I hope you are doing well! Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I missed sending the translation newsletter last week, so this week’s will be a long one to share my personal journey in becoming a translator. As you know, I do religious translation, but I think my story will inspire you even if you translate other types of materials.
In 2007, I made my way among the tables of books at the annual General Conference of our church denomination. I was on a special quest, because we were moving to Quebec as Metro Missionaries. Finally, I saw the French display. What? Only three books and a handful of tracts? We needed Sunday School and training materials for church workers, just to get started.
I was disappointed and concerned, but also determined to do something about it. French people need materials in their own language! Even though I was in my forties, I enrolled in a BA Translation program. But my efforts were barely making a dent in what was needed.
Some people would say, “Liane, just use Google Translate — it’s so much faster.” Here’s the problem: machines can’t fully understand context or emotions, and definitely not spiritual matters. The truth is that you need humans to create accurate translations that do not come across in a mechanical way. It’s so much more impacting when the translation creates the same spiritual connection in the other language as it did in the original. Translation is truly a ministry with tangible results.
Hiring professional translators would have cost a fortune… about $10,000 for an average-sized book. I remember thinking: What if we could use volunteers? Then, one of my translation professors showed us a picture of Bible translators kneeling at the feet of King James to present their translation as a gift. In that moment, God gave me the name “The King’s Translators” and a vision of asking people to lay their language gifts at the feet of the King of kings
I launched The King’s Translators a few weeks later, with twelve volunteers joining the first weekend. However, we realized right away that using translators who had no training and experience presented some challenges.
What were we going to do? We couldn’t afford professional translators, so we needed a way to ensure quality when using volunteers. I determined to find a solution, continuing my university journey with masters and then doctoral research to discover how an organization could obtain quality translations on a tight budget. We developed an editing system and started translator training workshops, which later became online courses. We also helped form the French Literature Cooperative, a group of entities dedicated to publishing apostolic French resources. We believe non-English speakers deserve resources in their own language!
In 2017, we took books and USB keys loaded with translated resources to four countries in Africa. In 2019, we returned to Togo for the UPCI Global French Summit. Thanks to generous donations, we were able to take over 200 printed books, as well as 100 tablets preloaded with French translations of Bible studies, books, tracts, prayer bulletins, and other resources. We also did translation training while we were there.
So many happy faces… delegates from 39 of the 41 French-speaking nations in the world received books and tablets. One missionary thanked us with tears in his eyes, saying, “My pastors have never had any book in their language except the Bible; this will be such a blessing to them as they develop their ministry.” Another delegate said he could not take any books home because he was in an access-challenged nation, but he was hoping to get the tablet across the border.
The King’s Translators team still includes many volunteers, but we have raised funds for professional revision of our more academic books, including those required for all 3 levels of UPCI ministerial licensing. Our team has now translated over 5 million words, and just before our 10th anniversary in November 2021, we published our 100th book on Amazon (www.amazon.com/author/clf).
Now that we have streamlined our translation editing and training systems in French, we are ready to help start translation teams in other languages. Our team editing system ensures quality translations. And our unique training system teaches bilinguals to think like translators; it works in any language.
So that’s how I became a translator… and I hope my story will inspire you on your journey!
Have a great day!
Liane 🙂
www.LearnTranslation.com
www.NonprofitTranslation.org
