As Steve Stanley is so near to the end of his language study time, he was told by the CLA consultants that he could have a go at translating some literacy books to start to familiarise himself with the translation process. Steve is waiting on a speaking test which is scheduled for 27th August.
Until Steve demonstrates in the coming test that he has moved up one speaking level he is still officially in full-time language study. Translating literacy books is a great new challenge in the Kovol language though. He is getting extra language practice in, while getting a taste of the translation workflow.
Soon the team will be working on the Kovol literacy programme where they design booklets to take completely “blind”, meaning illiterate (musom tuhum in Kovol) people to become literate in the Kovol language. Reading requires a lot of practice, so they will also be working on a library of post-literacy books. These are short books that people can read after graduation to improve their reading speed and accuracy. If you think about it the Bible isn’t an easy read. People will need dozens and dozens of less difficult books under their belts before they can confidently read from the Kovol Bible translation.
It is these post-literacy books that Steve is having a go at translating. He started with a 2,000-word book called “Peter gets Malaria” set in PNG. The first one he finished though, was a 250-word story about a group of men hunting birds and accidentally shooting their friend in the hand with a blow dart.
There is a well-defined process for Bible translation. These post-literacy books don’t require as thorough a process, but they use parts of the same process.
The translation process is quite a challenge. The blow dart story had a sentence saying, “We waited until night and away we went.”. The Kovol version changed to “In the evening the birds slept on their perches, slept and we got the blow gun and went.” Steve had used the verb “to wait” in his draft, but that was removed and extra information about the birds sleeping on their perches along with a repetition of getting the blow gun. The tough question then is: is it a good translation?
Steve is glad to be able to have a go with a 250-word story to get a feel for what the challenge is like. He feels better informed to ask questions of the consultants now. He has a ton of questions! He says, “You would think that after nearly three years of full-time language study I could translate a simple 250-word story pretty well. Turns out I have way, way more to learn!”
Please continue to pray for the missionary team in Kovol, and for prepared hearts for the Kovol people.