Translation and the London 2012 Olympics
6th June 2012
The 2012 Olympics will shortly be arriving in London and with it will come a large influx of different people speaking many different languages. This is a very diverse event being held in the most diverse city in the world. An amazing crossover which no cultural enthusiast should miss.
There will be over 300 world languages spoken with people from over 220 countries. London has already twice before hosted the Olympic Games, in 1948 and way back in 1908. However the 2012 event will be of a magnitude like no other, especially when it comes to the sheer diversity of languages that will be spoken
There are 3 main languages used for each Olympic event. The official languages of the Olympics are both French and English. The third language used is always the language of the country hosting the games that year. With so many different people comes the problem of communication which is indeed why the Olympics uses 2 official languages but nevertheless there is always the problem of communication which needs to be addressed.
Although very good machine translators are available, and work quite well for basic communication, they just aren’t enough for complexed or localised translations of longer documents or continuous speech. Therefore, an enormous amount of linguists including Interpreters, Translators and other language professionals will have to be brought in by the Olympic committee, the host government and many of the businesses which are working with the event to facilitate communication and to make sure that everyone's needs are being met.
For many of us, the Olympics is one of those big events that you just can’t wait for. Prime Languages will be proud to be doing its part to help with communication and understanding with the 2012 London Olympics with our own Translation Services and we hope that everyone involved has the amazing and culturally diverse experience which the Olympics promises.
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