share and interact with each other, and being a language skilled person, I can help improve and expand these interactions, adding more languages, ethnicities, and cultures to the table.

Recently, I have seen that you can also help by subtitling and translating subtitles for videos on the internet regarding many subjects. Some of the videos you can translate, talk about the diversity of genders and gender equality, which can really help homosexual people in some third world countries to feel appreciated and supported. People recurs to the internet to find help because it's usually easier than doing it with real people, and also because it preserves anonymity. So translating these delicate subjects texts and speeches and content actually helps somebody out there. 

In conclusion, I think as language skilled people we have a mission to accomplish, either for free or charging for it, but helping other people reach certain information is very important, it can actually mean life or death for some people out there. So as many more languages we learn, and as many more translations we can make, the more we will be helping the world to be a better place for all the humanity.

Profile Link: http://www.modlingua.com/interns/425-paula-sifredi.html

Writer Paula Sifredi is Spanish and English Language and Translation Intern at Modlingua, India's No1. certified translation and Language service providers based in New Delhi