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Page last updated at 15:58 GMT, Friday, 10 December 2010
Meet the man paid to translate the Geordie dialect
Paul Davy
Paul Davy has been hired as a Geordie interpreter

Is the Geordie accent sometimes so undecipherable that it needs translating?

After placing a job advert for a Geordie translator, the London-based translation company Today Translations has now filled the position.

The firm has hired exiled-Geordie Paul Davy, an experienced interpreter.

Geordie isn't the only British dialect to get this treatment. Today Translations has also hired Glaswegian and Scouse translators.

Experienced translator

The company received 160 applications in response to its advert for a Geordie translator.

But it was Paul, who is originally from Fenham, Newcastle, who came out on top.

He had previously lived in Chile working as a translator, interpreter and English teacher, but he thinks his previous experience may have swung it for him.

He said: "Talking about this specific experience may be why I got the job: helping my [Chilean] wife when she moved to Newcastle.

"She speaks really good English, but she had a bit of trouble at first understanding Geordies."

Helping Southerners

So what will his job entail? He said: "It's helping out Southerners and foreign businesses, helping out with business meetings and things like that, just providing the reassurances that businesses sometimes need.

"For example someone might come in from overseas they might speak English really well, but I've found a few times that they have a bit of trouble picking up Geordie accents or different words or sometimes the intonation."




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