The World Cup is a grand mixture of cultures and languages. Athletes and fans from just about every continent except Antarctica (maybe penguins will field a team someday) take part in the biggest soccer tournament and sporting event on the planet. This makes the international translation service for the World Cup a pretty big deal.
Since the Brazilians aren’t famous for their language ability — other than Portuguese, of course — different places offering an international translation service are pretty important for the games to run as smoothly as possible.
An incredible example of the creative thinking that goes into an international translation service can be seen in how a Korean non-profit language service tackled this problem. The Koreans learned how to deal with many different languages colliding together in a big fashion. And they did so in a very cool way.
The service — initially developed for the World Cup hosted by Japan and Korea in 2002 — is actually fairly simple to use, and it’s quite popular in Brazil right now.
When people need something interpreted, they can call a phone service called the ‘Before Babel Brigade.’ Foreigners in Brazil can dial a number in order to get help in seven languages: English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and Korean. Once someone dials in, they are automatically connected with interpreters who can speak one of the seven languages on offer.
The 24-hour service will be available throughout Brazil’s World Cup hosting gig. Thousands of volunteers make this international translation service, as well as emergency interpreting service (dealing with the police, visits to the emergency room), possible. It’s an ingenious idea, funded by Korea’s Samsung Corporation. And for folks with smart phones and tablets, the Before Babel Brigade even offers a handy app.
