It's not just words: it isn't unusual to face a language barrier at work. That's when translators come to the rescue. But theirs is not a simple job of language conversion. Much more goes into the business of translation and interpretation. Swiss News finds out.

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It's not just words: it isn't unusual to face a language barrier at work. That's when translators come to the rescue. But theirs is not a simple job of language conversion. Much more goes into the business of translation and interpretation. Swiss News finds out.

'Hat die Katze sich Ihre Zunge verfangen?' said an English-speaking friend of mine to another Swiss friend. The meaning was clear to me, she meant, "Has the cat caught your tongue?" but our Swiss friend looked flabbergasted! The sentence in its German form had lost all meaning and made no sense to her whatsoever. That's when another bilingual friend came to the rescue and made matters dear, stating what our English speaker meant was "Du hast wohl die Sprache verloren!"

Well, talk of languages--they are just the beginning of all (mis)communication. And to sort life out--especially at work, through serious discussions--thank your lucky stars for translators and interpreters.

Brief introductions

Recently, Swiss News spoke with two professionals in the fiel...

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