Overcoming language barriers
August 27, 2020
MYAT Thu Kyaw
Student Translator
Year 4, Pharmacy
Myat was amongst the contingent of students who volunteered as translators to help migrant workers housed from 18 May until July at Prince George’s Park Residences (PGPR), a designated Community Recovery Facility in Singapore.
The students translated messages in five languages – Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Myanmar and Chinese – for doctors on the ground to communicate to workers. Their voices reached 25,000 workers.
An advocate of “many helping hands” in the community, Myat felt that his fluency in English and Burmese would be a “practical, actionable and helpful” asset.
He provided text-to-text and text-to-voice recordings on social distancing in dormitories. He also filmed a Burmese voice-over of the PGPR welcome video on safety and health-related tips, and translated an e-lesson for the workers to learn basic financial literacy skills.
He says, “I wanted to contribute to break down communication barriers. This helped the patients feel more welcome, less worried, and more integrated into the Singapore community.”
“Involving our migrant workers was a vital step in our collective efforts to fight COVID-19,” he adds.
