Lachin Taganova from Turkmenistan helps with work with refugees on the Belarusian-Polish border. She, like her fellow volunteers, is studying to be a translator from English at the Faculty of Philology of the Grodno State University Yanka Kupala.
According to BelTA, volunteer translators are on duty every day to facilitate communication with refugees in the transport and logistics center near the Bruzgi checkpoint. Today, there are about 2 thousand people in the temporary accommodation center. Almost none of them speaks Russian or Belarusian, and only a part knows English.
Lachin, in addition to English, also speaks Persian and Turkish. This greatly helps in communication with refugees.
Volunteers note that there are also difficult situations: the peculiar dialect and pronunciation of refugees leave their mark. Sometimes two translators have to work: a refugee who speaks English translates what they say in their native language, and volunteer translators from English translate information for doctors into Russian.
Future linguists note that working with refugees is important both in terms of helping people and in terms of gaining professional experience.
