Reading Chronicle launches in Poland

HIS week sees the launch of The Chronicle's first Polish edition and it would not have been possible without the translators and linguists Berkshire-based Prestige Network.

Prestige was established in 1991 by brother and sister Shawn Khorassoni and Shohreh Flemming, caters for all language and communications needs in the public sector including central and local government departments, the NHS, charities and the police.

The company has also built a reputation with high technology companies Apple, Microsoft and Quark who refer inquiries from their own customers.

Business development director, Mr Khorassani, 45, from Newbury, said: "This is a ground-breaking project and no mainline newspaper has created a supplement in another language.

"We are excited about it and we will be promoting this at our end.

"This idea will be capturing a bigger end of the market for people who don't speak English and yet they all have to contribute to society and the growth of the economy."

His 18-member team is based at Thatcham Business Village at Colthrop but Prestige has two other branches in London and Edinburgh.

Project manager Salome Wagh, 31, from Woodley, said: "We provide a range of 160 language services including dialects, which all include translation, interpreting, voiceovers, sub-titling and website localisation.

"We have a very large database of 3,000 linguists.

"When we get literature from our clients we try to see what the target audience is and who it is aimed for and, after proofing the copy in English, we send it to the relevant linguist.

"Once it is translated, we then check it against the original papers.

"Two translators are carrying out the work of translating the Reading Chronicle into the Polish language.

"There are different stories written by different reporters, so it will be nice to use a couple of translators to give a different flavour to each article."

Source:icberkshire.icnetwork.co.uk