亲爱的 anon089134
非常感谢这封私人邮件。
知道在这个未知的“ParaTExt 家伙们（和姑娘们）”的世界里，外面有人，这很好。
对我来说，ParaTEXT 有着悠久的历史。我们用旧版本的 PT 做了一部旧约。我不记得我们什么时候开始的，但一定是 Paratext 版本 4。
那时候事情还相当简单。现在发展变得如此迅速，我 barely 理解一个版本，砰！下一个版本就砸在我的桌上了。
（更不用说非洲翻译了，他们并没有真正熟悉上一个版本的所有漂亮功能，却不得不努力了解当前版本，所以我经常说……先生们，就停在那里吧！现在光是坚持下去就已经很难了。不是每隔几个月就有新东西。）
是的，有一些漂亮的视频可以下载（如果有一个像样的互联网），但非洲同事通过 a) 个人互动和 b) 在工作中实践并接受指导来学习效果更好。
是的，我老了，接近退休年龄。你以前可能感觉到过。
也许这只是“老男人的唠叨”。我试图不关上百叶窗，仍然追逐发展，气喘吁吁，舌头伸出来，却真的跟不上这场赛跑。
但有时我对这场赛跑有点厌倦。
我将不得不把赛跑留给年轻人。
顺便说一句，德语对我来说也是一种外语。我所有的学校教育都是用德语进行的，我年轻时大部分讲座都是用德语读的，我能流利地说，尽管带着典型的口音和一些典型的当地表达方式。
然而，我的母语是阿勒曼尼语（或“瑞士德语”），一种接近德语但语法不同的语言（没有属格，只有两种时态），词汇与标准德语相似但不同，许多单词的形式也非常不同。德语：ich gehe /瑞士德语：Ch gang 或 ch gohne。“Ich”中的元音 i 被省略，仅当该词重读时才使用。
另一个例子：德语：Ich sehe / 瑞士德语 “ch gsehne” 或 “ch gseh”。/
瑞士德语中没有将来时也没有过去时，但我们有虚拟式。
所以，当我上一年级时，这是我必须学习的第一门外语。我们并不特别喜欢它，但它是我国大多数书面事物的语言，也是广播新闻和许多教堂讲道的语言。但我们通常不说它，除非必须。
法语更糟：我在学校讨厌它，它是必修的。但现在在过去 30 多年里，它成为了我的工作语言，可能占我所有工作的 50% 以上。
致以兄弟般的问候
anon451883
Dear anon089134
Thank you so much for this personal mail.
It’s good to know someone out there in this unknown world of the “ParaTExt guys (and gals)”.
For me ParaTEXT has a long history. We did an OT with older versions of PT. I don’t remember when we began with it, but it must have been Paratext Version 4.
Things were still quite simple at these times. Now the development has become such a race, I barely understand a version and boom! The next one is smashed on my desk.
(Not to tell about the African translators, who have not been really familiar with all the nice features of the the last version, battle to get to know the current one, and so often I say… Gentlemen, leave it there! It’s hard enough now, just to keep going. Not every few month a new thing.
Yes, there are the nice videos one could download (if there were a decent internet), but the African colleagues learn better a) by personal interaction and b) by doing and being mentored on the job.
Yes, I am getting old and close to retirement age. You may have felt that before.
Maybe it’s just “old man’s talk”. I try not to close my shutters and still run after the developments, patting and puffing, my tongue out, and not really catching up with the race.
But some times I am a bit tired of this race.
I will have to leave the race for the younger.
By the way, German is also a foreign tongue for me. I had all my schooling in it, I read most of my lectures in it in young years, I can speak it fluently, albeit with a typical accent and some typical local special ways of expression.
However, my mother tongue is Alemannic (or “Swiss German”) a language close to German, but with a different grammar (no genitive, only two tenses) and a similiar but distinct vocabulary from standard German, and a very different form for many words. German: ich gehe /Swiss German: Ch gang or ch gohne. The vowel i of “Ich” is dropped, and only used of there is a stress on the word.
Other example: German: Ich sehe / Swiss German “ch gsehne” or “ch gseh”. /
We don’t have the future tense nor the preteritum in Swiss German, but we have the subjunctive.
So it was my first foreign language I had to learn when I went to 1st grade. We don’t particularly love it, but it’s the language of most written things in our country, so are the news at the radio and the sermons in many churches. But we don’t usually speak it lest we must.
French was worse: I hated it at school, it was compulsory. but now in the last 30+ it has become my language of work for probably more than 50% of all my work.
With brotherly greetings
anon451883
