Make very sure when you choose your foreign languages at the end of first year you pick the right one
There is just no other way to say it but this is right up there in our reporting nightmares. How are you supposed to cover an event when you have no idea what anyone is saying. We’re lucky here that we don’t have to cover many events that wouldn’t be in English.
That’s why we have enormous pity and sympathy for Ben Bloom of the Telegraph today who had to try and live blog an event in a language that he has absolutely no clue about. He had to try and cover the decison of Jurgen Klopp to quit as Borussia Dortmund manager at an event conducted entirely in German.
In fairness he flagged the problem pretty early on,
Not sure I've ever regretted dropping German post-GCSE as much as I do now, while live blogging a Borussia Dortmund press conference
— Ben Bloom (@benbloomsport) April 15, 2015
But in stiff upper lip tradition, and as part of the journalist code that paper never refuses ink and a keyboard never refuses a heavy index finger, he ploughed on. Deeper and deeper into a hole of his own making.
On the internet there is nowhere to hide so we’re not sure why he begged the globe not to fess him up to his boss,
It seems later however that he did indeed pick up some German from the day’s events in Dortmund
Was ist geschehen? Und wo soll das noch hinführen?
— Ben Bloom (@benbloomsport) April 15, 2015
H/T Bleacher Report
