When big news is about to be broken, journalists circle like vultures. As soon as official statements are made, the mass media’s technological tentacles spread the information around the earth in seconds. Journalists typically tweet the news in brief before releasing a full write up later on, in the hope that they can be the first to reveal the breaking news. Investigative journalism is a rare thing these days, with more of the press depending on PR sessions and official statements, recycling each other’s information and adding their own spin on the regurgitated second hand stories. So how does a journalist get a scoop in this day and age? How can you maintain an edge on the competition? Well, if you haven’t got the language skills of Giovanna Chirri, of Italian news agency Ansa, then professional interpreting services might be your only hope.
Giovana Chirri is a journalist with an uncommon skill. She is capable of simultaneous translation of the now dead language of the Roman empire, Latin. Although not a skill that many journalists can find frequent use for, Chirri recently found herself very glad that she paid attention to her Latin master. On Monday morning she made use of her Latin aural comprehension and immediately translated the Pope’s announcement that he would resign. This unexpected revelation was a huge story, this is the first time a Pope has resigned in almost 600 years, but none of the other journalists present were capable of simultaneous translation of Latin. This edge over her competitors meant that she was able to send news to her agency first, giving Ansa the world exclusive.
At 11.46am in Italy, Ansa broadcasted the words “Papa Lascia Pontificato Dal 28/2” – the Pope is leaving the papacy on February 28th. The prestige of this scoop was extremely short lived though! Having been the first to broadcast the news, Reuters repeated the story exactly one minute later and cited Ansa as its source. Chirri tweeted her reaction to receiving the news later on saying,
“When Pope announced he was resigning, I felt weak at the knees,”
Just like media, international business is also speeding up. If you are in a situation where time is of the essence and time is money and you know that the speed you are able to translate information from a foreign language is of vital importance then you should hire a simultaneous interpreter. Simultaneous interpreters provide the most difficult of all translation services, they have extraordinary bilingual ability and intellectual agility, so that they can communicate terms precisely and eloquently in real time. It is worthwhile making use of Hausa and Yoruba interpreters when appropriate, to make sure that information flows quickly in your Nigerian business. Translation agencies can provide highly qualified simultaneous interpreters for any function you require. They make use of networks of hundreds of professionals, each experienced in the highly demanding discipline of simultaneous interpreting as well as being absolutely fluent in their specialist language. Even when translating information is urgent, but not so urgent that it requires simultaneous interpretation, you can still benefit from translation services. Conventional translation services are more affordable than a live interpreter, because they are less demanding and don’t necessitate the presence of a language professional at the time the information is released.
