Why you should opt for Professional African Languages Interpreting Services

The unfortunate incident where a tourist guide gave a fraudulent interpretation from English to Kiswahili of what a white tourist was saying before journalists in one of Africa’s sought after tourist destinations; The Serengeti National Park caused quite a stir in 2017.

The above was able to be pointed out however there are sadly so many other cases when it comes to interpreting situations from foreign languages to African languages and vice versa. This happens especially when people or businesses in need of effective communication in terms of African Languages Interpreting Services turn to whoever is available instead of seeking professional help.

How unprofessional African Languages Interpreting Services harm

This harms the service providers in question like it did to Tanzania’s tourism industry at that time. Potential tourists were a little skeptical as to what aids they would be assigned with in case they visited the Serengeti. This goes for any other kind of business where in case of any miscommunication, buyers or users of a service or product become skeptical and may unfortunately opt for the competitor’s product. understand.

Nelson Mandela’s would be 100^th birthday was recently celebrated, taking us back to his funeral in 2013 when people watching a live broadcast in South Africa noticed that the interpreter was merely making meaningless hand gestures and not communicating anything at all.

African Languages Interpreting Services — The man flapping his hands meaningless was a quack interpreter on Nelson Mandela’s 2013 funeral.

Another example here is facebook; a social media platform used by 16 million Nigerians every month, 12 million people in South Africa and 4.5 million in Kenya. It offers a translation slot under a post but the results are hilarious when the initial post is in an African language like Luganda and is translated into English. It seems funny in the beginning but kind of discourages users from clicking the translate icon again.

The solution for fraudulent interpretation services

It is advisable that a professional translation companies are approached for any kind of translation work; this could be translation, transcription, subtitling or interpreting when it comes to African Languages Interpreting Services.

It is in such companies that one finds experiences and qualified interpreters especially those specific to the client’s language of interest. Since there are over 1500 languages in Africa, it is paramount that the interpreter has the desired language as their mother tongue. This is important because interpreting is successful when done within context and observing the mannerisms and characteristics of a language spoken by people from a certain region. For example; the Afrikaans in South Africa differs a little from that of Namibia and Swahili in Tanzania defers from that spoken in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda or the Democratic Republic of Congo.

African Languages include;

By Angela Kyolaba

For professional services African Languages Interpreting Services click here

Time to Learn Another Major Language or Two!

On Sunday, the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia reached a grand finale with France hoisting the coveted gold trophy after beating Croatia 4-2. And soon the new season of the English Premier League will kick off as are other leagues in Europe. For soccer lovers, these are exciting times!

What is of more interest to me though is how all the transnational players that ply their trade in these lucrative leagues communicate effectively. I mean how do their coaches manage to get the message across on the training field to all these players of different nationalities? Could it be that a player that speaks many languages has more chances for success in these cutthroat competitive leagues than those who don’t?

Multilingualism gives one an edge over others

Oh yes, multilingualism gives one an edge over others. Arsene Wenger who was at the helm of Arsenal FC for 22 years became hugely successful not only because of his coaching nous but also because of his ability to speak many languages. Monsieur Wenger speaks six languages fluently: French, English, Japanese, German, Italian and Spanish. This ability helped him to transmit his ideas clearly and easily to the players who could not speak English. For example, when he signed Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona in 2003, the latter didn’t speak or understand a word of English. Thus Wenger always interacted with him in Spanish. He also encouraged him to learn English and by the time Fabregas left the club, he was bilingual; very fluent in English and Spanish.

Wenger’s realization that the ability to speak many languages helps players to bond and understand the world and football philosophy better saw him advocate for language learning in Arsenal’s youth setup. The benefits from this quickly spilled over so much that everyone knows about the “Arsenal way”, which is basically about Arsenal’s synergy; Arsenal players having a bond akin to one close family as well allowing their feet to speak a language of their own on the field by playing quick, beautiful and aesthetic football that is hard to imitate.

Also the fact that football managers and players that are multilingual have been hugely successful wherever they have plied their trade shows that speaking many languages is a huge plus. For example, Pep Guardiola who has been very successful in Spain, Germany and England as a manager speaks German, English, Catalan, Spanish and Italian. Jose Mourinho who is also one of the most successful football managers speaks Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian and English fluently.

Cristiano Ronaldo who has four times won the Fifa Ballon d’Or as the best player in the world speaks Portuguese, Spanish and English, whereas Manchester United star Romelu Lukaku who was born in Belgium but has Congolese roots is fluent in six languages: Dutch, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Swahili.

All these coaches and players are hugely successful because their ability to speak many languages helps them to easily receive and internalize messages. It gives them that extra edge and boosts their confidence. They can easily settle into many geographical realms and feel at home, thanks to their ability to easily interact with the natives of those areas.

As people continue to intermarry and travel, being multilingual becomes a necessary skill that comes with many opportunities. Moreover, many countries today have more than one official national language, thus those unable to communicate in at least two or more major languages such as English, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic or Hindi, will soon be left behind in a world that gets more complex and competitive with every passing day. However, translation companies have also kicked in to save the day with services like Somali translation services, Yoruba translation Services, Malagasy translation services, Africa Conference Interpreters among many others.

The English Language may have saved the Trapped Thai Soccer Team

Adul Sam-on maybe one of the reasons as to why the soccer team of 12 teenagers with their 25 year old coach were rescued this week after being trapped in a cave obscured by flooding for a total of 18 days! It turns out as the only English speaking one in the trapped team, he managed to ease communication with the British divers as he communicated to both sides in languages they understand best which are; English for the divers and Thai for the trapped team. In fact the Daily Mail referred to him as “the sole communicator”.

Apart from the ongoing 2018 Russia World Cup the trapped soccer team has been the major headlines all over the world as good willed people from all over the world offered and volunteered their skills, time and resources to not only try to keep the trapped team alive but to also finally get them out of the damned cave.

Why the English Language could be the most important

English could be after all the most important language in the whole world; not the most spoken but most important. One of the reasons maybe because while other mega languages are spoken by multitudes of people who live in the same geographical areas or neighboring communities, English on the other hand is pretty widespread. There may be chances that the English language is spoken or understood by some people from every corner of the earth.

The mega languages spoken most but usually concentrate in a certain geographical are apart from a few of the speakers in the diaspora include Mandarin, Arabic and Russian to mention a few. Chinese or Mandarin is spoken by 1.2 billion people mainly in China with Spanish having over 400 million speakers.

Other common Languages include;

Arabic the language of Arabs with its various variations is spoken in Arab nations in the Middle East and Northern Africa although it is the default language or second/third language adopted by Muslims all over the world. Arabic happens to be the language in which the Quran which is the holy book for Islam is written and is the religion’s language of instruction. Countries where Arabic is the order of the day include; Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Libya, Sudan, Algeria, Yemen, Oman and Morocco to mention a few. This sacred language boasts of 250 million speakers.

What makes it special?

For some reason the English language is at least taught ass a lesson in almost every school in the world, even in those countries where English is not an official or national language. In fact even in countries where the English language is not a priority, it is still of major importance in the so called International schools. These are schools in countries where children of expatriates go and those of the rich go to; these could be children of ministers, governors, ambassadors, presidents or leading businessmen. The English Language boasts of about 360 million speakers all over the world.

By Angela Kyolaba

For more information about our services click here.

Could Malagasy Be Africa’s Most Interesting Language?

Not many people actually know what Malagasy is, so it helps to start with the basics. Malagasy is the native language of Madagascar, spoken by around 18 million people in that beautiful island country located in the Indian Ocean in the Southeast coast of Africa. Interestingly, the people of Madagascar are also called Malagasy, little wonder the language is spoken throughout the country.

Even of more peculiar interest is that Madagascar is not a Malagasy word but a corrupted version of Madagasikara, which is the indigenous name of the country. However, Madagascar is more known, thanks to its popularization by the Europeans after it was first recorded by 15^th century explorer Marco Polo.

Malagasy remains a rich language that unites all the people of Madagascar and makes communication and interdependence easy even in its capital city Antananarivo. This is why Malagasy shares the status of official national language with French, the lingua franca of Madagascar’s former colonisers from whom independence was attained in 1960.

The origin and distinctness of Malagasy

Malagasy originates from Indonesia but also borrows from Arabic and Bantu languages and more recently from French and English. What continues to pique the curiosity of linguists is how that language has passed the test of time by remaining the only language spoken in this large island country with diverse ecosystems separated from one another by forests, deserts, mountains and rivers, yet there are over 60 languages spoken in Uganda alone.

Malagasy has managed to stay strong and popular, thanks in large part, to the artistic and oratorical way it has been passed down from one generation to another. Madagascar’s oral tradition is rich and distinct; poetry, public discourses and proverbs have kept the language intact because of the country’s strong oral history.

The overreliance on oral history to commemorate the country’s past key events whilst preserving their language and traditional beliefs only began to change with the introduction of the written form. However, Malagasy remains the language of instruction in all public schools, which explains why written Malagasy is far different from spoken Malagasy.

The language of love?

Islands are often associated with romance – places where newlywed couples and lovers with hearts pounding with the chemistry of love go to unwind. Madagascar being an island nation is no exception. Most people take their honeymoons there, but to maximize your stay it helps if you know and speak Malagasy. Luckily, in 1818 the London Missionary Society sent some missionaries to Madagascar; they evangelized the nation and translated the Bible into the Malagasy language, so you can pick a few Malagasy words by reading the Malagasy Bible.

Certainly there are also some Malagasy dictionaries that you can buy online from Amazon to teach yourself Malagasy—a language whose alphabet is the same as the English alphabet but with only letters C, Q, U, W, and X missing. Malagasy diplomats are spreading their language to France, Belgium and Washington, D.C., where it is growing in popularity, which is why the Malagasy translation services are now much sought-after. Here are some of other language translation services you may happen to need;

Somali translation services

Tigrinya translation services

Yoruba translation Services

Africa Conference Interpreters

Africa Financial Translation

Africa Legal Translation

Ghana Translation Services

Somalia translation services

Why African Website Translation Services are Necessary

There is a possibility that potential customers and consumers of a particular product or service especially in Africa visit other websites other than their favorite for purchase of products because those websites are using a language that they understand best thus making African Website Translation Services a pre-requisite.

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Why African Website Translation Services are Necessary

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