The International Mother Language Conference and Festival is an academic conference involving educators, international policy makers, researchers, and scholars from 12 countries. It was held via videoconference from February 21 to March 20, 2021. Dr. Ricardo Ma. Nolasco of the Department of Linguistics at the University of the Philippines Diliman, who was the conference chairman, invited representatives from the Philippines branch to participate in the conference. On March 9, 2021, Brothers Elnathan Lee and Israel Aves, who are both translators, delivered presentations regarding the translation efforts of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The event was attended virtually by 320 people.

According to Dr. Ricardo Ma. Nolasco, a national survey in the Philippines revealed that the most widely read publication aside from school textbooks is the Bible. Appropriately, a session of the conference had the theme “Bible Translation in Philippine Languages.” This was the theme our brothers addressed.

Brother Aves’ presentation was entitled “Accurate, Readable, or Both? Indigenous Languages and the Challenge of Bible Translation.” He outlined how translators of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT) balanced accuracy and readability. Brother Aves explained to the audience: “Since Bible education is at the heart of their mission, Jehovah’s Witnesses seek to make the NWT available even in the languages of minority populations. It is available free online or in hard copy from local congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses so that you may judge for yourself how successful the translators have been in producing an accurate and readable rendering of God’s Word.”

In a presentation entitled “Gathering People of All Nations and Languages: The Borderless Translation Initiatives of Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Brother Lee discussed the scope of the translation work of Jehovah’s Witnesses. He explained that over 6,000 translators and support staff are involved in the efforts. He also described the history of our translation work from its incipient stages in the late 1800’s to its significant increase in recent years. He highlighted that jw.org—the most widely translated website in the world—reached a milestone in November 2019 when content became available in 1,000 languages.

Brother Lee concluded his presentation by stating: “Translators for the publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses view their work as a public service with the goal of producing understandable translations that know no boundaries and that can inform and uplift their audience.”

We are glad for this opportunity to tell others about our translation efforts. There is more evidence than ever that the good news is being declared “to every nation and tribe and tongue.”—Revelation 14:6.