A session was run at this weekend’s ITI Conference on the opportunity for linguists at the London Olympic Games in 2012. The speaker was from the London Regional Language Network and I must admit to being a bit disappointed by the relevance of the session. It was definitely a case of preaching to the converted. Most of the 30 minute session was spent convincing us of the importance of languages in business and industry and lamenting the woeful state of language ability among the UK work force. Yes, yes, we know… we’re translators, remember??!!
All that aside, I’m not convinced the London Olympic Games will deliver many opportunities to professional translators. Certainly, the Games will offer us a chance to flex our linguistic muscles, but business opportunities will be indirect and possibly hard to find, e.g. via agencies for companies bidding for work (tender process is almost over now) or possibly for those companies interested in supplying products with their overseas contingencies.
I know this as I attended a much more informative session at the ATC’s annual conference in September last year, where the president of the Hellenic Association of Translation Companies offered advice for translation companies following the Athens Games. Only 150 people were employed in language services for the Sydney Games. An estimated 70,000 volunteers will be required to help at the London Games. I have a sneaking suspicion that what will happen is they’ll basically be delighted to have anybody with any kind of language knowledge who is willing to muck in and give a hand. This will be great for language students or those with a general interest in language (including us professionals) who will be motivated by being part of such a historic event. But business opportunies for translators? I don’t think so.
About the author
Sarah Dillon is a qualified, accredited and experienced professional translator originally from Co. Clare in Ireland. She specialises in producing English-language texts that don't "sound" like translations, ensuring her clients' message has the desired impact in their overseas market. She is based in Brisbane, Australia and works with corporate clients, small businesses, agencies and nonprofit organisations all over the world. In her spare time, Sarah is also Marketing Director of eCPD Webinars.
Sarah Dillon has written 252 posts for There's Something About Translation.
{ 3 comments }
ha sarah, i read you article, which i found very interesting because i am an italian language student in english, german, russian and spanish. at the moment i am writing my final thesis in vienna.
i would really love to work as a translator at the london olympic games in 2012. do you have any advice for me? where could i send my cv? thanks a lot in advance!
best regards, karin
Hello Sarah
My family have been living in Spain for 5 years , and my children have been going to school out there. My son Oliver is now 16 and fluent Spanish, he will be 18 when the London olympics arrive and he would love to do translation. He is also very sport minded and this would also help . Where would i find out where any oppotunity may arise for him to translate at the olympics.
Regards Paul Gutridge
Three years on from writing this post and people are starting to write to me by email and in comments to ask me how they can get language work for the Olympic Games… but I’m sorry to say I just don’t know.
It’s the paid, professional work that I’m interested in, and as I explained in my post, I don’t expect much of this will result from the Games. I’m afraid I haven’t seen anything over the past three years that would change my opinion.
As for more ad-hoc, volunteer or unprofessional opportunities, especially in the area of interpreting – well, this isn’t my area at all, so I’m really not the person to be asking about this (I don’t even live in London anymore. I’m in Australia). I don’t even know who you *would* ask, off the top of my head… so sorry, but you’ll have to keep researching.
However if you *do* know of any such opportunities, and would like to let me know about them, do feel free to drop me a line. Good luck!