As part of the efforts made to ensure?the proper delivery of information produced by the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) in all six official languages of the United Nations, UNAI has been working over the past few months with a number of online volunteer translators recruited through the?, who have made a valuable?contribution to broadening the multilingualism of United Nations public information by making the UNAI website more accessible to Arabic, Chinese, French and Russian speakers. This article was written by one of the translators helping with the UNAI website in Chinese.
My name is Feilin Liu
I graduated from law school in China, in 2014, and then moved to Australia to study translation and interpreting. Currently, I am working in human resources for a multinational company in Sydney. I started doing freelance translation and interpreting three years ago, mostly in legal settings, then moved to a full-time job. But, I always felt curious about volunteerism. I fell in love with this concept because every volunteer I have met is lovely. Volunteers are people with a golden heart, and they take real actions without fancy words.?
During my undergraduate studies, I participated in an international Model United Nations conference and since then, I have always been passionate about the United Nations. It is an amazing organization, which is able to connect people across the globe and serve people in need. Fortunately,?I came across a volunteering position with the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) in May 2018 and it struck me as a great opportunity to get to understand the United Nations better and make use of my expertise.?
I discovered that UNAI is an initiative with an ambitious but quite tangible vision - connecting institutions of higher education all over the world to support the goals and mandates of the United Nations as a whole. I firmly believe that our future lies in the hands of educational institutions as they are raising future leaders, future builders and future dreamers for the world. Although my full-time job is very demanding, I did not want to pass up this opportunity so I submitted my application to volunteer for UNAI.?
I have really enjoyed volunteering for UNAI for the past four months. United Nations Academic Impact has been sending me articles for translation on a regular basis, and I normally have a week or so to go through my translation process: drafting, checking and finalizing. I really enjoy it because it feels like I am talking to the world, or that there is a world embedded in the words I translate.? I have learned that when you give of yourself to benefit others, expecting nothing in return, you are often rewarded with much more than what you gave.
Indeed, together we can be stronger to face challenges and to make the world a better place!