Chartered Institute
of Linguists
NEWS & VOICES
By Professor Monika S Schmid
A recent YouGov poll suggested that over 70% of adults in the UK support languages as an obligatory subject in schools, and many regret not having studied them more themselves.
A longstanding argument
The argument goes back a long time. In the aftermath of World War I, it was suggested that language...
‘I started getting fewer enquiries in all languages, so not just in my own language pair of English–French, but also in the other languages that I was representing through my agency’ Karine Chevalier-Watts
It’s no secret that many freelance translators and translation agencies started seeing a drop in translation workload in 2024. However, some...
By Teresa Simone
When you move abroad, work stops being just work
When you move to work in another country, work stops being just work.
Work isn’t just what you do.
It’s where you feel competent. It’s where you know who you are. It’s where your place in the world feels clear.When you move to another country, that structure breaks down.
...
By Marcela A. Cazzoli
The British Academy’s look at this year’s A-Level results gives a mixed message for the humanities. Economics and Politics are still drawing in more students, but many other SHAPE subjects are slipping back. Modern Languages share some of these challenges, but hidden in the figures are reasons to be optimistic.
Spanish entries are up by...
John Worne CIOL CEO writes:
A new report from the Higher Education Policy Institute, ‘A Languages Crisis: Arresting decline’ by Megan Bowler (HEPI Report 192) and sponsored by Duolingo, shows a big drop in formal language learning in the UK.
Key Stats
The report sets out the current state of language learning in UK’s schools and universities...
When in Rome...
Why phrases tell us as much about our shared human experiences as they do about our differences. By Antonio Muñoz Barragán
Idioms, proverbs and other phrases
Phraseology, which includes idioms, proverbs and other types of set phrases, is known to pose a challenge to translators due to the specific properties these structures convey. But...
By Tom Crook, CIOL Qualifications Client Services Officer.
The Chartered Institute of Linguists is a not-for-profit organisation and has always had a public purpose to enhance the recognition and promote the value of languages and language skills in the public interest, and we work to do so by encouraging the effective study and practice of languages.
...
Ross McCalden receiving his award from CIOL Royal Patron HRH Prince Michael of Kent
Congratulations to Ross McCalden, 2025 winner of the Best Candidate Award for CIOL's Master's level qualification, the Diploma in Translation - the long-established translation qualification, which sets the ‘gold standard’ for professional translators worldwide.
The DipTrans...
We have received further reports from several members, who have been contacted by various email addresses claiming to offer "member lists" or "registrant data" from CIOL's Find a Linguist Directory, and now "Registrants/Attendees list from CIOL Conference Season 2025" for sale.
Thank you to those members for bringing this incident to our attention. We...
Lt Col John Cross (rtd) lives in Nepal and is in his fifth decade of CIOL membership.
He speaks a great many languages – including some very rare ones as you will read below – and has had several books published drawing from his 99 year life with languages, published by Pen & Sword Books https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/J-P-Cross/a/870.
In a significant...