Gault is supposed to put in the effort to learn a new language and you wouldn't even take the effort to register a name on this message board? How ironic.
He gets paid to cover the sport. I don’t get paid to post here. Big difference!
Exactly. He should be fluent in at least 30 different languages by now, he's been doing this long enough. It's just lazy journalism.
No need to learn anything - the infrastructure for interpreter services already exists. Just need an ipad, hire any interpreter company that hospitals use, and have the athlete place on a headset. Can you imagine the insights into training that could have been obtained in this conversation with Gidey (pre and post race) if she was able to speak comfortably?
No need to learn anything - the infrastructure for interpreter services already exists. Just need an ipad, hire any interpreter company that hospitals use, and have the athlete place on a headset. Can you imagine the insights into training that could have been obtained in this conversation with Gidey (pre and post race) if she was able to speak comfortably?
Post of the year! You’re already flying over there what’s another hundred or so for a service like this or get a local student.
I appreciate LR effort, next time hopefully will be better.
When I travel I just use google translate and show then the results. That person will type a response and so the exchange goes. But it’s impossible to translate and film 😄 so you’d need an assistant anyway.
I also have an el cheapo $20 wireless mic set from amazon. Its tiny and light came with two mics, would vastly improve audio quality, no need for rhode prices.
No need to learn anything - the infrastructure for interpreter services already exists. Just need an ipad, hire any interpreter company that hospitals use, and have the athlete place on a headset. Can you imagine the insights into training that could have been obtained in this conversation with Gidey (pre and post race) if she was able to speak comfortably?
No no, it’s better to repeatedly yell at the athlete in question in your own language and get increasingly upset when she doesn’t understand
Exactly. He should be fluent in at least 30 different languages by now, he's been doing this long enough. It's just lazy journalism.
I only asked him to learn one.
So learning a language like Tigrayan is something that can be done in a weekend. You are obviously a master of many different languages - and so many other things, I'm sure.
There's a reason why interviews are rarely conducted in the interviewee's native language. People end up with poor interviews. It doesn't matter about the translation, that's the easy part. Unless the interviewer is fluent the questions asked are wrong and the interviewer can't understand or respond to anything said, so no follow-up questions can be asked. You try and go up to someone in the street and conduct an interview in French if you don't speak French and they do. It will be a load of sht as you won't know what they're saying or where to take the interview. This is why the interviews are in English because even if the interviewee's English is 'poor' it's way, way better than the Tigrinya or Amharic or whatever of the interviewer.
Even if the interviewer studies the language for a few months they still won't be good enough to conduct a decent interview. When I learnt Spanish after about 12 weeks we had to do a one or two minute presentation on a subject of our choice at the end of the class. You'd be shocked at how much people struggled and that's speaking for a minute with unlimited time for preparation, memorising, nothing to respond to, no questions.
You want him to study Tigrinya but what about Amharic, all of the other languages. Also look at their alphabet:
Tigrinya (ትግርኛ; also spelled Tigrigna) is an Ethiopian Semitic language commonly spoken in Eritrea and in northern Ethiopia's Tigray Region. It is also spoken by the global diaspora of these regions. Indigenous people in the...
For him or anyone to get up to interview level is going to take a lot. I don't think people realise just how good the English is of most of these athletes to be able to say what they say/respond etc.
There's a reason why interviews are rarely conducted in the interviewee's native language. People end up with poor interviews. It doesn't matter about the translation, that's the easy part. Unless the interviewer is fluent the questions asked are wrong and the interviewer can't understand or respond to anything said, so no follow-up questions can be asked. You try and go up to someone in the street and conduct an interview in French if you don't speak French and they do. It will be a load of sht as you won't know what they're saying or where to take the interview. This is why the interviews are in English because even if the interviewee's English is 'poor' it's way, way better than the Tigrinya or Amharic or whatever of the interviewer.
Even if the interviewer studies the language for a few months they still won't be good enough to conduct a decent interview. When I learnt Spanish after about 12 weeks we had to do a one or two minute presentation on a subject of our choice at the end of the class. You'd be shocked at how much people struggled and that's speaking for a minute with unlimited time for preparation, memorising, nothing to respond to, no questions.
You want him to study Tigrinya but what about Amharic, all of the other languages. Also look at their alphabet:
For him or anyone to get up to interview level is going to take a lot. I don't think people realise just how good the English is of most of these athletes to be able to say what they say/respond etc.
All of this assumes that there will be profound insights offered in pre/post-race interviews with athletes. Really? We are talking jocks not geniuses here.
Sorry that I don't speak Tigray. Or Amharic. Would you rather I don't try to interview her at all?
I’d rather you learn their language. You’re a professional journalist who covers long distance running. It’s reasonable to ask that you devote time to learning the language of the athletes who dominate the sport you cover.
Among the big 3 East African countries whose athletes dominate long distance running, you’re fortunate that English is one of the official languages of Kenya and Uganda, which means athletes from those countries can be expected to speak English. So that just leaves Ethiopia as the only one of the big 3 countries that doesn’t have English as an official language. Just learn the language that’s most common among those runners. All it takes is effort.
So learning a language like Tigrayan is something that can be done in a weekend. You are obviously a master of many different languages - and so many other things, I'm sure.
Who said it could be done in a weekend? Obviously it takes more of a commitment than that. Gault is not a new letsrun employee, and Ethiopians are not new to the running scene. He’s had plenty of time to prepare.
This journalist speaks six (6!) languages. Why can’t Gault learn just one extra language? Do you not believe in his intelligence?
Well you know, one thing I've noticed with foreigners in my lifetime is that when the heat comes on them it's suddenly, "English not good, I don't speak English." Even though they speak it well. So I'd assume if he asked a doping question--and she's an obvious doper, I'd bet my life on it--she could suddenly pretend her English is incompetent.
You do not need to pretend that your English is poor.
