Human Issues in Translation

Hi Gilles, Thank you for the post of these inspiring questions. I thave the following thought. Translators have greater access to external digital and human resources than ever before. (Are we designing for this?) J: That depends on our understanding of who are the Designer(s). I believe the Designer(s) create human with intelligence to use technology, include translation, for His purpose. I believe the evolution of technology is in Him plan for His purpose. However, I fear that human may not have the wisdom to use technology for His purpose. I think we are designed to design the technology and to decide how the technology be used or evolved. The understanding of His Purpose and the translating of His Message in order to understand His Purpose is an interractive spiral mechanism. I think this is similar to the ideas of progressive revelation. • They can draw on vast online corpora and terminological holdings in the course of their work. (Are we limiting translators in this area?) J: Who are we? How can we limit the translators in this area? The limitation of translation resources and technology varies in different contexts mainly because of the factors political, economic situation and use of languages. Unfortunately, people who are able access to the resources may not do a good job as steward and sharers of the resrouces. I have the following suggestion: 1. encourage and sharing open source software, resources, open data 2. promote technology literacy along with language literacy 3. collect and share 2nd hand devices 4. encourage teaching and using scripture in Hebrew and Greek One of my concerns is the dilema between the globalization and localization. We would like to have an effective common lingua-franca in order to communicate and share the resources in order to translate; we would like to keep the diversity and distinctive of different languages. If translation and langauge are merely instrumental, what are the intrinsic value of the diversity and distinctive of different languages. In case there will be major lingual franca in Bible believing community, should those be Koine Greek and Biblical Hebrew? • They can collaborate with remote colleagues or complete strangers on shared tasks. (Are we providing pathways for this?) I think that is what happening in MAP. I think our colleauges are working on providing pathway for this. The idea of network of para-consultants may applied. • The collaborative production of translations by professionals and non-professionals alike. (How are we bridging the two?) What does it mean professional? I think the competence is more important than the professional qualification. Competence can develop over long time. If an amateur with Biblical langauges and theological training are spending years on exegesis and accuracy checking of just one book, e.g. Ruth, for certain language family, I think it can still be very productive for high quality assurance. • These developments have raised a number of questions about how we view translation and translators, and how translators view themselves. (What are the questions we should address?) 1. What should be the visibility, ownership, stewardship of the Scripture, translation, translators, translation projects? 2. What do the biblical theology and missiology talk about the scriptural translation of the community of translators/BT pratitioners? 3. Is Bible Translation ministry? 4. Are the Bible Translator and BT pratitioners ministers or employee? How do Bible Translator view themselves? 5. Effective use and accountability of human resources, especially volunteers and non-traditional BT human resources 6. Fine tune the process of translaton and scripture engagement, scriptural use assessment 7. As there are more global south and diaspora participation in international BT organization, how do we interact with fourth culture people? 8. Relationship between technology, langauges, politics, economic and BT of self-sustainable scriptural translation 9. How can BT initiate and develop in less Bible-friendly environment? • The ongoing evolution of translation also means that we need new ways of understanding the cognitive processes involved in translation. (How does a shift in a cognitive understanding of meaning making affect training?) Bible translation is a multi-disciplinary topics. We need new ways of uderstanding a lot of things, include cogintive science. Translation is a kind of transformation and training by itself. A serious BT pratitioner has to be a life long learner and trainer. It is always be helpful for a learner and trainer aware of the arts and science of communication, human behaviours, cognitve science, etc. We need different length of zoom lens, along with microscope and telescope in order to capture the images of the realties, but I fear that we can only see the images until we are in the heaven to know what are the absolute truth and what are real? • More expansive ethics of translation, and constant reappraisal of how and what we teach translators. (How do Bible translators understand ethics and training?) • The effects of such changes on the reception of translated texts. (Increased focus on reception studies needed). The answers of these questions can be different depends on the previous question about theology, missiology, nature of the BT and translators. The authentic faith, the love towards the receiving community, the passion to their culture and the consistency of the translated Words and the translator's deeds can be quite crucial to bring the impact. I think the work ethics, competency and other quality will come along with the desire of God and for His people. We cannot teach other, if we cannot be the role model as such. I fear that not many(certainly not me) can claim well equiped or adequate for stewardship of Scriptural translation work. However, we have to try our best through His grace to pass the baton to the next generation.