The Linguist

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER The Linguist 7 @CIOL_Linguists FEATURES The big idea Q How would you describe Respond Crisis Translation in a few words? A We are a language justice collective of interpreters, translators and language activists, providing language access support to anyone who is experiencing a crisis or for whom language is a barrier to getting life- affirming or lifesaving support around the globe. We started at the US-Mexico border but now work across all public services. Q Why did you decide to set it up? A Language is used as a way of making access as difficult as possible for non-English speakers. In the US, for example, lengthy asylum applications must be submitted in English with no language support, while the court system does not require interpreters to be vetted or qualified. Q Did you have to learn any new skills to turn the idea into a successful organisation? A My background is in interpreting and I worked at Google as a product marketing manager; I was also the director and founder of a programme called Action, which focused on language education in schools that didn't have the resources. For this project I leveraged many of the skills that I already had. Q How did you fund the project initially? A We started completely on a volunteer basis. Then we became a non-profit organisation and began fundraising. Now we also partner with other non-profits and have started to get some grants. Q So why did you become a non-profit? A Native speakers of marginalised languages are systemically underpaid, they rarely have any way to train to become professional interpreters or translators, and have even fewer opportunities to earn dignified wages. When there is an urgent need for language assistance, activists are forced (by the lack of government support) to ask folks who are already experiencing systemic poverty to do free labour. As a non- profit we could fundraise and invest in native speaker communities to promote a change, where translation and interpreting work can be a dignified source of income and a viable career opportunity. Q Did the pandemic affect your work? A Language violence was particularly relevant during the pandemic, when it became clear that schools couldn't communicate with multilingual families, people in detention were denied access to interpreters, and hospitals and clinics had no language access plan to even explain what the pandemic was. That's when we started to grow from a few hundred interpreters covering about 50 languages to over 2,000 people covering 100 languages. Jessica Oppedisano speaks to Ariel Koren about founding a language justice collective to provide lifesaving support Q What have been the biggest challenges? A Fundraising and systemic barriers: language work has been taken for granted and treated as something that should be done for free for so long that even the larger organisations were resistant to the idea of paying. So the biggest issue wasn't just asking for money, it was changing the culture around the under- funding of language access. Q Which parts of the world do you cover? A Our interpreters are based around the world and most of the work is remote. Wherever there is a crisis, we step in. An example is Ukraine: over 500 people have signed up to work with us on the response. We are also helping in Afghanistan, Haiti and across Latin America. respondcrisistranslation.org INCREASING ACCESS Ariel Koren (far right, 2nd row) and other members of the fast-growing Respond team

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