Seminar "Translation of the Holy Scripture in Caucasian Languages: Scripture Engagement Stage"
June 8, 2018

In June 4-8, 2018, in the city of Nalchik, the Institute for Bible Translation held a seminar on "Translation of the Holy Scripture in Caucasian Languages: Scripture Engagement Stage". The seminar was attended by 30 participants from 9 IBT translation projects, namely Adyghe, Balkar, Dargi, Kabardian, Karachai, Ingush, Lak, Lezgi and Tabasaran.

Professionals from both the Institute for Bible Translation and its partner organization Summer Institute of Linguistics first presented the theoretical topics and then led practical application workshops. As part of the theoretical discussion, the following issues were addressed: contextualization of the Bible, adjusting the translation according to the local situation, bilingualism among the translation readers, various types of traditional art and digital technologies as the tools that can help popularize the Bible. The workshops included a course on creating smart phone applications for reading biblical books and also a course on creating short videos on biblical topics.

In the end of the seminar the participants had a chance to present their developed projects, apps and short videos. The seminar generated a lot of enthusiasm among its participants, many of whom indicated the usefulness of the seminar and expressed their readiness to further apply the knowledge they received.