Railroad and language engaged in a joint mission

Mombasa-Nairobi rail project is bringing more than the two cities together

I have the privilege of being in a job in which I bring not only people and communities together, but whose end result will be a railway that brings Kenya together and that will add immensely to its economic well-being. This job of mine helps bring two countries, Kenya and China, much closer together as well.

I am the local interpreter and translator on section 7 of the project to build the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, which will affect the lives of tens of thousands of people living along its path, both as it is being built and once construction is completed.

Roads generally feel the impact of heavy use within just a few years after being built, but railways tend to count their lives in decades. The railway line that this new one is built to replace was built in 1906. In the more than a century since then, that line has become part of the culture of those who have lived alongside it.

The new railway line will be just as close to the hearts of Kenyans as the old one has been. Indeed, it will be built by Kenyans for Kenya, with the help of the Chinese government, and I am proud to be part of the team that is building it.

That team consists of many thousands of people, from uncelebrated laborers and support staff to the top leadership ranks. But the contribution of each and every one of those people to this huge project is worthy of credit.

In my job I help ensure that local workers and Chinese workers can communicate with one another. I speak Chinese, to and from which I interpret or translate Swahili and English.

I started studying Chinese in 2012, and after that I studied in China on a Chinese government scholarship for a year before taking up my post on the railway project.

As with many jobs, interpreting and translating has its challenges and its rewards. The most challenging part for me is being accurate in what I convey. Then, having done my very best, I have the satisfaction of knowing I have been the conduit through which very important messages have had to pass.

In doing this I need to keep abreast of what is happening around the construction site and learn the terminology, which can sometimes be very technical - for example, what tools are called in a couple of languages. The names of key people on the site must also be at my fingertips, together with their telephone numbers.

In coming to grips with all of this, my Mandarin skills have improved greatly, and I plan eventually to sit for a test in advanced Mandarin.

Ultimately what pleases me, though, is knowing that I have helped local workers have their voices heard by management, so that any misunderstandings or difficulties are readily ironed out.

The new Mombasa-Nairobi line will pass through many communities, and that brings many languages and cultures into play. Section 7, where I work, is in a small town called Emali, between two communities: the Akamba and the Maasai. These two communities have lived closely together and have intermarried. Since the company undertaking the railway project, China Road and Bridge Corporation, is an equal opportunity employer, the languages of the Akamba and the Maasai predominate on the construction site.

This presents a problem to me because even though Swahili is the national language, I am not a member of the two dominant communities in Emali.

I quickly had to pick up the two local dialects, which differ greatly from one another, if I was to be of any use to the project. I managed to slowly learn the two at a basic level, and I can now understand what every worker says and quickly translate it into Chinese for the Chinese workers.

Learning the local languages has also helped me understand the workers from the two communities so as to serve them better.

Like Kenya, China can pose serious linguistic problems because of the number of its dialects, something I appreciate having familiarized myself with the issue firsthand in China.

As if learning standard Mandarin were not difficult enough for a non-Chinese, grappling with dialects adds another much more intricate layer of difficulty to the task of communicating with people in China.

The Chinese working on the Mombasa-Nairobi rail project come from many different parts of China, and at first it was very hard for me to understand many of them. However, with time I have become attuned to the tongues of all these people, a skill I have attained by spending a lot of time talking to them, working together while translating and listening keenly when they talk.

I am now very confident as I go about my task, and I understand whatever they want me to translate to Kenyan workers. The mix of dialects has greatly improved my overall Chinese listening and translation skills, too.

I am grateful to the management of the project for giving me this chance to have a role in it. I am also grateful to the local workers who have taught me the local languages as well as the Chinese workers, with whom I have become well acquainted as the project has progressed.

For China Daily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 07/17/2015 page16)