SICK soccer fans who do not speak English will not have to worry about their needs being lost in translation when they seek medical help during this Fifa World Cup. A major pharmacy chain has introduced a translation system to help bridge the language divide between pharmacists and their customers who cannot speak South African languages. Jan Roos, head of Clicks pharmacy operations, said the biggest thing was to help our customers in their home language, and it was quite important that they understood how to use the drugs that they required. Roos said his pharmacies will use an online translation system operated by Yahoo, known as babelfish. Sick foreign customers will type a complete sentence describing their symptoms, in their indigenous language, into the computer. The sentence will be translated into English for the pharmacist who will then be able to dispense the appropriate medication there and then, explaining which medicines to take and giving the correct doses.

Harriet McLea: The Times, 17 May 2010