Recently Stephen posted about Nthawi ya Baibulo, the Chichewa version of Bible Time. We were greatly encouraged to receive the first fully designed lessons! Though there remains a significant amount of work, we are excited about the potential of the curriculum.
Since translation and publishing work is a big part of what we do at SALT, I thought it might be helpful to give an idea of the steps that we have to take to get to the point of publishing translated material.
It starts with the translators. We are blessed to have a great team, one of whom was involved in the translation of a recent version of the Chichewa Bible. These guys do the bulk of the work, first translating and then proof-reading the material. I’ve come to appreciate the importance of having a believer who understands Scripture doing the translation, as we have grappled with the best way to communicate God’s truth to a young audience.
After they are satisfied with their translation, it’s time for revisions. Wati and I have been meeting with a believer in Lilongwe to complete this part of the task. After a bit of a slow start during our first session (only five lessons revised in three days), our translator gave us some tips on how the professionals do it. One person reads the Chichewa aloud while another simultaneously reads the English silently. Another person (the one who can’t simultaneously take in Chichewa and English – you can probably guess who that is) also reads the Chichewa silently. Our goal is to make sure the Chichewa flows well, makes sense, and is true to the English. We also try to catch any spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.
All our changes are made as suggestions or comments, so the translator can see what we’ve done. After he has gone through our revisions, we meet with him to discuss anything that wasn’t clear.
Once we are all happy with the revisions, it’s time to format the material for the designer. This involves making sure that all the original paragraphs are clearly demarcated in the translation, all the headings are properly formatted, and all the activities work in the target language. In doing so, we enable the designer to simply pop the different sections into the template.
That’s not to say his job is easy. He does a wonderful job turning a boring document into a colorful and engaging workbook. That’s what was posted a few weeks ago.
But that’s not the end! That document also needs to be carefully proofread in case there are any remaining errors. If we catch any, it goes back to the designer for correction.
Then it goes off for printing, right? Well – sort of. The plan, God willing, is to print a small batch and test them out on a group of children here in Malawi. This will give us a good idea of how successful we have been in making the material easy to read and understand. It will also help us to see how well the activities work in Chichewa.
At that point it will finally be ready for printing. I’m sure there will be much rejoicing and jubilation…and then we’ll jump right into the next year of the curriculum.
Please continue to remember this work in your prayers. God’s word is living and active, and He has promised to use it for His purposes wherever it is sent. We are eager to get this curriculum into the hands of the millions of children in this country, so He can do His mighty and heart-changing work in their lives.