How did you get interested in Bible translation? I got interested in Bible translation at age 14, when I watched a TV program about missionary kids in PNG. Their parents were Dutch SIL translators, and they told some stories about the work they were doing. I was fascinated and felt God call me to become a Bible translator. I decided to study linguistics as my major in university and ended up going to PNG for four months myself to do research for my MA thesis. This same family became a family away from home while I was there. At the time I was not thinking of sign languages at all, my MA thesis was on tone and pitch-accent.  

The shift to sign language work came later, when I was invited to write a grammar book on a sign language in the Middle East.

As you are a dual translation and linguistics consultant, how has being a consultant in two areas shaped your work? As both a linguistics and translation consultant I feel it is important to look at naturalness as well as accuracy. In many parts of the world, Deaf people have never learned to read for meaning. If teachers sign at all, they sign word for word from the spoken language, especially when teaching grammar, and so many Deaf translators have only learned to translate words, not meaning, which means drafts often contain unnatural elements that makes the translation unclear. These kinds of unclear, unnatural translations are by definition not accurate, since they are not understood well.

What gets you excited when you work with others in Bible translation? I think that like most other consultants, I get most excited when I see the penny drop, when translators or a UNS suddenly understand what a verse or passage means. Last month I was on a consulting trip visiting a sign language project and I did a UNS check of John 18-21 with someone. It was his first time checking the translation. He told me he had never understood these chapters before when he tried to read them or even watch a movie with subtitles, but after going through them in sign language he had gone home and had read them in the national language and understood much more. Those are precious moments.

What is your consulting philosophy? I am not sure I have a very clear consulting philosophy. I think it is important to build relationships with the team, and take time to talk about personal things as well as work. This builds trust, and I think a relationship of trust between a consultant and a team is very important. I also think it is very important to look at the translation itself as much as possible, rather than just look at a back-translation. It helps that sign languages have a lot of similarities on the grammatical level. If I don’t know a sign language, just having glosses of individual signs can give me a good impression of the translation.

What translation resources do you really value? The translation resources I use most are Translators' Notes and the Exegetical Summaries. But there is a real need for exegetical resources in sign language, or geared towards sign language. Because sign languages are visual, translators sometimes struggle with questions that are not dealt with in commentaries. For example, what was the size of the stones that were used to stone Stephen in Acts 7? We are hoping that exegetical resources for sign languages will be developed that can answer these kinds of visual questions.

How do you continue to grow as a consultant? I think what helps me grow as a consultant most is the interaction with different teams. It is also helpful to see comments made by other consultants or CiTs.

How do you share your translation discoveries with others? Within GSLT we have a consultant app group in which we can share questions and answers. Sometimes a consultant has a question about a specific passage or verse, and other consultants give their input. Sometimes people ask me directly how we translated a certain concept or verse in a language I work with. Last October at the BT conference I presented a paper on the ethics of hearing people working with sign languages, and I submitted a paper for the Bible Translator on challenges in sign language Bible Translation.

Can you share about a time when you realized you were wrong and what you learned from it? There is not one particular time that stands out, although I have definitely made mistakes. Having a good relationship with a team is helpful when you admit you have made a mistake.

What are your top tips for someone starting on a career path in Bible translation? If I can change this more specifically to starting a career path in sign language Bible translation I would say: start learning a sign language and start spending time with Deaf people socially. Knowing one sign language well will help tremendously when learning another sign language, and spending time with Deaf people will teach you a lot about Deaf culture, the issues Deaf people deal with, and it teaches you humility as a hearing person.

Share something that you learned from a mentor or from a mentee? I have mentored a few Deaf CiTs that are now consultants and I have seen how they function so much better internationally than hearing consultants working with sign languages. They are role models in a way hearing consultants cannot be. They can say things to Deaf people that would be unacceptable if a hearing person said it.

What do you see as the place of the church in Bible translation? This is always a tricky issue when it comes to sign languages, because it depends on the situation per country. How do we define what the church is when it comes to Deaf people? Are there Deaf churches with Deaf leadership, or at least leadership with good signing skills and a good understanding of Deaf culture? Or do Deaf people go to churches with a majority of hearing people and arrange for interpretation (if available). If pastors and church hierarchy know nothing of sign language, think of Deaf people just as disabled and in need of charity, and do not believe they can run a translation project, then what place can the church have in a project?

What would you say to young/aspiring translators? To Deaf translators I would say: translating the Bible into sign language is not an easy or fast job, but it is worthwhile. It will help you and other Deaf people grow in faith. Do not believe people that say it can be done in a few years with minimal training. Make sure you get proper training and guidance by experts along the way. It is important to learn more about how your own language works as well as exegesis and all the other skills focusing on accuracy.