Live Farsi translation for Persian-speaking church visitors

Persian-speaking congregations are among the fastest-growing in European cities, and most of their members first walked into a service they could not understand. A phone, a code, and a voice in Farsi is what changes that Sunday.

Who is in the room

Iranians, Afghans who speak Dari, families who have been in the country for years and newcomers who arrived last month. Their German or English ranges from fluent to none, and the ones with none are usually the ones who came because somebody invited them. They sit politely through a sermon they cannot follow, and whether they come back depends on whether anything reached them.

What Farsi asks of a translation system

A spoken voice, not only text. Many listeners read the Latin alphabet more easily than they read Persian script on a small screen, and many older listeners read neither comfortably. A voice in the ear works for everyone.
Captions that run right to left when captions are wanted. Persian script rendered left to right is unreadable, and plenty of general-purpose tools still do it.
Scripture names the way Persian-speaking churches say them. Bible books, the names of Jesus, Paul and Peter, and words like grace and covenant have settled Persian forms; a system that improvises them sounds foreign in exactly the moment it should sound like home.
No app. A visitor who arrived in the country three weeks ago is not creating an account in a church foyer.

Farsi as the source language, too

In many Persian-speaking churches the traffic runs the other way: the sermon is preached in Farsi and the German, English or Armenian speakers in the room need it. The same questions apply in reverse, and one more: does the system recognise Farsi speech well enough to translate it? Ask to hear it on a real Farsi sermon, not a demo recorded in a studio.

Questions to ask any vendor

Is Farsi delivered as a voice, as captions, or both, and is Dari treated separately?
Do captions render right to left, and can a listener switch between voice and text?
Can we add our own glossary of names and scripture terms, and who approves it?
Has this been used weekly in a church where Farsi is one of the main languages?

Tick what you have asked. It stays on this device.

How Sanctavo does it

Sanctavo runs every Sunday in a Vienna congregation where the service moves between Farsi, German, English and Armenian, and Farsi is the language the product was first built around. Listeners hear a natural voice that keeps the preacher's tone and rhythm, translated; captions alongside run right to left. The church’s glossary carries its names and scripture terms into every translation, and each entry is approved by a person. The sample on our front page is a real Farsi sermon translated live into English, published with the preacher’s permission.

We set it up free on one of your services. Bring your Farsi-speaking members and let them judge the voice; their verdict is the only one that counts.