Working as a Translator

So I have started my new role as Portuguese/English translator. What an experience! To say I started the new position petrified would be an understatement. As most of you probably know, I never studied Portuguese before coming to Brazil. When I came here, I didn't even have a dictionary. I still don't have a dictionary, I borrowed one from someone for this new project. So just imagine every night I have to get up in front of a group of children and translate the nightly meetings. Fortunately, I have a script for each night so I have time to translate the script before hand.

Having another translator in the group was definitely a plus, since we each had strengths in different languages. Flavio, the other translator, really helped me with my pronunciation and I helped him to little too. The first few nights were very rough on me and as well as on my audience. My Portuguese, which should be more correctly called Port-anol (Spanish and Portuguese), was heavily influenced by Spanish. Most of the time, even though I was saying the right word, I used a Spanish pronunciation. I felt sorry for the children because they had to endure me butchering their language night after night. It was so funny that some nights the kids actually helped me with some of the words as I was struggling to pronounce. Sometimes, if I was incorrectly pronouncing a word they would say the right pronunciation for me. That was very helpful. But, on the positive side, I think my Port-anol also helped the kids, because at the end of the meetings they would have learned several words in Spanish.

There were two student presenters, Elani and Gareth, for the children meetings. They alternated nights. Each night we had anywhere between 20 to 40+ children ranging in ages from 5 to 12 years. We usually started with song service and we taught the children songs in English and we the presenters learned Portuguese songs the children usually sang. The children loved learning and singing the English songs, especially those with actions. It was so cute and amusing to hear them trying to say the words in English. After song service, we had a short message related to a Bible story. The messages were always accompanied with power point, the visual aid definitely helped to keep the children attention and helped them to better understand what I was trying to say. After the Bible story we had a question and answer time to see if the children remembered what they had heard. At the end of each night, we had the nightly craft, based on the message. This is usually the highlight of the night for the children because, they had an opportunity to make different things and be creative.


I really enjoyed working with the children more than I had thought. At first, I was not too sure of how I would fair with the children because I never saw myself as someone who can reach kids, but God helped me and taught me many important lessons each night. Some nights the children were very difficult and were not much paying attention but I learned to do my best and just leave the rest in God's hands. I learned to be patient. These were His children and He would reach them. Sometimes it was so amazing how the children who gave the most problems during the meetings were sometimes the most affectionate. At the end of the meeting they always give us hugs. I could really see Jesus in these kids.


I also helped to translate the weekly church services. Flavio, the other translator and I, had an agreement for translating the church services. We would translate to our native language for the church service. Unfortunately for Flavio, most of the services were done in English because the group did most of the services so he had more translating to do than I did. I can't say I was sad about that because of obvious reasons. But it was always easier to your native language so it wasn't too bad for him. He was a good sport though and plus he was really good at translating. The group and I were glad to have him as the other translator. He was a really awesome guy.

One cool thing, I like about being translator was going on visits with Mr. Clark. During the meetings, people would ask to have a pastoral visit them. Mr. Clark, as chaperon and the evangelist, did the visits for the group and because he did not speak Portuguese one of the translators always had to go with him. It was really awesome to connect with these persons. There was a difference between a person at church and the same person in the comfort of his/her home. They were more relaxed and more open. I was really moved by some the experiences of these people and to see that were so happy, in spite of their circumstances. It made me take a real look at my life and realize how blessed and fortunate I am. I also enjoyed talking to the people and praying with them. I was so grateful for having these experiences. Who would have thought I would have gotten to have these experiences.

I really liked being a translator. I never really understood how important this job was. I am actually speaking for me someone I am like their mouth. Also as translators it was cool to be on both sides of the fence. We were actually bridges between the two cultures. Somethings it was difficult because someone always wanted you to translate for them and it was only two of us and over fifty people wanted us to translating for us. But I had fun and I enjoyed the whole experience. To the right is a picture of me with the other translator.