I helped translate for an article in the today's business section of the Toronto Star.
Canadian businessman Frank Stronach is starting a political party in his native Austria. Vanessa Lu, one of our savvy business reporters, was on the story and seeking help with some German-language articles.
The Star has an internal list of the languages spoken by people on-staff. Our native germanophone was on holiday, so I got an email asking to interpret an article and a video. I'm not so great at speaking German, but I can read an article with little help from a dictionary, and understand most of a normal conversation.
It only took about 20 minutes to watch a rather confrontational interview and read through an Austrian web post.
It was good to be a useful intern, and to make a contact. Something I really value about working at a large newspaper is the ability to share resources. We're constantly busy, but everyone in editorial seems willing to share sources, pointers and skills to make our reporting the best it can be.
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