At 4:00 p.m. on July 18th, 2014, a team of 9 volunteer students from the School of Foreign Languages (SFL), organized by the working personnel of Taiyuan Municipal Government, left by car for Longquan Holiday Village located in Shentang Valley, the living place for the participant artists of Metal Sculpture Camp, and began their work as translators in the following 20 days.
On the morning of July 19th, Director Liu from Taiyuan Municipal Government briefed the volunteers on the work to be done. He emphasized that this task was quite different from those previous business translation tasks with poor and harsh working conditions in particular. After learning the related information, the volunteers became interested and eagerly expectant of the start of the translation work. Then they received a security training concerning foreign affairs conducted by the working personnel from the Foreign Affairs Office, thus gaining some relevant knowledge. On the afternoon of July 19th, foreign artists arrived at the village. Two were from the USA, one from Costa Rica, one from Mexico, one from the ROK, one from France and one from India. Forming pairs with those artists, the volunteers formally began their translation practice.
Unlike those business and convention translation activities in the past, this was a real activity with Chinese artists and foreign friends living and working together over a period of time.
In daily life, volunteers borne in mind the four principles, viz. “enthusiasm, sincerity, respect and communication” all the time. They helped the sponsor to provide good service for foreign friends, thus fully exhibiting the SFL spirit. They patiently dealt with various matters, big or small, such as looking for a needle and thread, notifying artists of the working hours and buying things for them at the supermarket. In their spare time, volunteers chatted and went outing with foreign artists, which made good opportunities for them to learn more about the western way of thinking at a closer distance and gain more knowledge of various fields other than English learning, thus broadening their visions. At the same time, this voluntary activity made the relationship between students from different majors, grades and classes of SFL much closer and also made the relationship between the students and Chinese young artists closer. The students improved themselves greatly by living, working and exchanging ideas with artists. From 18th July to 4th August, they experienced a process of gradual familiarization, from total strangers to good friends. They not only acquired knowledge and practiced their oral English, but also reaped friendship and gained a brand-new way of thinking.
Full and challenging, this voluntary translation work falls roughly into three types. The first type is meeting translation. The volunteers remained calm without a fluster in face of the huge amount of information, either during the initial safety training or the scheme review before the formal beginning. They took down the conference contents in shorthand and as precisely as possible conveyed the gist of the conference, distinctive schemes and the teachers’ comments to the foreign artists, thus sweeping away the obstacles during the communication. The second type is specific to the process of sculpture making. The volunteers, as a bridge between artists and workers, explained the sketch of foreign artists to the master workers during the sculpture making, ensuring the orderly and efficient completion of the work. Meanwhile, they enjoyed great benefit from the work. For example, they mastered a lot of terms about metal welding. The third type is lecture translation. The volunteers practiced consecutive interpretation in the sino-foreign exchange lecture twice a week. With translators communicating the creative experiences of artists from home and abroad to each other, the translation work helped artists broaden their minds, promoted the cultural and art exchanges between China and the west, and further benefited the artists’ career in the future.
Being together for one month with foreign artists, the voluntary translators had been their good partners and helpers in their life and work. Furthermore, while making selfless contributions and offering ready services, the volunteers had acquired a lot of terms about metal welding and improved their oral English. During the Taiyuan International Youth Camp for Metal Sculpture Making, the enthusiasm of the voluntary translators added much strength to the success of this activity and left an indelible mark on the enhancement of the voluntary translation service of SFL.
（2013MTITY）