Language Pages Provide Church Materials in More Than 100 Languages
Contributed By By Heather Whittle Wrigley, Church News and Events
By the end of 2012, ChurchofJesusChrist.org will offer varying amounts of Church material on 108 language pages.
Article Highlights
- At the top right or bottom left of the ChurchofJesusChrist.org homepage, click the picture of the world to find links to all the available language pages on ChurchofJesusChrist.org
- Materials are translated and made available following approval from the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Area Presidencies can also request that certain materials be made available in a particular language if they notice a need.
- The resources on each language site are for all members for personal use, for instruction, and for use in callings.
“Local leaders may use this resource themselves as well as point members to it for use in callings and families.” —Matt Robinson, language pages senior product manager
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For members around the world who don’t speak one of the 10 prevalent languages—Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish—finding Church materials in their native tongue may be a challenge. But for those who are aware of ChurchofJesusChrist.org’s language pages, accessing core Church materials is only a few clicks away.
At the top right or bottom left of the ChurchofJesusChrist.org homepage, click the picture of the world to find links to all the available language pages on ChurchofJesusChrist.org. By the end of 2012, the ChurchofJesusChrist.org team hopes to have 108 language pages, including Hrvatski (Croatian), Malagasy (spoken in Madagascar), and Twi (spoken in Ghana).
The materials available on each language page vary, but each item is printable and downloadable.
This year, the language pages were updated with some new items, including PDFs of the Liahona local pages in more than 40 languages and a simple text PDF of the April 2012 general conference in more than 90 languages. The addition of PDFs of the Book of Mormon in 99 languages added 24 more language pages to those already available on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Translated items appear according to the Church’s worldwide plan for introducing Church materials in specific languages.
In this phased plan, core items—sacrament prayers, the Articles of Faith, the Gospel Fundamentals manual, select general conference talks, and the Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith pamphlet, for example—have precedence in being translated.
Additional translated materials such as the scriptures, music, “The Family, a Proclamation to the World,” and the First Presidency and Visiting Teaching Messages are introduced as the number of Church members who speak a language increases.
Materials are translated and made available following approval from the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Area Presidencies can also request that certain materials be made available in a particular language if they notice a need.
Digital channels senior product manager Matt Robinson, who works with the language pages, has described them as an “expanding digital gospel library.”
“These pages are available to all members for personal as well as Sunday use,” he explained. “Local leaders may use this resource for their personal study as well as point members to it for use in callings and families.”
Sargis Ayvazyan, second counselor in the Yerevan Armenia District presidency, reports that Armenian members enjoy using the Armenian language page to print materials that help them fulfill their callings. They also use it to receive and read information about the Church and to find general conference materials in their native tongue.
