The bilingual help page
Use with: build-website. Resume line when done: Ran a bilingual help service for neighbors ({lang1}/{lang2}) — forms, letters, and calls
Brief
You speak two languages; some of your neighbors' forms, letters, and phone calls only come in one. A page, written in both languages, that says what you will help with, what you will not, and when. The limits section is the most important part, because a translation mistake in the wrong document has consequences you cannot fix.
Personalize
- The languages and the tasks. Reading a letter aloud, filling a school form together, sitting in on a customer-service call. Offer what you have already done for your own family.
- The limits. You are not a certified translator. Legal, medical, and immigration documents go to proper translation services, and the page says so with a pointer to where those services are found locally.
- The neighbors. The ones who already ask you or your family. This service spreads by word of mouth in one language.
- Free or paid. Many of these favors should stay favors. Decide with your parents which tasks, if any, carry a small price, and say it plainly.
Milestones
- Page live on day one, in both languages.
- Limits paragraph checked with a parent and, if you can, with someone who knows what certified translation covers.
- Page shared by mid-week with the neighbors who ask, and posted at the community spot they use (shop noticeboard, community center).
- First help session done and logged: kind of document, how long it took.
- Final README: the document types that came up and where the limits held.
Done means
- Live URL, both languages, readable on a phone
- Honest-claims check passed: fluency claimed matches how you speak and read
- Limits on the page and respected: nothing high-stakes translated solo, referrals given instead
- First session or inquiry logged in SESSIONS.md, which has an entry per session
- Neighbors' documents stay private; nothing from a session appears on the page or anywhere else
- Any payment set in advance and handled in person