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Friday, August 20, 2021

PPV volunteer picks up foreign languages to assist migrant workers

 


A volunteer at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium vaccination centre (PPV) has won praise for going the extra mile by learning phrases in various languages to assist foreign workers seeking Covid-19 vaccination.

A video of 23-year-old Ain Syawani speaking Bengali and Urdu while assisting foreign workers has been viewed more than 397,500 times on Twitter, with many viewers thanking her for taking the initiative.

Speaking to Malaysiakini, Ain said she has also picked up phrases in Hindi, Nepali and Burmese.

The primary reason that Ain learnt these languages is to make her task more efficient as she wanted to avoid hold-up at her counter.

“Every day, more than 1,000 foreigners come to get vaccinated. I don’t want to waste my time. So, I took the initiative to learn their languages,” she shared.

Besides the industry channels, migrant workers in the Klang Valley can also get vaccinated by walking into the Bukit Jalil National Stadium PPV until Aug 22, from 2pm onwards.

In 2018, there were 2.2 million documented migrant workers in Malaysia, with the International Organisation of Migration estimating at least another two million undocumented.

The Special Committee on Ensuring Access to Covid-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV) has assured non-citizens living in Malaysia that they can get vaccinated for free, even if undocumented, while the Immigration Department has assured that it will not arrest undocumented migrants at or around PPVs.

'Be more understanding'

Ain said she picked up the phrases by asking the migrant workers to teach her.

“Whenever I see those who can speak and understand English well, I ask them to teach me,” she said.

“In Bengali, the sentences I would usually ask would be ‘tu mi ki kaj koro?’ which means ‘are you working?’, and ‘tu mi ki asustho?’ which means ‘do you have any illness?’” she added.

She recalled some of the foreigners being shocked when hearing her speak their languages. Some even asked if Ain was a Pakistani.

In Ain’s recent clip of her speaking in Nepali, Hindi and Burmese, the person whom Ain was assisting praised her for being conversant in Urdu.

Ain's effort certainly did not go unnoticed among the other volunteers at the PPV as they have also followed her example in learning these phrases.

“They asked me to teach them so they can practice (the phrases) too!” she exclaimed in delight.

Since then, she has heard some volunteers speaking in Bengali to Bangladeshi vaccine recipients.

“I feel really inspired and happy to see them doing it,” she added.

However, there are a few netizens who questioned why she is learning foreign languages rather than asking the foreign workers to learn the Malay language.

“It is my own initiative to want to learn these languages to make my task easier,” Ain said firmly, clearly unfazed by the negativity.

Concluding, she said: “We have to be more understanding and have empathy towards foreigners. Make them feel welcomed and happy." - Mkini

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