Did He Really Say What I Said? The Challenge of Preaching Through an Interpreter
Lynn Fowler heads Glory to the King Ministries International, and is "Mum Lynn" to a network of ministers in 20 nations. She resides in Churchill, Victoria in Australia.
Worse, if your interpreter figures out what you are doing and tries to alliterate them in his own language, you could end up with something that is not quite what you are actually trying to say. Far better simply to make clear, concise points and trust the memory capacity of your audience.
Likewise, avoid slang. At best, it will not be understood. At worst, it will be understood as meaning something vastly different from what you had intended. In fact, that can happen even without going to another culture.
One of my most embarrassing ministry moments came, not on the mission field, but on the other side of Australia. In the course of a sermon I used a slang term I understood to mean something totally innocent. Afterwards the pastor drew me aside and asked what I meant by it. I told him, and he told me what it meant over there – I had unwittingly used an expression that was offensive in the extreme. Ever wished the ground could open up and swallow you whole?
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Forget jokes. Humor generally does not translate cross-culturally. There is a story, allegedly true, of an American evangelist who was conducting a series of crusades through Asia. His policy at home was always to open his message with a joke, and he did the same when he was in Asia. He was delighted that every time he did so the congregation roared with laughter, and returned home to tell his family and friends how much the Asians had appreciated his jokes. It was only some years later that he learned that, in every instance, the interpretation went something like this: “Our brother is about to tell a joke. You will not understand it. Please honor him and laugh when I tell you.”
TimingRelated to the whole issue of style, is that of timing. For a start you need to realize that translation will at least double the time it takes to present your message. Often this is not such a great problem. Where congregations in the west are mostly happy with a 30 to 45 minute sermon, those in the third world are usually hungry. They generally want an hour at least, and two hours is often better.
However, as in the west, it is polite to check first how much time you will have, and factor in the time for interpretation. If people have to be out of a building by a certain time, your message is not going to be well received if it goes beyond that time.
One small thing you can do to help keep time down is to leave large slabs of Scripture reading to your interpreter. The people really don’t need to hear you read it in English; they just need to hear it in their own language.
The second issue with timing is phrasing. If you talk for too long before giving your interpreter a chance, there is a possibility he will lose track or what you are saying, and will only present a much abbreviated version. On the other hand, if you say too little you will probably find him looking at you strangely and urging you to go on, so he can get a better grasp of what you are saying. Remember, in some languages the sentence structure is different from ours, and he may need to hear the end of the sentence before he can translate the beginning.