SparkLit Awards night (2)

Recently I had the privilege of representing TREE at the SparkLit awards night in Melbourne, Australia.

On the night, I was interviewed by Michael, the director of SparkLit, to share a little bit about TREE. I will share an expanded edition of what I shared on the night. You can read part 1 here.

What challenges do you face?

The most basic challenge we face is for people to see the need for books to be translated into Japanese in the first place. The Japanese are very well educated, cultured and literate. So why translate anything – why not just write it in Japanese in the first place?

This is a legitimate question, and encouraging such original writing in Japanese is one of our ultimate goals. We want to grow a recursive process - good theology brought into Japan, critically and constructively reflected upon, integrated into Christianity in Japan, and then, those particular theological insights of Japanese Christians shared to the world again for the mutual edification of Christians world-wide and the building up of the Church.

In the meantime, however.

The Japanese people themselves do not know what they don’t know – it is only when they have to preach at church, teach a class, study at theological college, or venture overseas that they realize that there is a vast inheritance of theological thought presently only accessible in English. And even then, without being proficient in English, these theological resources remain inaccessible to most Japanese people.

The same can be said for native English speakers as well. We don't know what we don't know unless someone or something makes us aware that we didn't know. It is not always apparent that many Japanese pastors are simply not able to access various theological books on a variety of topics like we can. We can simply buy them from a bookstore, but those titles may not be available in Japanese.

So, there is an awareness issue on both sides of the language divide.

Secondly, there is the difficulty of actually getting a title translated, edited, published and distributed. You need people on the same page as you and access to decision makers in the industry.

As a translator, I have a backlog of titles that I would love to introduce to a Japanese audience, but I am yet to be able to convince various parties that each of these titles is a book that is needed, a book that will sell, a book that will be read, a book that will benefit Japanese Christians, and most importantly, a book that offers insight and knowledge not currently available in Japanese -

especially since Reformed Evangelicals are a small fragment of the Christian population in Japan!

Lastly there are two distinct financial challenges.

The first is the cost of publishing a book itself. The editor needs to be paid, the designer needs to be paid, the printer needs to be paid, the person who converts the manuscript into ebook formats need to be paid, the original rights holder needs to be paid, the publisher needs to be paid...there are many hidden costs that go into publishing a book that I was not aware of until I started getting involved!!

The second is earning a living wage as a translator. While I cannot speak for all translators, it is usually very difficult financially to live off of a translator’s wage and pay schedule - often it becomes a side project, which can undermine the quality of the final product. As with many other creatives, Translators' efforts and skills are not always obvious. Translators are usually paid at cents per word, and so if the offered rate is low the translator has to work double time. Translators are not usually paid in advance so are frequently initially out of pocket. Perhaps working as a Translator but being paid a stipend like a minister/missionary could be a way forward - it would take a mind-shift in what we consider as 'missionary work' - it really is a ministry rather than a job.

Continue on to Part 3 here.