Within eight days our German Lingua community translated 22 articles about Yemen into German and combined them in a special coverage. What has happened?
It all got started when the translator Manuela Leibetseder translated the special coverage “Humanitarian Crisis in War-Battered Yemen” of the English Global Voices website into German. But only few of the many linked Global Voices reports were available with a German translation. Hence, Manuela reacted and approached the Lingua German Community:
Da dieses Vorhaben für mich alleine nicht zu bewältigen gewesen wäre, zumindest nicht in einem angemessen Zeitraum, habe ich mir Hilfe der Global Voices auf Deutsch Community geholt.
Since I knew that I wouldn't be able to handle this project alone, at least not within a reasonable time, I asked for help from the German Global Voices community.
Within a very short time eight members of the community replied and undertook the responsibility for the translation of texts, shared advice, coordinated their work and translated within very short time 22 articles into German.
To summarize the reports to a special coverage allows us to provide with background information on different aspects of the situation in Yemen, says Mele Coronato:
Die gezielte “komplettes Dossier”-Aktion erlaubt es der Leserschaft, in einem Vorgang sehr viele Facetten und Blickwinkel eines komplexen Problems (er)kennen zu lernen. Man lernt selbst eine Menge dabei, was dem Übersetzen auf jeden Fall zugute kommt!
The targeted action of the “complete special coverage” enables the readership within the process to learn to identify several facets and different perspectives of a complex problem. One learns a lot within this process, which is definitely benefiting for the translation as well!
Eva Gefflaut adds:
Eine Sammlung der veröffentlichten Artikel und eine Zusammenfassung der Ereignisse hilft, die politische Situation im Krisengebiet Jemen besser zu verstehen und zeigt einmal wieder, wie viel Leid und Entbehrung Krieg verursacht. Die Übersetzung der oft hektisch verfassten, aber dadurch authentischen Tweets geben das wahre Grauen der Kämpfe und Luftangriffe wider, wovon unbedingt in aller Welt erzählt werden muss.
A collection of published articles and a summary of the events is helpful for a better understanding of the political situation in the crisis region Yemen and again shows how much a war causes suffering and deprivation. The translations of the often in rush written reports, but thereby very authentical tweets, demonstrate the true horror of the fighting and the air strikes, which has to be told and spread all over the world.
Carola Berger also emphasizes the authenticity of posts based on social media:
Ich habe mich am Jemen-Dossier von Global Voices Deutsch beteiligt, weil wir so auf die menschlichen Tragödien in diesem Krieg durch Zitieren von direkten Augenzeugenberichten bzw. -tweets aufmerksam machen können. Eine solche wirklich hautnahe Berichterstattung ist in den Mainstream-Medien auch mit Korrespondenten vor Ort nicht möglich.
I have contributed to the special coverage about Yemen by Global Voices German, because this way we can highlight the tragedies the war in Yemen has caused and give the affected people a voice by quoting their tweets. The mainstream media are not able to report the events in such a direct and immediate fashion, not even through on site reporters.
The reproduction of the perspective of the local people is as well of importance for Manuela:
Ich finde, die kommerziellen Nachrichten und größeren Media Outlets berichten oft sehr selektiv und viel zu hastig über die Geschehnisse. Während manche “Stories” bereits nach wenigen Tagen wieder aus den Nachrichten verschwinden, entwickeln sich die Konflikte im Hintergrund weiter, beginnen zu brodeln und eskalieren und wirken sich dann in einem viel größeren Ausmaß auf andere Entwicklungen aus. Oft kann man diese Eskalation dann nicht mehr nachvollziehen, weil man den Verlauf nicht mitbekommen hat.
I find that commercial news and larger “media outlets” report very often selectively and hastly about the incidents. While some “stories” in the news disappear after a couple of days, the conflicts are continuing to develop in the background, begin to boil and escalate and affect in an even more serious extent other developments. Very often one can't understand the escalation, as the process of it has not been noticed.
Henrike Greuel acknowledges as well that the reporting of the Yemen is insufficient:
Der Krieg im Jemen ist ein vergessener Krieg. In den Medien werden die Entwicklungen, Opfer, Verhandlungen um Waffenstillstand und die sich anbahnende Katastrophe nicht besprochen. Umso wichtiger, dass wir dieses Land in den Fokus rücken.
The war in Yemen is a forgotten war. The media does not discuss the developments, victims, ceasefire agreements and the unfolding humanitarian catastrophy. That's why it is even more important to focus on this country.
Eric Schreyer states that we need to be aware of the causes as well as the impact of this war:
Auch und vor allem in Deutschland müssen uns immer wieder vor Augen führen, aus welchen Gründen ein Krieg entsteht und dass dadurch unsagbares menschliches Leid verursacht wird.
Also and above all in Germany we have to pass before our eyes once again the reasons from which a war originates and that war causes untold sorrow.
This comprehensive information not only serves the readership, but also the translators themselves, says Pia Staigmüller:
Ich glaube, dass es ein wichtiges und komplexes Thema ist und da ist es besonders wichtig, so viele Details und Informationen wie möglich zu bekommen. Das hilft sowohl den Lesern als auch uns Übersetzern für das aktuelle Geschehen und auch in Zukunft.
I think that it is an important and complex topic and that's why it is of particular importance to get as many details and information as possible. This helps the readers as well as us translators for the actual events as well as in future.
In the first instance the creation of a special coverage page motivated us to inform ourselves. For the special coverage, which is customised by Manuela and will be continuously updated, we have done some research on links to German speaking articles, which provide more context for our readers, in addition to our reports.
This successful example of crowdwork also affected positive the team, as Isabelle Poweleit noticed:
Ich finde es einfach auch sehr wichtig die Global Voices Community und ihre Mitglieder bei Projekten zu unterstützen, die ihnen am Herzen liegen. Ich fand die Idee einen Aufruf zu starten sehr gut und wollte dabei helfen die Vision umzusetzen.
I find it very important to support the Global Voices Community and their members on their projects, that they feel strongly about. I liked the idea to start a call and I wanted to help to turn the vision into reality.
Eva adds:
Ist doch toll, egal auf welchem Kontinent wir leben, in welchen Zeitzonen wir uns bewegen das Teamwork klappt! Und auch deswegen übersetze ich gerne für Global Voices!
It is fantastic that no matter which continent we live in or in which time-zones, the teamwork works excellent! And this is another reason why I love to translate for Global Voices!
Lena Nitsche says that it also brought the team closer together:
Diese Aktion schweißt unsere Community zusammen.
This campaign welds the community together.
And Pia gives an outlook that this action is just the start for further initiatives:
Es hat Spaß gemacht, zu sehen, wie toll ein Team arbeiten kann und es ist schön, ein Teil davon zu sein. Ich hoffe, dass dies nur der Anfang von weiteren Aktionen ist.
I enjoyed it and it was great to see how well a team can work together and it is wonderful to be part of it. I hope that this is only the beginning of further actions like this.
5 comments
This is amazing, Anne. Way to go, German Lingua!
Many many thanks! It is a wonderful community and I am very thankful to be part of it. :)
Fascinating and inspiring effort Anne and Manuela! I really like the idea of rallying around a subject and focusing on it for a period of time, satisfying to see and also a sense of accomplishment as well as learning. Be curious if you’re going to try it again?
Thanks a lot, Ivan! Indeed, it was an enriching learning experience for us! Actually, we had such a successful activity before when some of us decided to set up a special coverage about Nepal. Therefore, I am very optimistic that we will take joint actions – oriented towards a specific topic – again.