I met a couple of the most interesting people today. They are full-time interpreters for the UN.

Interpreters sit up the back of the room in elevated glass boxes. They look a bit like AFL coaches sitting there. There are six boxes, one for each of the official UN languages (Arabic, English, Russian, Chinese, French and Spanish), with each interpreter beaming down translation into the delegates earpieces.

The two interpreters I spoke to both spoke 5 languages. That, of course, is not to include the languages they speak “just under fluently”. I paused to take that in.

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