While important information about the new coronavirus infection is sent from the government and local governments on a daily basis, university students have started to deliver accurate information to foreign residents living in the metropolitan area.This is the "COVID-19 Multilingual Support Project" by a volunteer group formed mainly by current students and graduates of Tokyo Foreign Language University.
In the "COVID-19 Multilingual Support Project", Japanese information officially issued by the government and local governments is hand-translated and posted on the website.The contents provide one-stop information necessary for daily life, such as financial support such as "housing security benefits" and "special fixed amount benefits", medical consultation counters regarding the new corona, work, and education for children who are closed.
Currently, it is posted in English as "Easy Japanese", and from May 5th, it will be available in 10 languages including Korean, Simplified, Traditional, Spanish, French, Vietnamese, Arabic, and Iberian Portuguese. do.In the future, it will be expanded to Brazilian Portuguese, German, Indonesian, Tagalog, etc.
The members involved in the project are graduates and current students of Tokyo Foreign Language University, and volunteers who responded to calls from other universities are participating. "Originally, governments and government agencies should hire specialized personnel to disseminate such information, but the reality is that the number of multilingual notations on websites and telephone inquiries in multiple languages is very limited. Not only can we mourn the shortage, but we can also make use of what the general public is good at and scoop up. "Representative Nobu Ishii (graduate of the French Department of Tokyo Foreign Language University in 2020) talks about his motivation for launching.
Foreigners staying in Japan have been exposed to anxiety and stress, such as not knowing whether they can receive financial support, being unable to explain their symptoms in Japanese even if they are anxious about infection, and not knowing the details of the request to refrain from going out. There is.Through the project, we aim to enable foreigners staying in Japan to act based on correct information and continue to live safely and with peace of mind as a member of the community.
reference:COVID-19 Multilingual Information Portal
[Note][COVID-19] Start disseminating information for foreigners
