Chartered Institute
of Linguists
NEWS & VOICES
By Anita van Adelsbergen
As a Vice Chair of the Chartered Institute of Linguists and Chair of the CIOL Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Committee, I think of World Day for Cultural Diversity as a day both to celebrate the richness of the world's cultures and the essential role of translators and interpreters in enabling intercultural dialogue towards peaceful...
By Laura Jones
In April, I was invited to speak to Translation Studies students at Cardiff University about the realities of working as a freelance translator. During the relaxed and informal Q&A session, we discussed everything from AI, MT and CAT tools to finding clients and knowing what to charge for our services. I tried to be as open and honest as possible...
A podcast with Emma Gledhill
For this podcast in the series ‘A Language I love is…’, we travel high into the Alps, to join linguist and translator Emma Gledhill in the Graubünden/Grisons canton of Switzerland.
Emma's chosen language is Romansh, the distinct Romance language of the region that, despite its endangered and disunited state, nonetheless holds the...
By Sarah Cutts MCIL
Having previously worked in-house for ten years, and in my own freelance business for seven years, I have provided many certified translations from Spanish and French into English and have helped clients in various situations.
I mainly work with private individuals, who sometimes have no idea what they need in terms of certification. Obviously,...
By Professor Michael Kelly OBE, recipient of the David Crystal Award 2024
I fell in love with languages at the age of 11, in my first year at the Hull Grammar School, when I started to learn French and Latin. I was amazed that you could talk about things in such different ways. I soon realised that a door had opened into new worlds that I had never suspected. It...
By Una Dimitrijevic
Even if machines one day become perfect at interpreting our words correctly, I’m not sure they’ll ever be able to do the following things that are always required of us as interpreters:
By Antonica-Roxana Clinciu
As a recent graduate in English Language and Literature, with a fluency in English and a native command of Romanian, I find myself standing at the threshold of a vast linguistic landscape, eager to immerse myself in the art of interpretation and translation. It's not merely a career path I'm drawn to, but rather a calling rooted in a...
By Debbie Butler
As we celebrate International Women's Day, as a longstanding member of the CIOL team, a member of the CIOL Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Committee and as a linguist (German) myself, I feel it is well worth recognising the remarkable contributions of female linguists, interpreters and translators as we celebrate International Women’s Day. Many women...
By Gwenydd Jones MA, DipTrans, MCIL, Chartered Linguist
The Translator's Studio
Since I have no functioning crystal ball, this article is my opinion in 2024 about the future of translation. If you’re asking yourself whether AI is going to replace translators, I’d like to throw a couple of questions back at you:
Thoughts from the steering group of the CIOL Scottish Society
In many ways, Scotland is a great place to be a linguist. It is a multilingual, multicultural and inclusive society. Linguistic diversity is part of the national identity: while English is the main language, over 150 other languages are spoken in Scottish homes.
Historically, Gaelic was the main language...