That interpreter should go hide his head in a bucket.... what a disgrace and with that smug, arrogant look! Chinese translation = utter failure Indonesian translation = utter failure, he did not translate Hendra's mention of how it's INA's national day tomorrow and winning this made him happy. Can we write in to BWF to complain about this?
I spun this thread off for our international audience feedback. It's a way of collating feedback on user impressions of post-match interviews. I see it as an important part of presentation of personalities to the world. It's part of impressing the sponsors to show them badminton players are marketable and worth more sponsorship. Gary Lim's post above refers to the 2015 World Championships final where Indonesian were champions. Other really bad things I saw before were: A previous Singapore Open - the interviewer lady spoke English at a zillion miles an hour. I am a native speaker of English and I thought she spoke fast. So I don't know how the player (whose speaks English as a second or third language) is expected to cope. HK Open - there is a Cantonese interviewer who repeats what the a mainland China player says in Chinese Mandarin into Cantonese. Any other player gets asked in their own language and translated into Cantonese. Where the heck is the English translation for the international audience??? Just to show I am not a moaner, I thought 2015 All England post-finals match interviews were pretty good.
I think these brilliant Chinese Shuttlers should spend half-an hour in a week learning English, especially Chen Long who seems to be the Poster Boy of Badminton for years to come.To me,these translations seems to be forced and i can't connect with the Badminton Player's emotions at all.I was impressed that Zhang Nan knows what's a 'Sorry'.
Why don't you learn Chinese instead? I have a feeling a decade or two from now, the official language of IOC and BWF will be changed to Chinese.
I am not sure these players learn much English. Certainly all other school kids in China from primary are required to learn English and by in large, have fairly decent English reading skills on finishing high school. But their verbal and listening skills are extremely weak. Not something that 30 mins a week can help. Maybe 30mins a day would get you to working proficiency - Not sure if it can get you to a level of being comfortable making speeches and presentations. I agree that it's difficult to connect with the translations, but that is dependent on the quality of the translator. Also, I think that some pre-arranged interview outline might be good for players to know the night before their matches. Before their matches, all players in the finals are given a short list of two or three questions that they might be asked, and then they have to plan what they say. They discuss with the translator about it. That would help them not looking so lost when they are asked a question and have some idea on what they want to talk. Then later, when on camera the player can talk in a semi-rehearsed manner. The translator also has an easier time of it. It's extremely intimidating to stand in front of a camera knowing that your words are going out to a world wide audience unless you have had a lot of experience doing it before. Public speaking, for many people, is what they dread even more than death! Fortunately, public speaking is something that can be improved upon with adequate preparation.
Frankly, I'd preferred them not talking to the players directly after the match. Neither the MC nor the players were prepared at that point to ask or answer anything that are useful or insightful to the game. I don't expect players to speak the truth anyway, or it would've gone something like this: [video=youtube;7PH35C7Fhq0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PH35C7Fhq0[/video]
Timng is a good point. Should they be interviewed during the prize presentation just after stepping down from the podium? Should it be a BWF senior person or a senior tournament official to give thanks to the players and to lead an interview?
Hmm... something like this? [video=youtube;33N8hN0mxT8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33N8hN0mxT8[/video]
This would be better for the quarter final stages. I think tennis has a very good presentation style for their grand slams. I was talking to a former SuperSeries winner yesterday on this whole issue. I asked if players were given any training on presentation style and technique. Reply - "None"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTu3lpTvQ2k BWF should get more credible translators like this lady here, this is really good translating, not only she translated with details, she minimizes everything that could go 'lost in translation', perfect example of what kind of translator we need for the game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB701hDQ_u8 here's another impeccable translating from Chinese to Japanese, no offense to Indonesian but I found a lot of their translators are a bit dodgy, missing on details, and too many things will go lost in translation, seen them translating Chinese, Japanese and English but not good on too many occassions that they should prolly consider getting somebody more professional or capable of what they're doing.
I haven't seen those press interviews before. The All England one is really good! They must have prepared the questions beforehand. Won't comment on the Japanese one as I know no Japanese. We need more of these type of interviews going up when live after the finals and still on the showcase court. BWF have made a lot of strides and demands in improving SuperSeries events. When they award the next round to countries, TV interviews and translators and requirements need to be higher. It's can't be that difficult to do.
In my Times of India newspaper today, Chen Long's words after winning: "Lee is a good player But I was better today.This is a very special arena and so it feels great to win the world title here." Is this what he said? coz I didn't watch the interview that time.
我觉得不管说是印尼的球迷还是国内的球迷，我觉得我很开心 I think no matter fans from Indonesia or from domestic(China), I feel very happy 我觉得他（李宗伟）一直都是一个前辈吧，自己更多做的事是去追赶他，我觉得自己今天做得也不错，当然我觉得我和宗伟之间打得非常的好，最后可能我的运气稍微好一些 I think he(LCW) has always been a senior to me, I have done most is to chase him, I think I have done well today. Of course both Chongwei and me played very well today, at last maybe I have more luck than him. 我觉得很开心吧，确实作为中国男子单打在印尼，夺得单项的冠军，我觉得确实很少，可能要很久以前，所以我觉得不管是我有没拿冠军，我觉得还是要感谢全场的球迷吧， I feel very happy. As Chinese men’s singe in Indonesia, to win this champion, I think it’s very rare, maybe long time ago, so I think no matter I win the champion or not, I think I have to thank fans in this stadium.
Here's another example of the same lady translating for Wang Shixian, her translation was really spot on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLLROzNBYoI Some of really good example of translating by our translators in Japan Open. Sorry for those who doesn't know Japanese, but their translation are excellent. Indonesian to Japanese https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBKD0MI9jK4 Korean to Japanese https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X25aIYOpjTQ BWF should find people with really high command and proficiency of both languages like these people on the links. Their level of translating/interpreting is really professional, don't miss out on details, conveying the technical aspect of what the players mentioned and the nuance don't become 'lost in translation' like what happened to some of the lower level translators.
BWF can set the requirements and the conditions. The actual person hired as translator or MC is the responsibility of that tournament's organising committee.
Well Nadal, Halep, Inzy, even Manny when the started managed fine without English..... BWF can't hide its poor marketing efforts under the garb that many top players do not speak English..... 4 Billion Asians, Are the BWF trying to say there are no Asian companies to reach out to??? Golf and tennis grew in sponsorship, because very shrewedly their executives in the US/Europe organised pro-Ams and promoted these two as an office sport.... If BWF organises pro-ams and starts promoting badminton as Asia's #1 office sports (which at an unorganised level is true for many Indian and Indonesian and Chinese and Malaysian etc. officegoers already), we can see our sponsorship incomes increase I believe.... Players first focus needs to be their games, not interviews in a language they are not yet proficient.... Its the organisers duty to provide proper translations.... And I think BWF WORLD tv show does good translation...
