Footballers’ ‘wives’: the interpreters who are a lifeline in China

Shanghai (AFP) – Rafa Benitez says his Chinese-language interpreter is always by his side and former Barcelona defender Sergi Barjuan joked that his translator was like his wife, because they were together so much.

At training, matches and press conferences in China, the interpreters are always close by — but they get scant attention and are paid far less than the coaches or players they help.

But Benitez and other foreigners in Chinese football would not be able to do their jobs without their interpreters, who also play a crucial role in everyday life.

Benitez, a Champions League winner as Liverpool manager, said soon after arriving at Dalian Yifang in July that communication was his biggest challenge.

“You always have an interpreter at your side shadowing you,” the 59-year-old Spaniard, who speaks good English, wrote on his blog.

“Mine, Justin, is copying my gestures at training and at the matches and each day we are more in sync,” he added, highlighting just how critical the dynamic is.

– Filtering out ‘sharp words’ –

Interpreters are not unique to China: former Chelsea, Real Madrid and Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho famously started out as a translator, and worked for England’s Bobby Robson when he managed Barcelona.

But the difficulty many people have learning Chinese and the lack of English in the country as a whole has spawned an industry of football interpreters, almost always young and male.

One of them is Hong Wenjie, right-hand man to coach Dragan Stojkovic at Guangzhou R&F, who like Benitez’s Dalian are in the top-tier Chinese Super League.

The 29-year-old Chinese, who can speak English and Spanish, describes his job as “a bridge”.

He has been Stojkovic’s interpreter since the Serbian, who speaks English, French and Italian, arrived at the club in August 2015. 

“The challenges were more at the beginning. I needed to know about the coach’s personality, habits and his football philosophy,” said Hong, who once did a stint as a tour guide.

Language skill is one thing, Hong said, but you also need to know football jargon and have an intricate understanding of the game.

Being a “bridge” is not always a comfortable place to be, especially when feelings are running high in the changing room at half-time or after a defeat.

Hong said he sometimes uses his own discretion to water down some of Stojkovic’s more scathing remarks.

“Everyone understands that only when you really love the team, you will have such a strong emotion,” he said.

from World Soccer Talk https://ift.tt/36g7zdh