Translation News June 2022

https://mailchi.mp/e54944cac3ea/june-2022-translation-news?e=db52b9c362

View this email in your browser

 International Translation Services (ITS) works in collaboration with colleagues in SIL and other agencies to creatively steward and advance the translation practices, tools, methods, and training necessary to enable a supportive environment for individuals and communities to flourish and engage with Scripture.
We value: Interconnectedness. Capacity Building. Diversity. Innovation.

June 2022

• Being “present” - Greg Dekker
• Oral Translation Services - Nathan Payne 
• Translation Research and Practice - Dick Kroneman 
• Translation Training and Development - Phil King
• Translation Resources - Paul O'Rear
• Exegetical Summary Update - Jim Clarke
• Global Consultant Pool - Bill Bivin
• The interorganizational Translation Consultant Think Tank (TCTT) - Greg Dekker
• News Updates
  • Mark Penny - PTXprint Training & Consultation
  • Scott Berthiaume - New DIU President
  • Chris Lovelace - New Book Review Article
• Now With The Lord 
  • Charlotte (Zahn) Kreikebaum (1930-2022) Peru
  • Joyce Prettol (1948-2022) Asia

Useful Links
SIL Translation Services

• International Leadership Team
• Area Translation Coordinators

Being “present”
Greg Dekker

The Covid pandemic has given us a new awareness of how much can be accomplished remotely. Just the other day I heard my sons talking about how their friends have not returned to the workplace after the Covid lockdowns, and have even taken the liberty to take their work with them as they travel and enjoy a change of scenery. The only requirement for their destinations: a good internet connection! It has caused me to think on the value of incarnation, and incarnational ministry. What is it, and how important is it that I be “present”. 

Many years ago when we were working in a remote town, a woman came to our house asking for medicine which I knew was supposed to be freely available at the local health clinic. She said she had no money to buy it. The problem was clear: what was intended to be made available freely was being sold unscrupulously. It angered me, so I accompanied her to the clinic and after some exchange with the practitioner, she received the medicine without charge. Breaking the chain of injustice may require our presence.

Philippians 2 describes God’s kenosis as an “attitude”. “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus…” It surprised me as I looked at this again. Our willingness to be present is first and foremost an attitude. It’s a willingness to forsake the things that cause us to maintain distance or separation. 

I did some digging around on this and the first point in the first article.  I came across on “Incarnational Ministry” said this, “Finding the lost is not simply a matter of method or technique, but one of attitude. It is the attitude of the Shepherd, the caretaker of the flock, who, driven by love for the sheep, goes after them until they are found.”

Jesus’ attitude must be my attitude, whether that be for my neighbor who, in my case, is 300 steps away, or my “neighbors” who are 5,000 miles away. It was our concern for people who had little or no access to the truth contained in God’s Word that caused us to go to our “neighbors” far away. So, is this still needed? Isn’t incarnational ministry happening from everyone to everywhere? 

In our small, sending congregation here in the U.S. is a family on mission to the U.S. from Nigeria. They are compelled by the love of Christ to minister to those around them in our hometown. They are humble servants of God who live the life of a follower of Jesus before everyone they come in contact with, and it has had a tremendous impact on our home fellowship! We respect and think so highly of the Udurukwe family! Their attitude of care and love for others is exemplary, and they frequently return to Nigeria at a real cost to themselves to minister God’s love to others who are hurting in their home country.

Our Master’s attitude was to lay down the things dear to him and humbly take the form of those he sought to reconcile to a right relationship with God the Father. We rejoice in the growth of the Church everywhere. But let us not lose sight of the need for our presence. Is God prompting you to lay down some things that are dear to you, and go be “present”? 

Oral Translation Services 
Nathan Payne 

The Oral Translation Services (OTS) unit will be hosting a one week Introduction to Storying Workshop later this month. The venue will be the International Linguistics Center in Dallas. The workshop is designed for those seriously considering participation in a OneStory project in another language but anyone interested in storying is welcome. The dates are June 26 (short evening session) to July 1, 2022. The workshop is oral and participatory in nature. Sessions include: 

• Orally learning, telling, and discussing stories in a group setting.
• Learning a set of stories crafted for a specific worldview.
• Learning the OneStory process for crafting Biblical stories.
• Becoming familiar with the OneStory training and consulting cycle.

Cost for the event is $125. You will need to pay your own Room & Board costs. You could possibly stay at the ILC Guesthouse on the campus where the training will be held. Location: 7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX. Email Nora for further questions or to register email.

Translation Research and Practice
Dick Kroneman 

The Bible Translation 2023 (BT 2023) Conference will be held in Dallas from 13-17 October 2023. The theme of the conference will be 'Quality in Translation'. This will be a hybrid conference. Participants will have a choice to attend either in person or to connect online.

International Translation Services is working together with the Pike Center for Integrative Scholarship and representatives of other organizations (including UBS, Biblica, Seed Company, and Dallas International University) to organize a series of symposia related to 'Quality in and around Translation'. An online exploratory symposium will be held in September 2022. It will be followed by a more in-depth working symposium sometime around February 2023. Selected papers produced during these symposia will be presented at the BT Conference in October 2023. More information will be forthcoming soon.

We are looking for a new BT Conference facilitator, to take the place of Ellen Jackson in coordinating correspondence and communications related to the BT conference. The logistics side of BT conference will be handled by the recently appointed ILC Events Coordinator who reports to Mark Kull (ILC Director, Dallas). Ellen will continue to assist with work related to the BT conference. Please contact Dick Kroneman or Greg Dekker, if you know someone who might be interested in filling this important need.

SIL Asia Area recently organized another online Translation Consultant Development Workshop (TCDW 2022) training event for consultants in training. This workshop was led by Steve Doty and Angie Seow. Several other experienced translation consultants were on staff. I taught sessions on Old Testament exegesis and on Old Testament poetry.

Translation Training and Development
Phil King

Training website. Do you know about the ILS Training website? It's full of useful information including Standard Learning Objectives and the translation competencies used for Competency-Based Certification (CBC). There is a newly added page about online learning communities, including EMDC online, the Digital Training Library, and a list of Bible Translation Communities of Practice you might like to participate in.

Competency-Based Certification (CBC). As more and more people start using the CBC process for consultant growth, the next step I'm working on is collecting resources that will be helpful for developing the different competencies. If you're a consultant, or consultant-in-training, what are the best resources that *you* have come across in your training? This might be a course, a website, a book, an article, a video,... or something else! Please email me (Phil King) with your top 3 recommendations, and I'll share some of them here next month. I'm in the process of building a 'translation consultant growth hub' website that will help people find such quality resources.

Digital Training Library (DTL). The Digital Training Library is continuing to develop new certificates, and translate them into priority languages. Foundations in Bible Translation, Beginner's Greek and Beginner's Hebrew are now available in English, French, Hindi, Spanish and Indonesian. There is also initial progress on the creation of the Sign Language Digital Training Library. Some people have asked me for testimonies about these courses, so here is some feedback from Miklos Greizer (SIL Vanuatu) about working on the Foundations in Bible Translation with his colleague Joe Rangi, a local teacher and church leader, "Joe has been very, very appreciative of the course. He especially likes the question format, which helps him think clearly through the issues. He also said how 'deceptive' the course was that after completing Module 1, he felt that it was going to be too easy (based on the content and questions), but as we are progressing, he has discovered the beauty and depth of the meaning and questions. He repeatedly said the questions help him (help both of us, actually) to help others. He has been faithfully sitting down with members of his community and members of his church and methodologically teaching them what he has been learning. Praise the Lord." Remember that scholarships are available if you would like to use this material in your context.

Bible Translation Training and Development Community of Practice. The COP met on 12th May, and connected with Youngshin Kim about YWAM's Mega OBT 1000 course, which included the DTL as part of the content as they delivered a course simultaneously across five different countries. Several people applauded the sense of cooperation both in the course and the Community of Practice discussion, challenging us to think of Oral Bible Translation through the perspective of synergy, bringing together the strengths of different organisations. There were also some good discussions on the value of cyclical rather than linear training in many contexts. Visit the 'communities' tab on https://emdc.online if you want to see the recording or join future meetings.

Translation Resources
Paul O'Rear

FOBAI (Forum of Bible Agencies International): April 25-27, Philadelphia, PA. There was good discussion in the Translation Development Group (TDG) about the Translation Consultant Think Tank (TCTT) that has been meeting for the past year.  One new idea was to explore ProgressBible as a way of sharing information about consultant capacity at a global level. Bryan Harmelink also presented a draft proposal of new FOBAI Consultant Qualifications. He is seeking feedback on these by the end of August, so do get in touch with Greg Dekker if there is feedback you would like to pass on.  Overall, there was an encouraging theme of Global Voices through the meetings, encouraging the need to both listen to and have actual representation of ‘global voices’ in our FOBAI community. The Deaf Development Group (DDG) are leading by example by selecting a Deaf man from Tanzania with limited English skills to be the chair of the DDG for a 3 year term. An American Deaf colleague was also assigned to assist in communicating with other FOBAI leaders and non-signing DDG representatives.

Language Technology Conference: May 2-6 Dallas, Texas. Language Software Development (LSDev @ SIL) held their biannual technology conference here in Dallas at the ILC. Several of our close technology partners attended and presented. It was very encouraging to see and sense an overall good-will among the attendees to embrace new initiatives and opportunities to collaborate with other organizations in meeting the technology needs of the Bible translation movement.

Psalms Consultation: May 23-26, Stowe, Vermont. Representatives from SIL, The Seed Company, American Bible Society, and Cambridge Digital Bible Research (CDBR) along with leading scholars met to discuss opportunities to collaborate and enhance each others’ projects: Psalms: Layer by Layer (CDBR) and Psalms That Sing (SC). Lots of good will expressed here among all parties and new avenues for future collaboration were explored with some action items determined. We look forward to new innovative Psalms-related resources over the coming years.

Translation Resources Retreat: June 8, Plano, Texas The Translation Resources team held an offsite retreat celebrating our accomplishments, looking forward to new initiatives, and working on incorporating the SIL Action Plan into our thinking.

Exegetical Summary Update
Jim Clarke

The Exegetical Summary (ES) Series Team Leader, Jim Clarke, welcomes two new authors - Esther Han & Denise Plichta. These books summarize scholarly interpretation of the Greek or Hebrew biblical texts. Both students and translators with beginning to advanced exegetical skills will find these volumes helpful in producing a meaningful translation. The ES Series asks important exegetical and interpretive questions, while summarizing and organizing the content from every major Bible commentary. With this collection you can instantly identify exegetical challenges and survey the scope of what has been written about each verse and phrase. Since no single commentary provides all the answers needed for translation, exegesis, and interpretation, the ES Series serves as a valuable supplement and study tool. This expansive collection provides the tools needed to swiftly compare commentaries and lexicons, identifying instances of both scholarly consensus and disagreement.

• Newly Completed NT Exegetical Summary Volumes
  • David Abernathy - 1 Peter
  • Robert Stutzman - Colossians and Philemon
  • Ron Trail - Philippians. Titus and 1, 2, 3 John
• Newly Completed OT Exegetical Summary Volumes
  • Jim Pohlig - Ruth and Psalms lectionary readings (up through Psalm 115)
  • Monica Jones - Exodus 1 through 14
  • Paula Bostrom - Genesis 1-2
• Work In Process
  • Peter Schmidt - Leviticus 16
  • Kurt McCorkle - Jonah
  • Robert Stutzman - 1-2 Thessalonians
  • Ron Trail - 2 Timothy
  • Jim Pohlig - Remainder of Psalms lectionary readings
  • Monica Jones - Exodus (selected passages)
  • Paula Bostrom - Genesis (selected passages) 
  • David Abernathy - Numbers (selected passages) 
  • Denise Plichta - revision of the Jude ES

Global Consultant Pool
Bill Bivin

We have had a busy month with Translation Consultants checking scriptures from PNG, Indonesia, India and neighboring countries, as well as multiple countries in Africa and Latin America.

As you may know, the Global Consultant Pool is working with Consultants-in-Training (CiTs) as well. The CiTs are advancing in their mentorship programs and showing promise. Some will (finally) be able to go to Israel this September for additional training.

The Global Consultant Pool has had its "Project Evaluation" completed recently with encouraging results. The GCP has achieved the objectives for which it was organized. As expected, there are some adjustments to be made, but having just come through some difficult times with the Covid pandemic, we praise God for good progress in general, Scriptures checked, and development of new translation consultants. Watch for upcoming news on anticipated developments for the GCP.

Seeking new Director for Global Consultant Pool: I (Bill Bivin) will be concluding my term as Director of the Global Consultant Pool soon. We are currently seeking candidates for a new GCP Director. If you, or someone you know is interested, or you can make a recommendation, please contact Ian Hollman (Associate Executive Director, International Language Services), Bill Bivin or Greg Dekker.

The interorganizational Translation Consultant Think Tank (TCTT)
Greg Dekker

At the initiative of SIL and The Seed Company Translation departments, for about a year now, members from eleven Bible Translation organizations (participating organizations include DOOR, UBS, WGA, Biblica, FCBH, TSCO, NLCI, GP, Spoken Worldwide, SIL, BTF) have been meeting together regularly to explore possible solutions relating to interorganizational Translation Consultant (TC) Inventory and Management. We’ve been asking questions like, “Are we successful at retaining TCs? How can we build a financially sustainable model of translation consulting? How does a TC support her-/himself? Are we successful at deploying TCs to where they are needed most? Are we sharing TCs? Are TC’s qualifications, location, and availability accessible to those who need this information? How do we pay for TC training and development? How do we ensure TCs are retained in consulting roles?

Why are we asking these questions? Here are some of the difficulties we’re facing interorganizationally: We don’t know the number of TCs available worldwide; We don’t have a quick reference for the TC’s skills; Information about a TC’s area/location of experience is not readily available; We are seeing significant attrition of TCs due to reassignment to other roles; We have low levels of sharing of TCs in the Bible translation movement (BTM); We have not had - until SIL’s Competency Based Certification (CBC) system -  a seamless, cross-organizational TC certification system; We lack TC orientation in Oral Bible Translation (OBT) methods; There’s a need for funding organizations to release TCs from projects and continue to fund them, so that the currently certified TCs can meet the needs of the BTM; We don’t know what are the projected needs for TCs over the next 3-5 years, and longer; and, We lack capacity for checking oral translations.

Here are some initial possibilities that the Think Tank has considered:

• Develop a regional/country spreadsheet/database showing recognized TCs in that region/country and their competencies/profile
• Funding for TCs was a concern from the beginning, so can we develop a donor stream for TCs?
• As a model: We considered action by the Last Command Initiative (LCI, India) which has done very well to project the numbers of TCs that will be needed to complete the task in India. A model that can be used in other locations/regions
• Strong desire among participants to collaborate and share TCs - but there are “roadblocks”. How can these be overcome?
• Emphasis on building people and sustainability through TC-ing, not just checking texts
• Any inventory must consider TC/personnel security concerns
• There was some discussion relating to agreement needed on translation procedures and TC qualifications
• We must prioritize TCs that are proficient in Languages of Wider Communication (LWCs) - this points to the need for TC profile visibility
• We must prioritize TCs that can handle Sign Language - points again to need for TC profile visibility, esp. in-country and regionally

Here is a listing of values we identified that need to be preserved and upheld in the creation of any TC inventory and management process: Every TC should be adequately financially supported; Every TC should be appropriately assigned Consultants in Training (CiTs) and projects; We need to be able to adequately anticipate TC needs; Inter-organizational communication and trust needs to be maintained for sharing the vision of sharing TCs; TCs need to have the freedom to choose what they would like to check; Flexibility in the mode of consulting needs to be upheld (in-person; online, workshop settings; cluster approaches).

As we began exploring what would be needed in developing what was first envisioned as a globally accessible TC inventory and database, we decided any inventory and management system must include the following information: Regions/countries in which the TC has the most experience; TC specialties; Languages of proficiency; Degree of ability of TC to work simultaneously in several languages (cluster approach); Compensation preferences (if any); Contact information; Years of experience; Country of residence; Deaf or hearing; Ability to travel or do remote checking; References of the TC; Source of the TC’s certification; and Whether the TC is OBT qualified.

We also recognize that there are sensitivities that need to be protected when giving access to TC information on a global or regional scale. These include the following: Religious contexts in which a TC works; Difficult access countries; Personal information; Location of the TC; and, for some contexts, languages of fluency (which may indicate location of TC.)

With these things in mind, the Think Tank has established two “exploration” sub-groups or teams: The first team will look at possibilities to consider around a shared, regionally or globally accessible, TC database to which all participating organizations contribute. This team is co-led by Phil King of SIL and Jim Vinton of The Seed Company. The second team will be looking at possibilities to consider around a model for compensating TCs. This team is led by Brian Kelly of The Seed Company.

We invite your ideas and feedback on this initiative and encourage you to participate and support the work of your representative(s) on the Think Tank! 

News Updates
 

PTXprint Training & Consultation (Mark Penny)
The SIL Language Technology team is holding a PTXprint Training & Consultation from 21 Nov to 01 Dec 2022 at Karimu International Conference Center, Germany.

• Here is the link to the flyer and the link to apply to attend.
• Here is the link to a short promo video Bible Layout for Everyone.
• Here is the link to the longer video from the Bible Translation Conference about The Impact of Local Typesetting on the Translation Process.

This inter-organizational event will cover topics such as:

• deploying PTXprint in a multi-project context
• making things easy for casual users
• advanced typesetting using changes and TeX modifications
• debugging typesetting issues
• using the PTXprint command line for batch processing
• cover to cover typesetting (main content with front and back matter)
• best practices for workflow
• and so much more.

Due to limited places available, potential participants will need to apply to attend. Preference will be given to those working with complex scripts, cluster projects, and experienced typesetters who serve multiple projects. This event is free, but participants need to locate their own funding to cover travel & full-board accommodation.

New DIU President (Scott Berthiaume)
After an exhaustive search, the Board of Trustees has chosen Dr. Scott Berthiaume to become the third president of Dallas International University (DIU) on 01 July 2022, following the June 30th retirement of Dr. Douglas Tiffin. Scott joined DIU in 2017 as the Dean of Academic Affairs.  Before that time, he worked and lived with his family for twenty years in Mexico where he held various positions with SIL and the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí including President of the Board, Director of Language Services, Director of the Diplomado en Lingüística Aplicada, Public Relations Coordinator, Linguistics Coordinator, Consultant and Researcher.

Scott is married to Tonia and they have four grown children and two daughters-in-law. He has a BA in Biblical Studies (Biola University), an MA and PhD in Linguistics (UT Arlington).  Scott’s primary research interest is on the Northern Pame language, spoken in the state of San Luis Potosí, Mexico. 

New Book Review Article (Chris Lovelace)
Chris Lovelace (SC Consultant) has just published an 18-page review of Noss and Houser's book, A Guide to Bible Translation in Conspectus Volume 33. Chris brings a strong depth and breadth of knowledge on the topic of Bible translation, including the history of Bible translation in various languages of the world.

• Book Review (Extended): A Guide to Bible Translation: People, Languages, and Topics by Philip A. Noss and Charles S. Houser. SATS (South African Theological Seminary) Journal: Conspectus, Volume 33. April 2022. pgs 119-137