One of our challenges in Sacrament Meeting is getting languages translated. We have members who can only speak Russian or Spanish or Portuguese or English or Polish or Ukrainian (with a mixture of Russian). How to cover all these languages?
We also have two members and one friend who are polyglots, speaking Polish, Russian and English. Of the missionaries, Elder Pawlik, is a native Polish speaker who also understands some Ukrainian and Russian. Elder Wicker speaks Ukrainian and Polish and understands Russian. Sister Dil speaks Polish and English. Sister Sands just arrived and is learning Polish. I speak Spanish.
Gdańsk is a Polish branch of the church and as such we like to have Polish spoken from the pulpit. We then translate to English because it is the next most spoken language in our branch. Visitors usually speak English as well.
How is translation done? Usually the translator stands next to the speaker at the pulpit. The speaker would say a paragraph in Polish then pause as the translator would say the paragraph in English. With the pauses, a speaker struggles to keep the flow of ideas intact.
Today we began a new way of translating from Polish to English. We gave headsets to our English speakers (like me) in the congregation and had Elder Pawlik sit in the back of the chapel and translate live. Live translation means the Polish speaker does not have to pause for translation. The translation is done as the talk is given. Seems simple enough, doesn’t it?
Ahh but what about the speaker who gives his talk in Russian or in Ukrainian? We have two translators at the pulpit. One translates to English then the other translates to Polish with the inherent pauses for each translation.
English talks are translated at the pulpit also with pauses for translation.
Before Poland I didn’t think of translation. Now it is an ever present challenge.
