# 5402
While there may be some who doubt the value and intentions of social media during a crisis, students from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies have used the power of Twitter to enlist the aid of dozens of volunteers to translate an online earthquake help page/manual into more than two dozen different languages.
The ABOUT section of the webpage states:
This project started from just one TUFS university student from statement on Twitter. Since the magic of twitter, a large number of people turned into strong supporters who built up number of teams to make all the translation, more than 24 languages.
While this manual won’t win any prose awards (it is basically a list of items, resources and advice), it does provide a quick reference for those trapped in the midst of a major disaster.
This report from Antara News.
Volunteers translate quake manual to 31 languages for non-Japanese
Wed, March 16 2011 16:34 | 95 Views
Tokyo (ANTARA News/Kyodo-OANA) - An emergency online earthquake manual has been translated into 31 languages as of Wednesday afternoon by Japanese volunteers to support non-Japanese living in Japan in the wake of Friday`s magnitude 9.0 quake.
The manual, called ``Japan earthquake: How to protect yourself`` in English, lists practical advice, such as ``move to higher ground if you are near the ocean,`` and how to use emergency message services, as well as goods that should be kept in stock to prepare for an earthquake.
The languages include those spoken by small groups in Japan, such as Burmese and Latvian, as well as German, French, Chinese and Korean.
Translation volunteers gathered in a wink in response to a request made via Twitter by students from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, they said.
