Recently, as Tianjin has been designated as one of the first entry points for international passenger flights from Beijing, a team called “the Nankai translation volunteers’ commando fighting against the epidemic” (abbreviated as ‘commando’ below) has come to Tianjin Binhai International Airport to provide translation services for immigrants and staff members.  They also provide assistance to customs in conducting entry inspection and epidemiological investigation for international passengers from all over the world and in other communication and coordination work.

Since its foundation on the 21^st of March, the commando team has sent 21 members to take up tasks on site. The number of volunteer hours have totaled 240, and the volunteers have finished inquiries, shunting and placement for over 140 people. From the 31st of March to the 12nd of April, the commando  arranged for a teacher or a student from the English department to be on 24-hour phone duty, providing remote translation services for the Nankai District, Hongqiao District, Beichen District, Jizhou District and other districts in Tianjin.

As Kexin Yang, the Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Nankai University, conveyed, We should not only commend the commando team, but encourage the students and faculty to learn from their experience and remember the Nankai spirit.

Students from multiple language majors fighting together

The commando team mainly consisting of students and teachers from the Foreign Language School,  and has recruited 43 students and teachers from German, Russian, Italian, French, English and other related language majors. It is quite moving that most student volunteers signed up within  three hours of  the recruiting notice being posted. The number of volunteers recruited has exceeded 80% of the total number of language students in Tianjin, surpassing all expectations.

Inspired by the students’ and teachers’ dedication to serve the motherland, Jigang Bao, an alumnus from the Mathematics school of Nankai University in 1987, director of the Nankai Alumni Entrepreneurs Association and chairman of Shenzhen Wukong Investment Management Co., Ltd., contacted the Nankai University Education Foundation and donated rewards to 43 members of the commando team.

Sharing, helping and providing and strengthening  effectiveness at the front line

Because the time of service needs to be determined according to the flight situation, and the language requirement information is most often released 12 hours before the task, the volunteer service is mostly an emergency provisional task force. The epidemic is the motivating force. In order to do well while providing front line language translation service for anti-epidemic efforts, commando teachers and students fully embody the role of sharing, helping and providing. The six batches of volunteers who have been sent out successively continuously have brought front line personal protection and work flow experience to the back, and have shared it with the team members in the WeChat group.

Practice makes perfect, and one must always be prepared. In order to be able to respond to the needs of anti-epidemic services as quickly as possible, volunteers left home in advance, temporarily staying in  accommodations arranged by the school in order to work efficiently in groups. To provide more translation assistance, while they worked in minority-language translation they also served in their second language, English,  staying in a state of readiness the entire time.

Being an person in this new agewith both strong ethics and ability

This young team mainly composed of students succeeded in building a warm bridge with affection. They displayed diligence in fighting against the epidemic in China with their hardwork in the service of passengers from all over the world and won recognition for their service rendered with great professionalism.

It is key to strengthen professional ability at the front line and build will in adversity. Young volunteers have expressed that the soul of patriotism is indeed the soul of Nankai. In this vivid display of activity from teachers and students, they saw the spirit of Nankai as inherited by the teachers and recognized their responsibility as people of this new age.

The youth of yesterday, the heroes of today!” is the sentiment expressed by the volunteers. To respond to the call of the motherland and of the people, they are always ready!

(Reported by Fang Lan,Translated by Mengya Pan, Edited by Daniel Stefan and JianjingYun)