Halifax Transit translates booklet with schedule changes into 8 languages

Halifax Transit is translating an eight-page booklet that outlines changes to its upcoming bus schedule into eight different languages for the community of Clayton Park.

In the coming days, the area's large immigrant population will be able to read the guide in Arabic, Farsi, French, Korean, Mandarin, Nepali, Russian and Yoruba.

Patricia Hughes, manager of planning and scheduling for Halifax Transit, said it is an opportunity to pilot something new in a diverse community where a variety of languages are spoken.

"This is the first time that we've done this," Hughes said.

Halifax Transit also held four sessions with the community with translators present to explain the upcoming changes, which take effect Aug. 20.

Ayo Aladejebi spent three to four days translating the brochure into Yoruba, one of the main languages in West Africa. Aladejebi moved from Nigeria to Canada in 1993 and then to Nova Scotia in 1998. He is a senior advisor with Halifax's African Nova Scotian Affairs Integration Office.

"The direct translation was the easiest part," he said. "The most challenging part was going back and sort of refining what I have written because with the Yoruba language you have the different accents."

According to the 2016 census, 50 people in Halifax reported Yoruba as their mother tongue; 15 reported Yoruba as the language most spoken at home; and 215 had knowledge of the Yoruba language.

Aladejebi said it's essential that newcomers who use transit to have access to this information in their original language.

"Halifax is rapidly changing," he said. "Now we have folks that are from various parts of the world and people speaking different languages, so an attempt to translate a document such as this into multiple languages, to me, is a commitment of the municipality to that reality — to say that we're actually reflecting the community that we serve."

All eight versions will be available on Halifax Transit's website, at the Keshen Goodman Public Library in Clayton Park, and at the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia.