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Speeches that have to be translated as you go - any tips?

  • 27-07-2010 10:25am
    #1
    joker77
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,111 ✭✭✭


    Hi,

    My brother is getting married next week over in Switzerland and half the audience will be Swiss, who speak Swiss German and some of them won't have any English. I'm the Best Man, so for my speech it will have to be translated.

    My sister is going to do this for me, she's been living in Germany nearly 15 years and is fluent, so her German isn't a problem and they'll understand this fine.

    I'm fairly sh*tting it, am not great on the public speaking, and am only starting to put ideas together now for the speech. I'm not going to try to be a comedian, just keep it short and sweet - it only needs to be 3/4 minutes or so as it will double in length being translated as I go. The plan at the moment is for me to say a sentence or do and the sister to then translate into German.

    Just wanted to know has anyone any experience of this, and if so would you have any tips?

    Cheers,
    The nervous wreck.


Comments

  • #2
    Dub6Kevin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 144 ✭✭Dub6Kevin


    The easiest way to do this is to write out the speech in advance and give your sister a copy.

    That way she can translate it ahead of time and you can agree the breaks to allow her to say the words in German.

    Good luck.

    K


  • #3
    Bill2673
    Closed Accounts Posts: 749 ✭✭✭Bill2673


    I had a similar situation when my brother got married. His wife is German and he got married in Italy. There were more Irish than Germans there. We had never met her family before.

    I started the speech with a few words in English, howya folks basically, then spoke in German for about three minutes. This bit, I worked out in advance what I wanted to say, got an Irish girl living in Germany to translate it, practised saying it with the pronunciation right. I made it very courteous with no jokes or attempts to be funny or smart. I more or less read it out, but made sure I was looking over at her parents as I was saying it also. Then when that was over, I launched into the speech in English, which to be honest was the more difficult bit as i wasn't reading off script.

    I don't think you need to say the same thing in German and English, it is not the same audience, what you are saying in German is specific to the inlaws.

    Anyway, they greatly appreciated the effort. Writing it out and then translating it is not difficult. They won't mind you more or less reading it. The key thing is getting the pronunciation right so you can be understood. Speak slowly and clearly. (Think of a German speaking English, what accent do they have, and then speak German in that accent ....thats what works for me anyway).


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