Tibetan students volunteer to interpret for victims
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An increasing number of Tibetan students who study in China's larger cities volunteered to interpret for their folks hospitalized after a devastating earthquake that killed at least 1,484.
Qiao Wenliang, an official with Qinghai Ethnic University, said Saturday that more than 170 Tibetan students from the school have been interpreting for the injured since Thursday.
Another batch of 130 Tibetan students from Qinghai University and Qinghai Normal University are also providing language aid in Xining's hospitals.
The quake, measuring 7.1 in magnitude, hit Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu in southern Qinghai Province. The majority of the population in Yushu are Tibetans, with whom most Mandarin-speaking Chinese have difficulty in understanding each other.
Hospitals in most Chinese cities do not have interpreters. Even fewer can speak Tibetan dialect.
"When the first Tibetan patient was delivered here, we found communication the biggest challenge," said Yao Kaihua, a doctor with the Red Cross Hospital of Qinghai.
"As the injured were mostly Tibetans and could not speak Mandarin,doctors did not quite understand them," Yao said.
Volunteer students not only interpret, they also console the victims. The students' presence is a big comfort to them, Yao said.
Tibetan students in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, also provided interpreting in the city's hospitals for 95 people who were injured in the earthquake.
Drolma, a Tibetan student of Xi'an Jiaotong University, said she rushed to the unversity's hospital later Thursday night upon learning the transfer of Yushu quake patients. She said she slept only for one hour up to Friday afternoon.
"Although my Mandarin is not perfect, I can manage to help. The patients and doctors then understand each other," said Drolma. "I feel so good to help."
