親愛的 anon089134
非常感謝這封私人郵件。
知道在這個未知的 “ParaTExt 傢伙們（男女都有）” 的世界裡，外面有人關心，這很好。
對我來說，ParaTEXT 有很長的歷史。我們用舊版本的 PT 做過舊約。我不記得我們何時開始使用它，但應該是 Paratext 版本 4。
在那些時候，事情還相當簡單。現在發展變得如此快速，我幾乎無法理解一個版本，然後轟的一聲！下一個版本就砸在我的桌上。
（更不用說非洲的翻譯人員，他們對上一版本的所有精美功能並不真正熟悉，卻要努力認識當前版本，所以我常常說……先生們，就停在那裡吧！現在已經夠難了，只要繼續下去就好。不是每幾個月就有一個新東西。
是的，有一些可以下載的精美影片（如果有得體的網際網路的話），但非洲的同事們通過 a) 個人互動和 b) 在工作中實踐並接受指導來學習效果更好。
是的，我變老了，接近退休年齡。你以前可能感覺到了。
也許這只是「老男人的閒話」。我試著不關閉我的百葉窗，仍然追逐著發展，喘著氣，舌頭伸出來，卻真的跟不上這場競賽。
但有時我對這場競賽有點疲憊。
我必須把這場競賽留給年輕人。
順便說一下，德語對我也是一種外語。我所有的學校教育都是用德語進行的，年輕時我大多數講座都是用德語閱讀的，我能流利地說德語，儘管帶有典型的口音和一些典型的當地特殊表达方式。
然而，我的母語是阿勒曼語（或「瑞士德語」），一種接近德語但語法不同的語言（沒有屬格，只有兩種時態），詞彙與標準德語相似但不同，許多單詞的形式也非常不同。德語：ich gehe /瑞士德語：Ch gang 或 ch gohne。“Ich” 中的元音 i 被省略，僅當該詞有重音時才使用。
另一個例子：德語：Ich sehe / 瑞士德語 “ch gsehne” 或 “ch gseh”。/
瑞士德語沒有未來時態，也沒有過去時（preteritum），但我們有虛擬式。
所以這是我上一年級時必須學習的第一種外語。我們並不特別喜歡它，但它是我們國家大多數書面事物的語言，也是廣播新聞和許多教堂講道所使用的語言。但我們通常不說它，除非必須。 
法語更糟：我在學校討厭它，它是必修課。但現在在過去 30 多年裡，它已經成為我的工作語言，可能佔我所有工作的 50% 以上。
致以兄弟般的問候
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
