Happy Black Friday to our friends and colleagues in the US and happy Friday to everyone else! While we are certainly not going shopping, we are taking the day to play catch-up with work before we take the rest of the weekend off. Today we wanted to share this cringe-inducing article and video with you. They really drive home the point that professional interpreters are essential in many, many situations, especially during press conferences and public events. We recently came across the post on a Turkish blog (Turkish Business Translations), and while the video is in Turkish and in Italian, you don't need to speak either language to get the idea (we don't speak the languages, either). Here's the link to the blog and the video. We are also putting the YouTube video directly into this blog post, but be sure to read the accompanying article (aptly titled "Why you need a qualified and professional interpreter") so it really makes sense.
What do you think, dear colleagues? While we do feel bad for the poor pseudo-interpreters, they should probably know their limitations, and this is what happens when you don't. We'd love to hear your thoughts.
4 comments:
In the UK we call pseudo interpreter NONTERPRETERS!
@Agata: Hehe, yes, that is probably the best term to use in this case (and in many others). Thanks for reading and for commenting!
Yes, she is young and has a lot to learn, but we also need to wonder why the organizers did not pick someone with more mileage. This seems a high profile event where no due diligence was done in order to verify that she could interpret, her credentials, training, posture as interpreter.
@Cris: Yes, of course, very true. There are several folks who are responsible for this #fail situation, but it's also the non-interpreter's fault for accepting a project which she had to know she wasn't qualified for. We completely agree with you that the organizers failed to do their due diligence indeed.
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