Café Slavia’s 132-year history

Café Slavia's 132-year history | November 2016

Though my sidebar on this iconic Prague café, referred to in Czech as Kavárna Slavia, is definitely on the short side, I view it as a major accomplishment seeing as it is the first story I've ever written with the use of a translator. Because my main interview for the story spoke very little English, I asked my Czech colleague Eva to accompany me to the café.

I quickly discovered that interviewing sources through a translator is not as simple as it seems. In this situation, the journalist must put all of his or her trust in the translator to accurately impart meaning, and there is always the chance that certain quotes will be, as cliché as it sounds, "lost in translation."

To counter this problem, I was sure to phrase my questions in as few and as simple words as possible, and was careful not to use any English phrases that may not have a Czech equivalent.