Chartered Institute
of Linguists
NEWS & VOICES
By Emily Boaler
There can come a time as a linguist, when we start to feel a bit stuck in our work, especially when we find ourselves in a role or sector that no longer fulfils our purpose or needs. However, renewed purpose may lie within a sector where we have little or no experience – a leap into the unknown for sure, but with languages as our super-power it...
In a recent Members Poll we asked people to share their favourite ‘untranslatable words’. The responses included the Portuguese saudade and Welsh hiraeth, Turkish yakamoz and Greek philotimo. These words illustrate how different languages and cultures capture concepts, sentiments and experiences that English can only describe at greater length. But there were some nice...
By Duygu Türer, 2026 winner of the award for Best Candidate in the Diploma in Translation, pictured receiving her award from CIOL Honorary President Baronness Jean Coussins
Why the DipTrans?
As a full-time freelance translator with a background in mathematical engineering, I had long wanted to complement my professional experience with a recognised...
Asparagus on the menu in the delightful little town of Telgte
I was asked recently whether being able to speak the local language means that travelling is a different experience. Travel is a wonderful thing per se of course – but speaking the lingo does indeed add a whole extra layer of interest, understanding and joy.
By Mark Robinson
By Cory Massaro
Some claim the tech world wants you stupid and addicted.
This is not hyperbole. People are saying it plainly.
Tully et al.’s 2024 study, “Lower Artificial Intelligence Literacy Predicts Greater AI Receptivity” encourages AI-related organizations to keep people stupid. Having established a statistical link between lower AI...
By Dom Hebblethwaite, CIOL Head of Membership A year ago, CIOL members and fellow linguists were almost evenly divided on generative AI: just under half were using it in some form, just over half were not. Twelve months on, we have run the same poll. The picture has shifted, but the divide hasn't gone away. If anything, it has sharpened.
The story isn't only...
By Alex Myatt
'The click'
Curiosity is something shared by all linguists. The decision to study other languages and cultures is often a product of this curiosity, but not always. Speaking personally, I know that there was a specific moment that gave me ‘the click’, and ever since, I’ve known that I wanted to follow the path of language study.
A few years...
By Dom Hebblethwaite A record day for the CIOL Online Conference
The Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL) Online Conference 2026 took place on Thursday 30 April, drawing a record audience from across the world for what proved to be the most popular CIOL Online Conference to date.
Following on from the in-person CIOL Conference 2026 at Bush House, King’s...
By Roger Barlow
Restless. Confused. Uncertain. Unmotivated. Lethargic. That pretty much sums up my state of mind in 1998. I’d just finished an uninspiring degree in Industrial Mathematics at Staffordshire University, my life was going nowhere, slowly, and I had no idea what career to pursue. The one thing I did know was that, regrettably, I had no...
by Cynthia Lucy Stephens
As libraries get weeded and traditional printed books get culled, as modern electronic books get pirated by corporate behemoths for AI training, a symbolic figure in the fight against this destruction of a civilization is Jorge Luis Borges, the writer from Buenos Aires who once imagined Paradise as a library.
Borges described...