Just before we head out of Kovol for our annual conference we took the time to shoot a quick update video. If you’ve been reading the blog it’s nothing new, but it’s always nice to see our faces right? We also don’t assume and expect that everyone keeps up 🙂
As I step into translating into the Kovol language I certainly feel overwhelmed! Translation isn’t a task where there is a simple right answer and wrong answer, it’s a complex spectrum of choices. It’s possible to be too free and end up paraphrasing on the one hand and being too wooden on the other. It’s possible to have correct sentences that all work, but don’t fit together as a paragraph. There are choices to be made on how much “glue” to add to help the sentences hang together. There are choices to be made in how to translate new vocabulary and concepts. There’s the fact that one helper prefers to use this word and say it this way, and another prefers to say it that way. Are the different opinions simple stylistic variations? Does one flow better? Which term really fits the original meaning best?
After being on our own for 6 weeks or so it’s been a busy time of comings and goings. Two weeks ago we had language learning consultants visit us for 2 days and now this week we have a double whammy of visitors.
I started the week with a translation kick-off. I had a phone call with a translation consultant here in PNG who talked me through the procedure, the available tools and a suggested order to translate. With the kick-off done, I’m ready to start translation.
At some point, I’ll get to attend a team translation workshop where my teammates and I along with some Kovol helpers are led through the process and use the workshop to draft a chunk of scripture under supervision. One of these isn’t scheduled just yet, so after my kick-off, I’m ready to have a go.