Multilingual Resources

Creating Multilingual Verse Handouts

Watch the video at left to learn how to create these handouts, then download the sample, editable handouts here and here. These are based on the devotional PDF available for free download here ("Scripture Devotions for Beginning English Language Learners").

  • USA Hello - a wealth of resources in different languages on American life, settlement, and government agencies

  • Settle In mobile app for refugees - available in English, Dari, Burmese, Arabic, Kinyarwanda, Swahili, and Russian

  • Oxford Picture Dictionary - fully integrated vocabulary development program, progressing from essential words to the more complex, delivered in short thematic units; contains realistic scenarios, modern artwork, story pages, and practice exercises that promote language skills. Monolingual (English only) or bilingual (Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Farsi, French, Haitian Creole, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Urdu, Vietnamese) editions available, as well as leveled workbooks (low beginning, high beginning, low intermediate) and other teacher resources.

  • The Immigrant Guide - a digest of the most common laws, systems and cultural norms for living and succeeding in the U.S. Available in 8 languages: English and Spanish (full color); and Arabic, Burmese, French, Karen, Nepali, and Somali (text only). Conversation supplement and workshop planner also available.

  • Afghan multilingual picture dictionaries in English, Pashto, and Dari. Teacher's guide also included.

Translation Tools (with more depth than Google Translate!)

  • Reverso - free online translator for Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.

  • DeepL - free online translator for Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, and Swedish.

  • Tarjimly - free app connecting volunteer translators and interpreters with those who need help communicating with refugees and immigrants.

Bibles & Christian Materials

  • Multilanguage Media - buy Christian materials in a variety of languages

  • Scripture Earth - scripture resources in thousands of languages

  • Find.Bible - a directory with links to thousands of Bible versions and resources from different organizations

  • Wycliffe- find Bibles and other print, audio, and video resources in numerous languages

  • Digital Bible Society - Digital Bible Society’s Bible resources in numerous languages

  • Wordproject - find the Bible translated in many languages

  • iTunes Radio has many audio Bibles available for free listening.

  • The Bible Project is continually adding to their list of translated videos.

  • WordProject Parallel Bibles - English and other languages side-by-side

  • Faith Comes by Hearing (bible.is) - has written and audio Bibles in hundreds of languages.

  • YouVersion - searchable Bible in over a thousand languages.

Tip: If you're searching for a passage in a language you cannot read, go to YouVersion, find the passage in English, and then switch languages. Occasionally, the other translation will change the book of the Bible (for example, if that translation only has part of the Bible), so it's a good idea to copy and paste into Google Translate and/or keep an eye on the abbreviations in the URL bar to make sure you are still getting the same chapter and verse. You can also use WordProject's parallel Bibles with English and the other language side-by-side.

Also, be mindful of the fact that some languages are read from right-to-left (e.g., Farsi, Arabic, Hebrew), so if you try to copy and paste that text, it will likely be pasted backwards. Take a screenshot or use a tool like Microsoft Snip to get an exact image of the text.

Bibles in Specific Languages

Arabic: https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/parallel/arabic/index.htm

Dari: https://afghanbibles.org/eng/dari-bible

Farsi: https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/parallel/g/farsi.htm

Fon: https://www.bible.com/bible/813/GEN.1.FONDC

Haitian Creole: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+john+1%3A5&version=HCV,ESV

Kirundi: https://live.bible.is/bible/RUNBSB/MAT/1

Lingala: https://www.bible.com/bible/1964/1JN.1.MNB

Mandarin Chinese: https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/parallel/chinese/index.htm