Ben Bloom, a sports reporter for The Telegraph, was assigned to live blog the press conference on German football manager Jurgen Klopp’s resignation earlier this week, but as soon as the event began, Bloom realized there was a bit of an oversight. He didn’t speak any German.
“Right we have a slight issue… they are speaking in German and my GCSE in the subject isn’t much help,” Bloom wrote as the press conference started and he realized it would not be in English.
Instead of calling it a day, Bloom decided to complete his assignment, except his live blogging was centered on his confusion instead of the story he was sent to cover.
For those following the Bloom’s updates, there was some humor to be found in the coverage. At one point Bloom took a photo of Klopp refilling his glass, writing “I’d love to tell you what Klopp is saying. He is saying a lot. But I can understand precisely none of it. So here’s a photo of him pouring some water instead.”
Towards the end of the embarrassing live blog, Bloom apologized to those who were probably hoping to get updates on the actual news story, saying “I am genuinely sorry about this. I realize this is highly unprofessional. Don’t tell my boss I can’t speak German. He thinks I’m translating this press conference word for word.”
Next time Bloom is asked to cover a foreign event, he will probably be smart enough to check if he knows the language before accepting. That is if there is a next time.
Source: The Telegraph, The Guardian, SBS News
Photo: Tim Reckmann [Flickr]
