KVIFF prides itself on being an international affair, welcoming many filmmakers and stars from all over the world. Consequently, everything is in English as well as Czech - subtitles, film information, signs. And all of these are produced at a high professional standard. There is one exception, however. Before many of the films, there is an introduction, and these, like everything else, are in Czech and English. And during almost every one of these, I have been quite disappointed by the number of mistakes that appear in the translations.

These mistakes, sadly, go beyond the slight errors that one might excuse - after all, the translators are under considerable pressure to immediately translate on the spot. And, as a language student, I recognise the difficulty of this task. But these are professionals - one would expect that they know that the English for 'form' is not 'blanket'. Having done a TEFL course, I know that this would be considered quite a serious error, as it is funny. Which blankets? I wouldn't mind a blanket, actually, it gets quite cold in the main hall. In general, explaining how to use the voting forms for the Pravo Audience Award seems to cause considerable difficulty. I have heard many weird and wonderful versions of the instruction, "tear the form in the appropriate place", from mispronunciations to suggestions of circling or writing choices. Why should this be? After all, the instructions are written in perfect English on the forms themselves.. Furthermore, one would expect that a translator at a film festival would know the appropriate vocabulary to describe high definition digital picture..

A mere three hours ago, I saw an introduction where, though the translator obviously was very proficient: her vocabulary was very good, her knowledge of grammar excellent; there were problems with the use of the definite and indefinite articles, and misuse of tenses, and "junior" was pronounced as "yunior", as well as use of incorrect idioms. In every translation I hear, there is at least a handful of mistakes.

My embarrassment grows every time I hear the phrase "Welcome in the Great Hall of the Thermal Hotel". The expression "welcome" never takes the preposition 'in' in English but, of course, 'to'. Even the better translators make this basic mistake, and with this first sentence, Karlovy Vary's professionalism receives a blow.

How is the Czech Republic, this new EU member, to stand with integrity as a member of the international community with poor translators? It is quite embarrassing to hear error-riddled English at an international event, and visitors (and there are a large number of them) will inevitably say to themselves, "ah, bless, the little Czech Republic, they're only wee after all.".

Another problem with this translation business is the frequent failure to convey tone and attitude of the introductions. Many of them are light hearted and amusing, and indeed part of the charm of this festival is its jovial atmosphere. Those who do not speak Czech miss out on all of this as some of the rather plank-like translators merely relate the words of the introducers. Isn't this quite cliquey and unfair? We are going to have a laugh, but sorry, you can't join in..

Of course I can't ignore the fact that all this can seem quite unfair - would an English film festival have to translate everything for its visitors? Most likely not. And I can't disregard the fact that the general English speaking populous is not known for its proficiency in foreign languages. Visitors to this festival receive a warm round of applause for uttering "dobrý den". But is that the issue here? No, it's not. Fair or not, English is the international language, and any other country which hosts an international event must be professional in translating the on goings for its visitors.