VOA慢速英語(yǔ):The Risks of Language for Health Translators

[00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English Health Report. [00:10.93]Translators Without Borders is an American nonprofit group. [00:17.38]It provides language services to nongovernmental organizations such as, [00:20.43]yes, Doctors Without Borders. [00:25.09]The group recently trained some new translators in Nairobi [00:30.34]in how to put health information into local languages for Kenyans. [00:35.85]For health translators, finding the rights words is not [00:39.29]just about language but also culture. [00:46.00]Muthoni Gichohi is a manager for Family Health Options Kenya, [00:48.71]the group that organized the training. [00:56.05]She says she has no problem expressing the names of body parts in English. [01:02.65]But as a Kikuyu she says there are some words in her first language [01:06.75]that may be "provocative" if she said them in public. [01:09.06]"So I have got to really put it in another way [01:13.57]that it is still delivering the same message, but the words will be different." [01:21.21]Trainer Paul Warambo says the same issue arises with Kenya's national language. [01:24.73]"Sometimes you are also forced to use euphemisms -- [01:29.43]use a language that is more acceptable to the people. [01:35.44]For example, in Swahili, we will not call a body part -- [01:39.89]the vagina, for example -- we will not call it by its name. [01:43.99]We use kitu chake --- her thing. [01:48.65]You do not just mention it by the name, you say 'her thing.'" [01:52.99]The culture of a community will largely decide [01:59.74]how words and expressions are translated into socially acceptable language. [02:06.31]In some cases, the way people in a culture think about an activity [02:14.04]or object becomes the translated name for that activity or object. [02:19.90]Paul Warambo explains how the term "sexual intercourse" [02:24.85]is commonly translated from English into Ki'Swahili. [02:30.15]"We always say, in Ki'Swahili, 'kutenda kitendo kibaya' [02:37.02]-- to do something bad. So, imagine sex was associated with something bad, [02:41.07]emanating from the African cultural context." [02:47.37]Whether or not a community will accept or even listen to a message [02:50.21]is especially important in health care. [02:57.42]Lori Thicke co-founded Translators Without Borders in nineteen ninety-three. [03:03.03]She says, in general, a lot of development organizations [03:08.70]have often overlooked the importance of language in changing health behavior. [03:11.35]"It is true that people do not think of translation. [03:13.40]It is absolutely not on the radar, [03:15.96]but it is so critical if you think about it, [03:20.36]for people to get information, whether it is how to take their medication, [03:25.46]whether it is where to find supplies in a crisis situation." [03:31.98]Muthoni Gichohi and her team recently opened a health information center [03:35.57]in a Maasai community. She learned that [03:40.38]young Maasai cannot say certain things in the presence of elders. [03:45.82]Also, men are usually the ones who speak at public gatherings, [03:50.42]so people might not accept a message given by a woman. [03:57.13]And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. I'm Faith Lapidus.

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