Native Speakers
Wycliffe Associates argues that their use of the ‘local church’ and ‘native speakers’ means they can speed translation up. Certainly, using a highly trained native speaker would speed things up because they can skip the language learning phase but that doesn’t cut out ALL the other steps that take time. A translator friend says, “ Many people do not understand what good translation actually entails, and many believe it to be a relatively simple process of finding a word in the receptor language to replace a word in the source language. And we never get a 100% accurate message translated - but we do go through a lot of exegesis and checks and revisions to get as high a percentage as we can.” Benefits of using a native speaker: No need to travel to another country No need for furloughs No need for language learning No struggle with visas Native speakers are still people they: Still need vacations. Still get sick. Still have family. Still need an income. Still feel persec