Being a linguist is an advantage in Africa as it makes life easier for one as they get to interact more efficiently with less limits unlike for those who only speak one or two African indigenous languages. This is because Africa alone is estimated to have between 1500 to 2000 languages alone.
Having good command of the English language may not be enough in Africa as there are parts where it is Portuguese, French or Arabic working as an official language or second language of the people making communication almost impossible.
Like pointed out earlier that Africa has more than 1500 languages, translation is a very important aspect here so as to carry out day to day businesses and to generally run the continent. Translation is important because it eases communication and therefore forges unity among the African countries. That is why interpretation is available at summits, gatherings and meetings with the African Union summits being a very good example because here we see delegates wearing headsets a sign that there are interpreters in the background passing on information to them in the languages they understand best.
However it should be noted that that the translation services ought to be professional especially if it comes to official gatherings, business or if the field involved is a serious one and such fields include; Medical, Academic, Construction, Finance to mention a few. This means one ought to hire a reputable service provider looking at specific attributes.
Experience; the service provider should have recommendations from official organizations or individuals to ascertain that they have been in the game for long and have carried out satisfactory work for their former clients.
Confidentiality; this too is vital because sometimes clients’ work or documents contains information that light give their rivals an edge if it leaked to the public. This especially for business personnel and therefore a service provider keen on confidentiality is key and here a confidentiality agreement maybe signed between the client and service provider that none of the information shall be disclosed.
Accuracy; this like the above is crucial and this is why native speakers of the languages in question ought to be hired because it is only these who are well versed with the mannerism and characteristics of the language in question. Therefore, the translations, interpretation, subtitling or transcription of African Indigenous Languages is carried out within context having the region where the particular version of the language comes from.
By Angela Kyolaba