Translate your church service into Vietnamese

Fifty years of Vietnamese churches

From Little Saigon in Orange County to Houston, San Jose, Northern Virginia and New Orleans East, churches were among the first places Vietnamese refugees gathered. Catholic parishes started Vietnamese Masses, and Baptist, Christian and Missionary Alliance and other Protestant churches planted Vietnamese congregations. The people who founded them are now grandparents, and their grandchildren grew up in English.

That shift shows up on Sunday. Some Vietnamese churches add an English service for the second and third generation; some English-speaking churches find Vietnamese grandparents in the pews because that is where their family goes. Either way, there are older members who sit through a sermon they only partly understand. A Vietnamese translation on their phone changes that.

Newer arrivals too

Vietnamese is not only a language of elders. Students, nurses and families who arrived in recent years attend English-speaking churches near universities and hospitals. Spouses who moved from Vietnam after marrying an American often understand daily English well but find a theological sermon heavy. Captions in Vietnamese, with the English original alongside, help them follow and learn at the same time.

How it works

1. 01
   Show the QR code

   Put it on the screens, in the bulletin, or let a family member send the link before the service.

2. 02
   Choose Tiếng Việt

   The page opens in the browser. No account or app is needed, though iPhone users can use the ChurchTranslate app.

3. 03
   Listen or read

   With earbuds, the sermon sounds in Vietnamese a few seconds behind the speaker. The large-text reading mode helps older listeners who prefer to read captions.

Catholic and Protestant vocabulary

Vietnamese Catholics and Protestants often use different words for the same thing, starting with the name of God: Thiên Chúa in a Catholic parish, Đức Chúa Trời in many Protestant churches. A live translation will not always choose the term your tradition uses. ChurchTranslate keeps a terminology list per language and corrects known terms in the captions, but be honest with your members that it is a tool for following the sermon, not a liturgical translation. Vietnamese is also a tonal language, so test the voice with a few native speakers during the free trial.

What the church needs

The broadcast runs from a laptop or phone in the browser, ideally with a feed from the mixing board; see audio setup. Set English as the speaker language and switch on Vietnamese. When the Vietnamese pastor preaches, switch the speaker language to Vietnamese so the younger generation can follow in English.

Cost

One credit is one minute into one language. A 75-minute English service into Vietnamese uses 75 credits, and only if someone is listening. Four of those a month fit easily in Lite ($65, 480 credits). See the pricing.