Wednesday, July 12 - Word Collection Day 3

We have collected a total of 4,187 words through the first three days of our workshop. That’s a very good start, putting us right on track to reach the group-appointed goal of 13,000 words by the end of next week! However, I am concerned about the significant downward trend in productivity from Monday to Tuesday and again from Tuesday to Wednesday.

The pace slowed significantly today as groups tackled semantic domains that were less productive than those they had dealt with previously. Unfortunately, some of the groups spent more time than they should have trying to find more words in these more-challenging domains. Tomorrow morning I’ll have to give them a pep talk to pick up the pace. Reaching the goal of 13,000 words is still quite possible, but we’ll need to find a way to turn the trend around.

My role during the two weeks of word collection is primarily record-keeping. However, I’ve volunteered to help with data entry if someone who knows the language checks the words and their translations first so that I’m not entering some unclear wording that the editors will need to spend much time on later. Matthieu took me up on my offer to a limited extent yesterday and to a much greater extent today. (That “Personal Use Typing” course I took in high school continues to pay high dividends, enabling me to type even an African language I don’t speak or understand, keeping my eyes on the paper where the words are written and not looking at the keyboard.)

Djimini typists

I’m glad to be able to contribute, but we are lagging behind in the data-entry part of the work flow. This is due primarily to the fact that both the scribes and the translators are making errors, requiring the typists to have to get clarification from them prior to typing the words into the database. We may end up typing on the weekend in order to catch up.

On a personal note, I am sleeping well, eating well, and feeling well, all of which I’m very happy about.