Redemption Boulevard A Multicultural Worship Ministry

Catching spelling errors

After the rewarding process of translating a song, which sometimes is done on paper, we have to take time to type it into our computers.  I’ve spent long hours finding virtual keyboards online in order to type the languages we’ve just translated.

Because many of those languages aren’t something I’m super familiar with I have to use Google Translate to make sure that it’s at least translating back in English, instead of seeing a bunch of strange symbols.

I want to emphasize how important it is to spell check with Google Translate for two reasons: it shows you’re a detail oriented person and you’re not sloppy with your work and it shows you want to make a good “impression” on the heart languages you’re including.

I recently had to use Google Translate on the popular hymn I surrender all.  I thought I did the work already to make sure it was correct, but one of our worship team members, who studied the French language, pointed out that there were a few errors.

Even experienced multicultural worship leaders that I’ve gotten music from also has had spelling errors in it.  I won’t say who or what song it was, but the point is that it’s easy to make mistakes.

And making mistakes is okay as long as we are in a position of accepting correction and humility.

Questions for you

Have you gotten a song in another language from a friend only to realize that there were spelling errors in it?  How did you realize there was an error?  What did you do to correct it?

© 2012 – 2011, Peter Park. All rights reserved.