Imagine trying to provide translation services for up to 80,000 people from around the globe attending the 2005 General Conference Session. Responsibilities are many and include knowing how many language groups will be represented there, how many volunteers will be needed, and where to find translators. With all these questions to answer, translation coordinator Odette Ferreira is already hard at work.

Some 230 volunteer interpreters—many of them delegates—are expected at the G.C. Session, translating worships, meetings, and programs simultaneously into as many as 20 languages, Ferreira reports. Thirteen of the church’s most spoken languages will each have their own FM radio frequency.

Adventist World Radio will sell small, digital AM, FM, and shortwave radios for U.S. $20 each that can be used in the meetings to receive simultaneous translations. Official delegates will be given one free radio. You are also welcome to bring your own.

The 13 languages in which translation will be provided via FM frequency are: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, Romanian, German, Japanese, Korean, Serbian-Croatian, Chinese, Italian, Bulgarian, and Czech. Translation services in American Sign Language will also be provided in a designated seating area. Women’s Ministries meetings will be translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Russian.

Many interpreters are needed, Ferreira says, because they have to switch off every hour or two. “It’s too taxing on the brain to go too long,” she explains. Translators will also be ready on the main floor for delegates who wish to speak in their native language.

There will be language booths, each with a coordinator in charge of selecting people in his or her region to be interpreters and to supervise his or her colleagues at the G.C. Session.

“This service is important for the world church. If you come as a delegate and don’t [understand] half of what’s going on, it’s throwing money out the window,” Ferreira says.

Volunteers are still needed to help with translation as well as other services. Translators must be fluent in English and the language they are translating to and from, and quick. Contact Ferreira at Odette.ferreira@nad.adventist.org, or call (301) 680-6454. Volunteers will be given meal tickets for use during the 10-day session.

G.C. Session News, November 2004