Translation

While I was visiting, two native speakers of the local language came by the house to help with the Scripture translation process. They were working on the book of Jonah, and much work had already been done on it. It had been carefully translated for accuracy and had already been revised, but now they were working on ensuring the 'understandability' and flow of the translation.

The missionary read the story aloud, a sentence at a time. After each sentence, the native speaker



repeated the content of what had been said in his own words. This was recorded so the missionaries could listen to it later & revise their manuscript as necessary to make it sound more natural.

If there was word, phrase or sentence that was not clear, they talked about it right then & there, trying to smooth it out. For example, there was discussion about the word used for "break apart," as in, "The waves beat against the boat so that the boat began to break apart." It turns out that the word the missionary used actually meant to break apart a relationship, not something physical like a boat. The missionaries & the native speaker discussed this for a while before they came up with a word that was more suited to this particular context.

Afterward, the main translator (the daughter, on this team) will listen carefully to the recording they made and make further revisions to the manuscript. When she is satisfied with it, she passes it on to another team member to do comprehension checks. During this part of the process, the missionary works with several different native speakers to check that the translation makes sense. Again, she reads the text aloud and has the native speaker recount the story in his own words. Sometimes she asks questions, as well, to test if the content of the material has been grasped.

It's a long process, but well worth it!