A "COMMUNITY CHECK."
What's in the world is that?
It is when the translation team shows a story to more people from the community in various settings ... reaching male, female, old, young, village, city, educated, not educated, etc. That's called "community check."
In DOOR's case, it is Deaf from the community watching the bible stories signed on a DVD. Some are non-believers who are unfamiliar with the Bible. Then the translation team, and sometimes the consultant, ask comprehension questions to see what the Deaf understand when they watch the story. If the Deaf in the community have misunderstood, it means that part of the translation may not be clear or natural, and might need to be changed.
Here are some examples (as told by a DOOR consultant-in-training working with the Filipino & Kenyan translation teams) of why "community check" is so important:
- In the story of creation, the Filipino
Translation Team chose a particular sign for "universe," which
they used when talking about God making everything. It's an
initialized sign, essentially using the sign for "world" with a
"U" handshape on both hands. That often means that it was
a sign created by hearing people, and may not be indigenous to the Deaf
community. During
comprehension testing, we asked the visiting Deaf what that sign meant.
One of them said, "Oh, sure, I know that one. You know when you go
to the movies? Before the movie starts, a big globe shows up with a word
or a banner around it. That's what this means." (Universal
Studios) Then
another Deaf man said, "No, no. I know what it means. It's
that competition where they wave like this ..." and he showed his best
beauty pageant wave. (Miss Universe)
- In the passage about God calling Abram, there was a verse about Sarai being barren, and then later, a verse where God promises Abram that he will be the father of many nations. In the signing, that promise is signed in such a way that it means something like, "Abram will have children, who will have children, who will have children, until there are many, many people, and they will be many nations." We asked, "Who will bear these children?" Well, they knew that it didn't really mean Abram would, and said that the implication was that his wife, Sarai would. But then they struggled over that concept for a few minutes on their own, wondering how Sarai would have children, since she was barren. Then one of the non-Christians who didn't know much of the Bible at all, tentatively said, "Well ... I don't know ... but I wonder if maybe God will somehow touch Sarai and make it possible for her to get pregnant. Maybe God will do it." He truly didn't know the end of the story. But he had watched several stories leading up to this one, and was already learning about God's character and His power. It was exciting to see him beginning to understand who God is.
- Our Kenyan Translation Team was checking story #2 - God Creates Man and Woman - in a community check. We asked the Deaf Kenyans what the 2 trees in the middle of the garden were (after they had watched the story 2-3 times, and that part specifically again). They said that one was the tree of good life, which had good fruit. The other one was the tree of bad life, which had bad fruit. When it got to what God told the man about the tree in the center of the garden, it made sense to them that if you eat of the tree with the bad fruit, you will die. Hmmm ... the translation team obviously has some work to do on that part!
You get the idea ... even though "community check" slows down the translation process and is time consuming; it is a VITAL part of the translation process!
Pray for DOOR's translation teams, around the world, as they translate portions of Scripture, and then follow-up with "community checks" on each story.