A Translators Heart

This month my squad is serving in Uzhhorod, Ukraine!

We have met a handful of people all diving deep into different ministries throughout the city. One man in particular is reaching out to the young people here by hosting different events throughout the week to connect and mentor them. 

On Monday we went to the local university where we got to sit in on a couple of classes in the Linguistics department. My team and I joined a class all about comparing American English to British English. The students asked us questions about America, our travels this year, and everything in between. 

At one point I asked if they enjoyed the English language. One student replied, “At first, it was hard to learn but now that I’m learning other languages it’s not that hard. I like being able to communicate with people through English. My family went to Croatia one summer and I was able to talk to locals while my parents stood there and watched because they don’t know English. You get to connect with people and I like that”. My heart was JUMPING out of my chest as she continued to speak about how special it was to know another language and get to connect with people. 

The first 6 months of our year we were in Spanish speaking countries. My parents are bilingual, along with a lot of the older people in my family and my grandparents only spoke Spanish. As a kid I spent a lot of time sitting around listening to the adults talk or sitting in my grandmas living room reading English subtitles while she watched her Spanish novelas. This led to being able to understand a lot of the language but I never became conversational because I wasn’t using it. This was a big insecurity of mine going into the race and had been for a big chunk of my life. 

Throughout our time in Colombia, Costa Rica and Guatemala I had the chance to put my knowledge of Spanish to use by being able to translate for teammates who didn’t understand it at all. After 4 months I ended up on a team where I was the only one who could converse in Spanish (even if it was a bit choppy at times) and that pushed me even deeper into the translator role. 

My Spanish got so much better after 6 months and an even bigger surprise was the way my heart grew for translating. A translators heart can carry a lot of weight and light at the same time. We are the first to hear a story so it hits us instantly. As we take it in we then have to translate it for others to listen to so we say it all over again. Translating someone’s testimony gave me a sense of responsibility in sharing their life story, everything it held and everything they were trying to portray through it. Other times we got to hear the punch line of a joke first and laugh along with the person saying it. Then got to laugh a second time with everyone else once they know whats being said. I was able to help strangers connect with us and help relationships grow. What an honor. 

Albania was our first country where I didn’t know the language and it hit me a little. I was no longer able to connect others instead I had to rely on the young people in our village to translate. At times, they were super shy because their English wasn’t perfect. While I couldn’t speak their language I was able to encourage them to keep practicing. 

Translating is a gift. It helps us connect with others we may not have been able to. It keeps our mind sharp in having to go back and forth. I’ve grown to appreciate this gift and that God has used it in more ways than I can count. 

 Ps. If any of my family or friends are reading this, please speak to me in Spanish when I get home. I have to practice 🙂 

-Cyntya