Guest Blog! Voices From Home in Faraway Lands

As a bilingual voice talent, I am always interested in language, its use as well as the affect that voiceover in a certain language can have someone. 

So when I found out that my friend Stephanie Ciccarelli from Voices.com had recently gone to Paris with her husband David (who took the picture at left!), I was not only jealous (it has been over 7 years since I've been back to Paris!) but I was really interested in her experience.

Thus...the blog post below! Enjoy!

Peace!

Liz

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Voices From Home in Faraway Lands
By Stephanie Ciccarelli

Have you ever stopped to think about the voice over industry in terms of language services?

Most of the people reading this article are likely English speakers or are fluent speakers of the language.  As a fellow English speaker, raised in a bilingual country (Canada), I recently traveled abroad and spent some time in Paris, France.   Like any tourist would, I invested in a museum pass, took in as much of the city as I could and experienced nearly a thousand years of French history through audio guides.

Let me tell you, audio guides are absolutely fantastic!  Even though I had a good understanding of French and was familiar enough with the culture to grasp my surroundings, I cannot express enough how crucial it is that tourists have access to recordings in their own languages to enrich their experiences while immersed in a language other than their mother tongue.

Audio guides were available in a number of different formats, some on personal audio players and others through recorded announcements for all to hear.   Companies that produce audio guides usually produce their guides in a handful of languages and commonly seek out narrators who are native speakers of English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Korean.  Those are just some of the languages available and I’m confident that other languages are in demand, too.

From personal experience, the audio guide serves as a bridge that fills the gap between feeling isolated and somewhat at home.

Whether you’re strolling through a curated exhibit at The Louvre, riding along the Seine on one of Paris’ famous Bateaux-Mouches cruising vessels or discovering more about how the great Cathedral of Notre Dame was restored, an audio guide may make the difference between having context and missing the bigger picture.

Based upon my encounters with voices from home in a faraway land, I’m sure others feel the same way about how important it is to be connected, even if only through an audio recording to a storyteller who speaks your own language and can share experiences with you.

Wouldn’t you agree?

Before I go, I want to say thank you to one of my favorite bilingual friends, Liz de Nesnera, for having me here on her blog.  I hope you have enjoyed this piece!

Warm regards,

Stephanie Ciccarelli
Co-founder of Voices.com
Editor of VOX Daily