Ministry / Translation technology: a barrier breaker?

Is a solution on the horizon?

Language challenges

One of the challenges to conducting a cross-cultural ministry is the language barrier.

A small percentage of 316NOW’s students are fluent in English. A small percentage of our faculty members are fluent in Chinese.

That makes interpreters essential for almost every one of our courses.

But it takes a special language gift to translate on the fly what is said in one language into a different language. That gift becomes more rare when the translation includes theological terms.

The Holy Spirit has been supplying 316NOW with interpreters but finding them has presented challenges.

Translation technology

Perhaps technology will change that. With the progress artificial intelligence (AI) has made over the last few years, computer-assisted translations have improved. The online teaching platform we use for our classrooms has the ability to provide closed captioning of everything that is said during a class, including translating it into another language.

Our Education Division is investigating how well that will work for our purposes. And, since it is an add-on feature, how we will cover its cost.

Here is another example of how technology can be used to build Christ’s kingdom. God willing, 316NOW can begin making use of it soon.

That’s our prayer. Would you make it your prayer, too?