Computer Training for our National Co-Workers

When Kathy and I first came to Papua New Guinea in 1985, we were the proud owners of our first computer.   It had a 2 inch by 6 inch LCD screen and 35 kilobytes of RAM.  What, we wondered, would we do with all that memory.   We had purchased a small printer to go with it and a cassette recorder on which we were able to back up our work.  The computer age had truely come to Bible Translation.

Over the past twenty-five years, things have changed a bit in the computer world.   With the current software we can search a vast array of commetaries, study the original Greek and Hebrew, check and recheck our translations and prepare the finished translation for publication; all on a computer not much larger than our old 1985 model. 

Besides the computers, other things have changed as well.  When we first started working here the people among whom we ministered were largely illiterate.  So we were somewhat limited in terms of the level of training that we could do.  But now as the education level in PNG has risen, so have the opportunities for training.

Just this week Mike Herchenroeder started training a group of seven Papua New Guineans from five different language groups to use a high-powered piece of translation software called Paratext.  This software, produced by the United Bible Society, is a powerful tool for translation checking and editing.   For several years our branch has wanted to train more Papua New Guineans to use the translation software so that they could take more of a lead role in working on their own translations.   Finally things came together this year for us to start that training.   When a donor gave enough funds to purchase six new Toshiba laptops earlier this year, we were ready to go.

Mike instructs several national translators to use Paratext

The men who are participating in the course are from the Ap Ma, Aruamu, Akukuem, Mbore, and L’ao langauge groups.  They represent a wide range of experience, from Maso, the Ap Ma translator who could honestly teach the course himself, to Francis, one of the Aruamu translators who does not appear to have ever sat in front of a computer before.   The the more experienced men are good about helping their less experienced co-workers.  And I am coming in the afternoons to help with the more hands-on part of the lessons.

By the end of the two-week course, the participants should be able to move around in the program and will have a basic understanding of how to check spelling, make edits, check for consistency, run word lists, etc.  Basically they will be able to do a lot of the editing and correction of their translations themselves rather than waiting for one of us to assist them. 

We know that one two-week course is just a start.  Each time these men come to town for the next several months they will need a refresher.  But we hope that by the end of this year, any of these men will be able to come to Madang, check out a computer, and work independantly on their translations.  This is all a part of our on-going efforts to train the Papua New Guineans to become co-workers and not just assistants in the process of Bible translation and literacy.