Chartered Institute
of Linguists
NEWS & VOICES
27 October was National Mentoring Day in the UK – so what better time to look at the benefits of a mentoring programme, wherever you are in the world!
National Mentoring Day was founded in 2014 to celebrate, connect, inform and support mentors, mentees and mentoring initiatives, to encourage more people to achieve their full potential through mentoring. In...
Sara Horcas-Rufián
Tell us about your early experiences. Have you always had a passion for languages?
I vividly recall my fascination with the (big) wide world long before I could articulate it in words. As a child, I felt an exhilarating sense of adventure watching the cartoon Around the World with Willy Fog. I began writing short stories and for three years in a row I...
By Mark Robinson
I like to think that we’re ahead of the AI (artificial intelligence) curve in the world of professional translation. We have had a form of AI – neural machine translation – around for a few years now, and it has become a helpful tool for professional linguists - in certain circumstances only, and for appropriate projects with careful checking. The large...
By Dr Joseph Lambert
"Happy robots” - AI and robots are now literally everywhere..! Photo from Joseph’s recent trip to Copenhagen.
What are the biggest threats and opportunities to you as a professional freelance translator today? Are you happy with your rates of pay and working conditions? What is the longer-term outlook for the...
By Karl McLaughlin
Translating inflight magazines and why it is the perfect gig for translators with wanderlust!
Who has not read a travel magazine or supplement and felt jealous of the writers who are paid to visit appetising destinations? Among linguists, such travel possibilities tend to be associated with conference interpreters lucky enough to be...
By Giulia Lucania
Food conveys history, identity and tradition. These aren’t just empty terms, they symbolise worlds whose stories are just waiting to be told.
Translating and writing for the food and beverage industry isn’t always a piece of cake. It has two main flavours, technical and creative. This sector is brimming with lots of different text types, from...
By Diana Singureanu
This article is written in response to WIRED's Pro Interpreters vs AI Challenge, referenced within the article
Translators and interpreters have been conscious of the threat of AI for some time. Many view the question of whether machine interpretation will take our jobs as a when rather than an if. I must also declare I'm sceptical that machine...
By Clare Richards
For Clare Richards, translation and autism are interwoven, but until she started an online forum for disabled translators she didn’t realise how many others felt the same way
It’s almost exactly a year ago and I am walking towards London’s Southbank to meet a fellow literary translator. One sensory onslaught is replaced by another –...
By Anna Ostrovsky
How languages shape our identity
Growing up in Germany as a Russian native speaker I would work diligently on eliminating my jarring Russian accent. From reciting Rilke to pre-meditating set phrases until I would feel safe enough to speak up in class: self-conscious and attuned to the slightest reaction to the slightest nuance in my speech, I would make...
By Philippe Muriel
Is public service interpreting the ‘poor relative’ of the interpreting profession, and how can we change that?
I must confess, I am a fan of interpreters’ chat groups on social media. Interpreting is a lonely job and it is rare for us to meet up with colleagues for a chat. Few of us have a mentor to whom we can turn for guidance or advice...