Spanish Translation Blog

Translators and the Presidential Election

The United States has long prided itself on being a “melting pot” of different cultures and backgrounds and this becomes especially apparent amidst talk of the different voter demographics and the pledges made to different ethnic groups. Apart from the Spanish translations that I mentioned before on McCain and Obama’s websites, something caught my eye the other day that seemed to be a true sign of the times.

It’s a website (http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/TranslatorsforObama) called Translators for Obama, and it employs a wiki-style approach towards translating Obama’s speeches and important articles already on the web, as well as subtitling and dubbing commercials and audio clips into a number of languages. Members can provide their own translations and information in any language they can. Links to Spanish, Chinese and Arabic translations are all available, plus related content in a myriad of languages. As the site’s creators themselves put it, they are “limited only by the number of languages [their] members know.”

Political parties aside, the most inspirational aspect of this to me is the ability to get a group of translators to unite (pro bono even!) and work together towards contributing something they believe will make a difference.