Do you like to eat grass?

Helping with the Diploma in Translating classes

Nungalinya, the Indigenous Bible College here, recently ran a 3-week intensive for the Diploma in Translating. I was fortunate enough to go along for a week and help students with their work. The highlight was helping a lady that had never before written in her own language!

My other favourite part of the class was discussing old words that had been repurposed for new concepts. We do this a lot with technology - a mouse, window, site, page, keyboard and tablet, are not what they used to be! What other English words can you think of that have been repurposed? In some Aboriginal languages the word for 'grass' was repurposed to mean 'salad'. Something that non-Indigenous people typically like to eat. One of the students said that 'grass' is becoming more popular in her community. Unfortunately though, she didn't mean salads. Like in English, the term for 'grass' is now used to refer to marijuana too. (Apparently, 'eating grass' in English can refer to low level bribery, so you probably don't like eating grass, even if you like salads!)

In the Tiwi language the following terms were repurposed:

Four legged thing -> car

Horned thing -> motorbike

Light coloured thing -> store bought bread

Sea/saltwater -> beer (both have white froth on top)

Pray for the the Diploma in Translating students - that they will learn the process of translation well and be able to serve their communities through Bible translation or interpreting or in other ways.