Football Season in America and the Need for Simultaneous Interpreting

As football season kicks off in America, fans all over the country are gathering around TV’s in bars and living rooms to watch their team strive for victory. Although some don’t want to hear what the announcers think about the game, there are quite a few fans that would love to see their first language as a new audio option. Just last year, the NFL released a commercial that was exclusively in Spanish; and now ESPN has all the stats and editorials one could imagine on their ESPN Deportes website (covering everything from ‘béisbol’ to ‘boxeo’). So with almost every major sports league in the country adapting to the growing importance of multi-language media platforms, isn’t it about time they offered simultaneous interpreting as well?

Not only could simultaneous interpreting benefit the fans but it could also help the leagues, teams and individual players ease their communication difficulties. American football has been growing in popularity internationally over the past decade and globalization has certainly had a hand in the process. With audio and visual communication setting new standards every year, the likelihood of a non-English speaking professional athlete being bombarded with questions after a game increases by each season. The overall success of any professional sport depends heavily on the relationships established between the teams and their fans; therefore the opportunity to bridge any communication gap between the two should not be overlooked.

Professionalism in post-game interviews is a very difficult thing to maintain when the player is out of breath; and if the player’s first language isn’t English then this difficulty intensifies significantly. The public watching at home or in the stands has little patience for a player searching for the right word or trying to decipher exactly what the question was. Furthermore, it has been proven time and time again that answers given in the player’s mother tongue are more sincere and accurate to the player’s true thoughts (Great example – Rafael Nadal’s Sept. 2013 Interview). So using simultaneous interpreting could help connect the players and fans on a more authentic level, which makes everyone feel closer to the game.

Do you think by next year there could be a live interpreting option for the Super Bowl? If not, then how long will it take? Let us know what you think!

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You may also be interested in the following:

Ebook: A Resource for Working With Interpreters & Simultaneous Interpreting Equipment

Article: Five Things to Remember During Simultaneous Interpretation

Article: 6 Traits to Look for in a Conference Interpreter

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