The word “beneficiary” is not very negative or problematic in itself, but since at least 2015, humanitarian aid and international development professionals were calling for this term to be replaced.

Besides being a blatant replacement for “Third World,” the general sense of “developing” is that a country is not on the same level as a rich country like the US economically, technologically, or sometimes even socially, but it is working on it. So rich countries are labeled as “developed” and poorer countries are labeled as “developing.”

The term ‘climate change’ refers to “long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.” Some find this problematic because people use this term to argue that climate change is a natural process…

Unskilled labor, or low-skill labor, is a term used by many organizations and agencies to describe “work that requires little or no experience or training to do or consists of routine tasks.” The most common alternative used is a precise descriptor of ‘unskilled/low-skill’ labor: low-wage labor. It’s not exactly a positive term, but that’s only because it indicates how these workers are treated (which is not great).

This term is derived from “barbaros,” (Greek) which was used to refer to foreigners, and later gained the connotation of “savages,” hence the term “barbarian.” The identity of these indigenous peoples has been erased (by declaring they are Arab) or even made illegal to acknowledge/ exhibit.

The use of phobia attributes “a mental disability to someone and suggests a knowledge that we don’t have.”

“Middle East” as a geographic term is ambiguous; it varies depending on the individual and the time period. It is also clear that the term originated in “the West” (another geographically ambiguous term) and was initially perpetuated by colonial powers.

There are two main objections to the use of “ethnic cleansing”: (1) it’s a problematic euphemism, and (2) it’s a legally ambiguous term. As translators (and interpreters), we are sometimes bound by guidelines or client requirements to use certain terms, that’s just a fact of our profession. Yet we also have the power to change the way we discuss an issue in our target language.