More than four and a half million copies of the 2008 adult study course, Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith , rolled off the presses of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints last year. More than half were published in English and the remaining two million in 64 other languages.
Translation of that book along with the 25 additional manuals that constitute the annual lesson resources for Church members of all ages falls upon a staff of translators located both in Salt Lake City and in 31 area offices and 24 time zones throughout the world.
And translation of curriculum materials is only a part of the whole process, according to Marty Hill, manager of translation services for the Church. “We can have as many as 2,000 translation projects in process at any one time.”
Translators work on scriptures, magazines, administrative documents and handbooks, computer software, conferences and training meetings as well as Internet content posted by the Church.
“Translation is a spiritual yet time-consuming and tedious process,” Hill continues. “It takes us about a year to train an effective translator.”
On a 1994 assignment to locate a new translator in the recently established democracy of Albania, Paul Kern, who at the time was an area translation manager in Europe, traveled with a cargo of computers donated by a Dutch bank. Kern’s objective then, in the very infant stages of the Church in that country, was to find a member of the newly recognized faith, fluent in English, who would assist in translating Church materials into the Albanian language.
Kern discovered a new member of the Church, Ledia Kita, trained her in computer usage, and left her with the task of translation. Despite the severe limits to electrical power, Kita pursued the chore, primarily during the “early morning hours for about 30 minutes before the lights and the power left,” she said.
In the ensuing years, Kita translated and assisted with the translation of many Church documents into her language, including the first translation of the Book of Mormon into Albanian.
“Time is another issue in completing an assignment,” Hill adds. “Every single page of copy, or about 280 words, requires nearly two hours to translate to get to a publication grade of quality. Translation is much more than writing; it is not a science, it is a revelatory experience that is balanced with good language skills. Pages must be reviewed, reconciled, and differences resolved before they are transferred to the typesetters. That whole process takes a lot of time”
Translators get a jump-start with a 32-item keyword list, a list generated for every language in which materials are published. Such a list ensures consistency in basic terminology and saves time in the daily task of working on each document. In addition, scriptures, quotations and cultural terms, even jokes, are verified and explained before a translator receives the document.
Following completion of the translation, a document is often reviewed by three additional people for content, language and cultural fitness.
Beyond the printed word, translation or interpretation is required for about 120 events each year, events such as general conference, training meetings or youth-focused discussions broadcast over the Church satellite system.
Paul Kern cites an instance of this effort.
“A group of some 800 members in a remote area of Paraguay, for example,” Kern says, “speak only a rare Indian dialect, Nivaclé, and have challenges receiving information. When we have a broadcast, a returned missionary from their tribe, who learned Spanish during his missionary service, receives a Spanish-translated feed and then he interprets to the people in the meetinghouse in Paraguay — all with only a half-second delay.”
Implementing another method, translators residing in Albania do “real-time translation into the Albanian language and at the same time burn DVDs,” according to Paul Clayton, who serves as a volunteer mission president in that country. This satellite access only became available in 2007, providing additional communication access for members there. “The first time they saw a Church leader speaking live, the members started to cry and took pictures of the transmitted proceedings from the projector screen,” Clayton added.
With the growth of the Church in recent years, the number of languages used in such broadcasts has also increased.
"In 1995, we used 33 languages in the semiannual general conference broadcast,” Kern explained. “In April 2008, we translated into 92 different languages.”
“Such satellite broadcasts help create a sense of community,” says Val Dawson, event services manager for the Church’s satellite network that broadcasts such events. “Whether in Latin America, South Africa, Norway, Delaware or Alaska, the members feel like they are on equal footing when it comes to being able to hear messages on satellite broadcasts.”
The Shoshone Indian language was among those added for last October’s general conference meetings. Some 40 members of the Church, speaking only that Indian language, gathered to hear a general conference broadcast at a meetinghouse near their homes in Fort Hall, Idaho.
When asked about the economy of such an effort for only 40 people, Kern expressed the feelings of the local Church leader involved: “That’s 40 more than we have ever had before.”
Many Church members and leaders throughout the world express similar feelings of gratitude for being able to hear and read the messages of the Church in their own language.