Interpreters are essential for popular TV programmes!

What TV programmes do you enjoy watching when you have some free time in the evening? Like us, do you enjoy sitting on the couch with some popcorn to watch a family setting up a new life after moving abroad? Apparently we’re not the only ones! Research shows that travel programmes enjoy high viewer ratings. Those of us at home seem to enjoy watching how participants fare as they move into their new place in another country.

Participants usually depart for their destination without having taken an intensive language course. Still, it seems that most of them, after an awkward start, manage to do quite well. How do they manage to communicate with the locals?

It’s not always visible when watching the programme on television, but many of these programmes take an interpreter with them when they travel to a location abroad. Just take a look at the following examples:

  1. The Italian Village (Het Italiaanse Dorp): Ollolai

In ‘The Italian Village: Ollolai’, five families are given the opportunity to purchase a dilapidated house in Sardinia for no more than 1 euro. Each family leaves for the destination within a month, so there’s no time for a comprehensive language course. Participants use Google Translate to communicate in the most basic sense. Some participants don’t even bother reading the sentences aloud. They let the Italians read what’s on their mobile phone display.

But this isn’t the only assistance available to them. Attentive viewers claim that an interpreter accompanied the participants to help them in their Sardinian conversations. Sardinian is an Italian dialect that is only spoken in Sardinia. Due to an unfamiliar accent, the participants had difficulties communicating with the villagers in the beginning, so having an interpreter came in handy. By now, many participants are reasonably fluent in Italian/Sardinian and don’t require the help of Google Translate or an interpreter.

  1. Return to Sender, Memories, From A to B

In the programmes mentioned above, Katja Schuurman travels to all kinds of different points on the globe to meet as many people as possible and hear their special stories. To do this, she likes to engage in conversation with people, and she appreciates having an interpreter along for the journey. With the interpreter’s assistance, Katja is able to delve deeper into the local way of life, something that would have been difficult to do otherwise. Just think about some of the examples she mentions: the sewers of Mexico City, or Chernobyl, where some areas are still radioactive. From our perspective, an interpreter unquestionably brings added value to the programmes she makes.

  1. 3 to traveling

One of the most successful travel programmes continues to be 3 op reis. The programme’s hosts travel all over the world. For some of the more exotic destinations, it’s quite likely that hosts are accompanied by an interpreter who translates as needed. The programme also has its own in-house interpreter: Floortje Dessing. Floortje is actually a certified interpreter, and she now uses her knowledge in practice.

This represents just a handful of TV programmes that take an interpreter along as they set out for distant lands. An interpreter is also useful for business trips abroad. HearHear takes on any challenge and provides interpreters wherever they’re needed, even abroad. Don’t hesitate to engage our services to find you a professional interpreter.