History in translation: Orwell Corner offering tours in French

One of P.E.I.'s historic sites will soon be offering its programs in French Orwell Corner Historic Village has hired a translator to begin work this season.

Last year there was a bilingual staff member in the admissions office, and printed materials are offered in French, but site director Jason MacNeil wanted to go one step further and offer tours in another language.

He hopes it will create opportunities to attract French-speaking visitors, as well as Island students.

"Over the past couple of years, we've been looking at gaps in our programming and one of the big things that came up was language," said MacNeil.

"We've developed new programming and all those sorts of things and it's great for our English visitors, but we're missing out on being able to serve the French segment of the population."

MacNeil said the person hired to do the translating also speaks other languages, including Arabic and Danish. While full tours won't be offered in those languages, there will be some assistance availableand he hopes that will encourage newcomers to visit.

Orwell Corner opens for the season on June 4.

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