Translating

Well, by week 3 I'd missed writing a weekly blog post. If I'm keeping my dates right I just finished my fifth week as an intern here in the DR. My time is flying by and I'm already dreading how fast August 3rd is approaching.  As you probably already know my primary goal over this summer and my time overseas is to focus on practicing my Spanish and to be able to serve as a translator.  So after 5 weeks it's about time I give you all an update on how that's going.

I arrived knowing a decent amount of Spanish and would frequently help translate small conversations. For example, when we take groups out to a village I'd translate one-on-one converrsations between a kid and a group member. Some groups have member who know a fair amount of Spanish while others don't.  One common request amoung the kids is "caballo", they're asking for a piggy-back ride. (That's actually the Spanish word for 'horse'. Makes a lot more sense to me. When have you seen someone rid a pig??) These small conversations/translations were fun and the longer I'm here the better I am at them. Still, the idea of tranlating to an entire group seemed  to far beyond me.

However, that began to change about 10 days ago; I translated from Spanish to English for the entire group. I'd been with the group for the past few days and as they prepared the leave the village for the last time everyone--Americans and Dominicans--gathered for prayer. The group had spent the week doing ministry with Omar, a Dominican who works with one of the SCORE missionaries, but he doesn't speak English. Somehow (God's creativity, I presume) our official translator wasn't present at the moment, so I ended up translating for Omar.  All in all, what I translated was rather short--"Thanks for coming. We're sad to see you leave. Have a safe flight."  But the fact that I did it for a group of about 20 people amazed me. It was such an encouragement to have that experience and realize I really can translate.

Then this past week I was really put to the test. Another group had come in; the ladies and I were at a morning devotional with a group of Dominican women. The Dominican lady giving the devotional asked if I was translating. "No way." I said. However, the missionary said that I'm able to translate and kindly forced me to do it. I sort of tag teamed with a Dominican women who knew some English. I would translate from Spanish to English and she would translate from English to Spanish. I have to admit I pretty much hated translating during the entire devotional, but at the same time knew it was the best possible way to practice so I was also super thankful for the opportunity. Translating requires a lot more than simply knowing two languages. It's a constant cycle of listening to the Spanish, mentally translating it to English, remembering it while hearing the second part of the sentence, translating the second part to Spanish, and then speaking the entire sentence in English. It was such a stressful process but I'm so glad I'm able to say I did it.  Obviously, as my Spanish get better the translating will get easier.

So far the best way to practice Spanish is with those who don't know English. Like Omar, who knows some English but not enough to make speaking English easier than Spanish. I'm also able to practice with the bus drivers. One of them, Nino, is especially helpful; he basically forces me to speak Spanish and when someone tries to translate for me he replies, "No, no, ella sabe. Ella sabe."  "She knows. She knows."  It's definately encouraging to have someone show so much confidence in me when I don't always feel that way.  Granted there's times we don't alway understand each other the first time something is said but we're usually able to figure it out.
Besides translating, I am beging to understand more and more spoken Spanish. This past Sunday at church the entire sermon was in Spanish but I was able to understand the sermon  nearly as well as one preached in English. I'm still learning everyday, and at times I get discouraged, but everytime I use my Spanish I'm encouraged that I can do this.

To end, here's a few Dominican Spanish words.  Many of them are different than what I learned in school or have a different meaning.  Do you know the meaning of any of these??

-Mame
-La guagua
-Guapo
-Mata
-Guineo
-Que lo que
-Un chin/ una bina