As we reflect on 2017, the Out of Eden Walk team is grateful in particular for a new development in this 10-year, 21,000-mile global storytelling project: the Translation Community and Tool. Launched in June, this initiative is extending the walk far beyond Paul Salopek’s mapped route, making it accessible to a multitude of new readers.
Our 114 (very enthusiastic) registered volunteer translators, each passionate about the credo of the walk, lend their linguistic talents to this unfolding archive of life in our world. Their translations allow readers from across the globe to join in the walk, transcending barriers of language and national boundaries. The walk constantly encounters new languages, even within countries, so publishing Paul’s storytelling in English alone would be antithetical to the project’s inclusive ethos: Yes, Paul is writing for you and me, but he’s writing as well for all the people he walks among and meets on the trail.
The translation tool works like this: Volunteers sign in and self-identify their proficiency in a language (or languages). They then choose which dispatch to translate and work through the text section by section using the interface of our specially designed Translation Tool.
The tool subdivides dispatches into paragraphs, which translators can work on, pause, and return to. Their work is then reviewed by another translator proficient in that language, who can flag a specific section within the translation and offer suggestions and refining edits. This back and forth is the “community” foundation on which the Out of Eden Walk translation system depends.
To date we’ve published more than 300 dispatches in languages other than English, with Polish, French, Russian, and Kannada leading the way (69, 46, 32 and 29, respectively). Thirty-two languages are now available for translation, a constantly growing number thanks both to suggestions from followers who want to read Paul’s dispatches in their native tongue and to our own research about languages along the walk’s route, such as Arabic, Kazakh, and Urdu. And beyond all those languages, a number are available that have no geographical connection to the walk (Indonesian, Korean, Portuguese, for example), signifying the project’s global reach and appeal.
Boot-level insights: a glimpse at the back and forth by members of the translation volunteers Facebook group.
Our volunteers live all over the world, some having signed up after meeting Paul in person. They’re not only translating his words but are avid readers of his dispatches, sharing and discussing them with one another. The translation community provides a forum for people touched by the walk as readers and as direct contributors to the project.
You can “meet” our translators and read their work on the profiles page in the Out of Eden website, which provides a glimpse into their unique backgrounds, professions, and talents. They come from as close to the walk’s path as Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Kazakhstan and as far from it as Australia, Korea, and Ecuador. They include teachers, linguists, journalists, a marine biologist, an infectious disease researcher, a former police officer, and an artist.
In a way the translation community represents a microcosm of the larger whole brought to life by the Out of Eden Walk: our shared world. These dedicated volunteers show that anyone can walk with Paul, no matter where in the world he or she may be.
If you’d like to join the Out of Eden Walk Translation Community, please start here.
Andrea Vale manages the Out of Eden Walk Translation Community, overseeing the translation and review process. She also translates dispatches into Arabic, Spanish, and Italian. Follow her on Twitter @AndreaLVale
Boot-level insights: a glimpse at the back and forth by members of the translation volunteers Facebook group.
Our volunteers live all over the world, some having signed up after meeting Paul in person. They’re not only translating his words but are avid readers of his dispatches, sharing and discussing them with one another. The translation community provides a forum for people touched by the walk as readers and as direct contributors to the project.
You can “meet” our translators and read their work on the profiles page in the Out of Eden website, which provides a glimpse into their unique backgrounds, professions, and talents. They come from as close to the walk’s path as Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Kazakhstan and as far from it as Australia, Korea, and Ecuador. They include teachers, linguists, journalists, a marine biologist, an infectious disease researcher, a former police officer, and an artist.
In a way the translation community represents a microcosm of the larger whole brought to life by the Out of Eden Walk: our shared world. These dedicated volunteers show that anyone can walk with Paul, no matter where in the world he or she may be.
If you’d like to join the Out of Eden Walk Translation Community, please start here.
Andrea Vale manages the Out of Eden Walk Translation Community, overseeing the translation and review process. She also translates dispatches into Arabic, Spanish, and Italian. Follow her on Twitter @AndreaLVale
