Translation Issues Redux

In today's NYT, is an article titled Translation Is Foreign to U.S. Publishers. Several years ago, a small, local press in Seattle, Scala House Press attempted to deal with this issue by beginning to develop a program, Literature in Translation, that would be housed first in middle schools. The project would bring in residence translators into the schools where there were many children for whom English was a second language. English language learners (ELL) and native English speakers would then be paired to translate something.....a recipe, song, poem from the ELL's native language into English. This would provide an entree for the native English speaker into the ELL's life and culture. It would encourge students to seek out literature in translation and build an appreciative audience from the bottom up.