Bilingual Best Man Speech

RE*AC*TOR

Ok, so my best friend is marrying his Italian fiancée soon (in Italy). I'm best man.

I reckon I will have to give my speech bilingually. None of the Irish crowd know Italian, and I think only a small amount of the Italian crowd know english.

First off, I don't know Italian. But I imagine I can learn it off, if I get it translated.

Any suggestions on the best way of doing this?

I guess I could do one "paragraph" in English, then repeat in Italian and move through the speech like that. (Like the Eurovision Song Contest). That seems the best to me. I would have to possibly get his fiancée to translate it phonetically for me first.

zenith

I'd go with the powerpoint of embarassing baby pictures, if it was me, and other sight gags.

bonkey

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

Ok, so my best friend is marrying his Italian fiancée soon (in Italy). I'm best man.

I reckon I will have to give my speech bilingually. None of the Irish crowd know Italian, and I think only a small amount of the Italian crowd know english.

Alternately, check if Italy is one of those places where, for example, the bridesmaid also makes a speech (as is the case here in Switzerland apparently).

My best man is Irish, and herself's bridesmaid is Swiss. We need two languages handled. I see no problem

If the bridesmaid does make a speech, speaks english and Italian, and you can get in touch with her, arrange a double-speech, wher eyou deliver a bit in English, then she delivers the same bit in Italian and so on.

jc

RE*AC*TOR

I had thought of getting a webcam, a laptop and a projector, and subtitling myself in real-time.

But then I thought it was a bit OTT.

At some point you cross a line where it become tacky and tasteless.

Gandhi

At my cousin's wedding she had one of the bridesmaids (Irish girl living in France) act as interpreter for the speeches. She did a good job, too.

Only thing is, you have to make sure any jokes are not plays on words, so that they translate well.

babaduck

We were at a friend's wedding in Spain & the witnesses don't make speeches, so they were treated to both a Best Man/Bridesmaid and speeches!

A Spanish friend acted as translator for the BM (he gave her a copy of his speech in advance so she could translate the jokes etc.)

Worked incredibly well

GAA widow

i've a bit of Italian - have found that Italians have a very similar sense of humour to Irish people - they get the "self-deprecating" and "slagging" styles (unlike Americans generally). Italians also love to hear a few words in Italian - mention something about them winning the World Cup. Something like "Benvenuti - forza azzurri campioni del mondo!"