AUGUST 2023 Translation News

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August 2023 Translation Newsletter

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.

August 2023 “I was Bible-less, and you gave me the Word of God.” - Greg Dekker Working Symposium on Quality in Translation - Phil King Translation Training and Development Updates - Phil King New Consultants Ryan Davis - GCP Stefán Féliz-Kent - GCP News and Updates New Translation Publication - Ågot Bergli The Digital Bible Library (DBL) News - Lois Gourley Was Paul a ‘Missionary’? - Phil King Coming Events Africa Oral Bible Translation Online Consultation (03-05 Oct 2023) Bible Translation Conference (13-17 Oct 2023) Macro Analysis of Hebrew Poetic & Prophetic Discourse (18 Oct 2023) EMDC (27-30 May 2024) Chiangmai, Thailand TCDW (10 Jun-19 Jul 2024) Hybrid Useful Links SIL Translation Services International Leadership Team Area Translation Coordinators

“I was Bible-less, and you gave me the Word of God.”

• Greg Dekker - International Translation Services Director As Jesus followers we may ask, “For all that Jesus has done for me, what can I do for Him?” Jesus says many things about this, but one very striking example is Mt. 25:40. The disciples could not remember or maybe even conceptualize a time when they saw Jesus hungry, thirsty, naked, estranged, sick, or imprisoned. But Jesus described himself in this way, “I was hungry… I was thirsty… I was a stranger... I was naked… I was sick… I was in prison…” Striking! Then Jesus describes the essence of our service by saying, “...to the extent that you did it to them, you did it to me!” How can this be? A good friend of mine, a follower of Jesus, is praying earnestly for his children who have grown cold to the things of God. He often prays that God would orchestrate events in their lives to cause them to turn to- and humbly seek Jesus. He prays that God would bring people into their lives whom their children can trust, even look up to, who would steer or guide them to the Truth, to trust God once again. This got me thinking: Jesus is like a parent. In as much as someone helps to lead Jesus’ beloved children whom He created back to a trust relationship with Him, it impacts Him in much the same way as we would feel about the person who helps our children. If we can, we hug them. We thank them. We help them see what an amazing thing they’ve done as instruments in God’s hands. There are two amazing principles here. First, we are needed! Jesus considers us integral to what He is doing in the world. In a divine, eternal way we contribute to the eternal purposes of God, to what he wants and intends to do in this world. We are important to God. Maybe even essential. Second, God cares so deeply for hurting people that when we help and serve them it is a service so intimately needed and desired by God that it is as though we were rendering that service directly to Him. The quality and definition of our service to God is anchored in our love for God, our love for others, our compassion, and our empathetic care for people. And the value of our service is equal to the value that we might show in direct service to our Saviour! I was thinking about this the other day as I contemplated the parable of the Seed, the Sower, and the Soil. I was remembering that the Seed is the Word of God. I thought, “That’s us. We’re “scattering” the Word of God all over the world!” Paul describes this “scattering”, this service to Jesus, in more detail. He says our service is ambassadorial in nature. (2 Cor 5:20) We re-present Jesus through proclamation, preaching, and teaching. Like the Sower, we are sowing the Word all over the world. And the value of our sowing is as if we are giving direct service to the Lord of Lords. We can’t control the impact or the outcome. The seed will land in different soils with different outcomes. But we can control the quality of our service and our motive for sowing: empathetic, compassionate, loving service as though rendered directly to the Lord Himself in order that all might come to know Him. Might Jesus have said, “I was Bible-less, and you gave me the Word.” We might answer, “But, when did we see you Bible-less, Lord?” And maybe He would answer, “In as much as you provided the Word to those still without it, you provided it for me.”

Working Symposium on Quality in Translation - Phil King How do modern or post-modern frameworks and assumptions impact perspectives on quality in translation? What is the place of aesthetics in determining quality, and does it make a difference whether the goal is written, signed or oral translation? How might theological and ideological commitments be affecting quality assessments, including our perception of what the source text is, as the 'word of God'? Does the study of linguistics on the part of a mother-tongue speaker improve the quality of the BIble text? How can AI work alongside translators and consultants to contribute to translation quality, and does the implementation of technology in place of people pose risks to the body of Christ? These are just some of the questions that were raised during the Pike Center’s Working Symposium on Quality in Translation (Dallas, 5-9 July 2023). It was a week of fascinating conversations as authors presented thirteen different papers exploring various aspects of quality, and then discussed each others’ work. If these topics interest you, make sure to sign up for the Bible Translation Conference where all the papers will be presented publicly, and/or look out for the forthcoming (free) ebook, ‘Quality in Translation: A Multi-threaded Fabric’ in which you’ll be able to read them at your leisure.

Translation Training and Development Updates

• Phil King - ITS Training and Development BTTD COP: On 31st August we will once again be holding a Bible Translation Training and Development Community of Practice, discussing the ‘hidden curriculum’ in the training programs we participate in. Eshinee Veith will be sharing with us, and writes: ‘Much of our attention as trainers is devoted to identifying what attitudes, skills or information translation personnel need to learn and how we are going to develop those attitudes, skills or information in them. We may rely on the training systems, methods, and institutions that we are familiar with, which we perceive as tried and true. Yet if these methods are truly as effective as we hope, why do some of the personnel whom we train end up doing things that seem contrary to the attitudes, skills and information that we tried to develop? Is there something about the way we are training that is somehow overriding the impact of our training content? In this session, we will examine our training approaches for hidden lessons that we may be teaching. Then, we will explore ways that we might better integrate our hidden and overt curricula.’ The sessions will be run in two different time zones on EMDC.online. To sign up, use the class list or communities section of EMDC, or these direct links: 0630 UTC (BTTD CoP East) / 1530 UTC (BTTD CoP West). CBC and Competency Manager: for those who are using the Competency-Based Certification system, you may notice there have been recent updates to Competency Manager with a number of fixes. For example, it is now much easier to add a new activity in the same competency area as a previous one, without having to navigate around the screen all over again. That one makes a huge difference to the ease of use - thank you to the CBC team! Also, remember to make the most of the personal profile (accessed by clicking on a person’s name, anywhere it appears). This is the best place for keeping track of personal experience and qualifications. I’ve written a document here. with some tips for how to do this, and how to use CBC to record experience more generally. Don’t forget to look at the Bible Translation Competencies website for resources to help you develop consultant competencies, and use the contact form there to let me know any resources you’d recommend that aren’t there already. Finally, do please email me if you have any issues with the current translation activities in CBC, or suggestions for other default activities that should be added.

New Consultants Ryan Davis & Stefán Féliz-Kent Ryan Davis - GCP Congratulations to Ryan Davis, working with the Global Consultant Pool (GCP) on completing all requirements for certification as a Translation Consultant, under the guidance of his supervising mentor Bill Bivin. Ryan joined Wycliffe USA in 2015 and worked in Mexico and with the Global Sign Language team before joining GCP. He has an M.A. in Biblical Languages from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (2015) and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from Dallas International University (2019). He is fluent in English and Spanish.

Ryan completed the Asia TCDW in 2021 and also participated in the CiT Cohort research project (online and in Nigeria). He completed the NT2OT Hebrew course - (1) ten months online immersive Hebrew learning, (2) a one-month intensive Hebrew course in Israel at JCBT, and (3) a follow-up year of online training in Hebrew translation issues. His CiT training consisted of mentored checking sessions with various translation teams around the world, under the supervision of consultants from the Seed Company (SC) and the GCP.

Stefán Féliz-Kent - GCP Congratulations to Stefán Féliz-Kent, working with the Global Consultant Pool (GCP) on completing all requirements for certification as a Translation Consultant, under the guidance of his supervising mentor Bill Bivin. Stefán is Dominican-American, born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Kansas, USA. He's been married for sixteen years to Alejandra, who hails from Costa Rica, and they've recently relocated to Kansas. Stefán served eleven years as a missionary in Costa Rica with other organizations, where he took on roles as a church planter, pastor, theological instructor, and exegetical advisor (2005-2016). It was during this time in Costa Rica that he began to explore translation work, after receiving training in theology and biblical languages. He assisted with the Cabecar translation project, addressing exegetical issues (2010).

Soon after, he was invited to assume the role of exegetical advisor for the book of Joshua (2011-12). And with his passion for teaching, Stefán was delighted to also provide biblicaltheological training for the translation team (2014-15). In 2020, Stefán joined Wycliffe USA and started in the Convergence CiT program (Cohort 2), led by Bryan Harmelink and Ken Schmitt. There he was mentored by Teryl Gonzalez and Olivia Razafinjatoniary. This CiT training program engaged him in many enriching experiences, including classroom instruction by Bryan, courses taught by the Nida Institute, observing a consultant check of Philippians in South Africa that simultaneously addressed three languages of Madagascar, and actively participating in a consultant check of Genesis and translator training for the Alis-i-Ron project in Nigeria. Stefán then completed further mentoring under Bill Bivin, conducting checking sessions with the Wounaan Meu and Border Kuna translation projects in Panama.

News and Updates New Translation Publication - Ågot Bergli Congratulations to Ågot Bergli on her recent publication in the SIL e-Books series. Ågot received the Dr. art. (Ph.D.) in linguistics in 2002 from Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway. She has worked with SIL since 1979, primarily as an editor of works on Quechua and discourse studies. 2023. Text Analysis With an Eye to Artistic Patterning. SIL eBooks 83. vii, 78 pages. Steve Nicolle (Senior Linguistics Consultant, Discourse instructor at CanIL) says: This book is very well written and I have enjoyed reading it. With the emphasis on oral art or poetic narrative, I can imagine this manual being especially helpful to people who are producing oral Scriptures, such as chronological Bible stories or oral translation.

In a written translation, subject to the constraints that go along with that medium, I think it would be incredibly difficult to produce a written translation that retains traditional poetic forms whilst at the same time accurately conveys the meaning of the source text to the degree that is expected of published works that are called "translations". In languages where a written style has also started to be developed, this may not even be viewed as acceptable. However, for an oral approach, it would be very beneficial for the people creating the stories to be able to make use of traditional poetic forms (parallelisms of different kinds) to make the stories easier to remember and more appealing to listen to. Abstract - The present manual is primarily a basic teaching or self-instructive tool for narrative text analysis with various perspectives in mind. I’m specifically interested in the aspect of artistic or formulaic patterns in orally delivered texts, and how these patterns function in relation to the eventline and other rhetorical structures.

The Digital Bible Library (DBL) News - Lois Gourley The Digital Bible Library (DBL) News has a monthly newsletter for SIL and Wycliffe Organization Paratext users whose projects are shared with publishing partners through the DBL. Each edition will have one tip (Byte) on how to work together to improve the digital experience for language communities throughout the world. This DBL News comes from Steve Impey (Director of Global Publishing Services) and Lois Gourley (DBL Content Manager). Click here to see their latest news. When can a text be shared through the DBL? As soon as at least one book has been consultant approved for publishing! The beauty of digital printing is that you can publish early and publish often. No need to wait until the print copy is available unless you need to wait for a Dedication. Does your project need to be updated in the DBL? You do not need to complete the Submission Form again if your project is already in the DBL, just make sure SIL DBL Admin is a Consultant on the project, do a Send/Receive, and notify DBL Content Manager!

Was Paul a 'Missionary'? - Phil King Congratulations to Phil King on the recent publication of his article in the Evangelical Missions Quarterly (EMQ) - Was Paul a ‘Missionary’? EMQ. July–September 2023. Volume 59 Issue 3 Summary: Michael Stroope’s book, Transcending Mission, offers a semantic challenge on the use of the words mission, missionary and missional. He believes we distort history when we use these words to describe biblical people and activities. Using a cognitive linguistic lens, we can evaluate his claims against the way people develop complex schematic networks which help them assign meaning to words. This may lead us to consider that these words may have broader meanings when understood within their appropriately described context.

Coming Events 2023 - 03-05 October. Africa Oral Bible Translation Online Consultation (UTC 1215:00). Registration link: Use this link to register for AfOBT2023. Conference themes: Emerging Models of Bible Translation (Bryan Harmelink), Oral Exegetical Tools (Stephen and Tricia Stringer and Nathan Payne and team), Oral Translation of the Psalms (Sebastian Floor, Elizabeth Robar and team), Quality Assurance and OBT (Brian Kelly and Randall Lemley), Transitioning MAST projects in Africa (Johnstone Ndunde and Mbuthia Wairison) 2023 - 13-17 October. Bible Translation Conference, Dallas, Texas. Register now. 2023 - 18 October. Macro Analysis of Hebrew Poetic & Prophetic Discourse Event, DIU, Dallas, TX (with virtual option) Click here to register. 2024 - 27-30 May. EMDC. Chiangmai, Thailand 2024 - 10 June - 19 July. TCDW (Translation Consultant Development Workshop). Hybrid. Application deadline is 31 December 2023. Space is limited. Preference will be given to the best qualified applicants who apply before the deadline. To request an application or more information, please email Angeline Foo.

Useful Links Bible Translation Consultant Competencies Competency Manager (CBC) and Consultant Competencies Resources Site Bible Translation 2023 Conference - 13-17 October 2023 Journal of Translation SIL Senior Translation Consultants Email the SIL International Translation Office International Translation Services ILS Google page Join/visit the SIL Translation Resources Google Group Visit the public SIL.org/Translation site Find Translation Resources (both free download and for purchase) SIL.org/Resources/Publications Bamboo Project website Mentoring Matters website - Mentor Training Courses Consultant Development and Management Team Progress.Bible Information Memoriam website

SIL Translation Services International Leadership Team Greg Dekker - ITS Director Dick Kroneman - International Coordinator for Translation Research and Practice Paul O'Rear - International Coordinator for Translation Resources Phil King - International Coordinator for Translation Training and Development Nathan Payne - International Coordinator for Oral Translation Services Viji Mathew - Director, Global Consultant Pool Brian Migliazza - ITS Operations and Project Management

Area Translation Coordinators Angie Foo - Asia Greg Carlson - Pacific Drew Maust - Francophone Africa Jonathan van den Broek - AngloLusophone Africa Thomas Hemphill & Katja Mueller - Eurasia Rick Floyd & Dwight Shaver - Americas Yuki Yamada - Global Sign Languages Team (GSLT)

Copyright © 2023 SIL International Translation Services. All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because of your interest in translation updates. This newsletter is produced by SIL International Translation Services. Editors are Tuula O'Rear and B Migliazza. It contains items of interest for translation personnel within SIL and related organizations. It includes notices of upcoming conferences and workshops, announcements of recent dissertations and journal articles, and pointers to useful information related to translation.

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