Archived and Closed
This conversation is no longer open for comments or replies and is no longer visible to community members. The community moderator provided the following reason for archiving: case resolved
How excited I was to receive a new letter today from one of my precious children! Several years ago, I self-taught myself some basic Spanish using various resources, including the Rosetta Stone language program I invested in. Just for fun, I read the original version of my child's letter which he wrote in his very own handwriting. While I cannot read every word, I can get a very good idea of what my child is telling me about, and which questions he is answering from my previous letters. Again, how exciting to read those precious words straight from my child!!
Then, on to the English translation to fill in the details that I was not able to understand in my child's original Spanish (hey, I only had time to study the basics of Spanish). I'm soaking in every word, then after I reach the end of the letter, I realized that a considerable chunk of the letter was omitted in the English translation. Just to verify, I typed a few phrases into an online translator, and it most definitely confirmed that a whole section of the letter was omitted in the translation.
Now, I know that that staff who answers this forum is very efficient and diligent in dealing with problems like this, and I will eventually get the rest of the translation.
But, in addition, could you update sponsors on just how the translation process works now with the new system? When I began sponsoring, I was under the impression that Compassion hired people in the child's country to translate letters by hand. I am not sure, but I think with the new system that letters were supposed to be translated automatically by computer. Either way, it GREATLY concerns me that a whole chunk of my child's letter did not reach me. I don't see how a machine could do that. Was someone just careless? Did someone determine that it was not important for me to know that part? What? And that brings up another concern, how often are parts of the letters that I take time to write just omitted in the translation that is sent to my children?
I love my sponsored children dearly. I was under the impression that the relationship part of sponsorship is very important. I KNOW it is important to many, many sponsors. I would like to believe it is important to the sponsored children. It is very concerning to me that a whole chunk of the letter was omitted in the translation.
Shannon Massey, Employee