Chartered Institute
of Linguists
NEWS & VOICES
Asset or irrelevance?
As someone with bilingual Italian language skills and good French and Spanish – but more interested in business than in working as a translator, interpreter or teacher – I have always been puzzled by whether my language skills are an asset or an irrelevance. Do I look for work using my Italian, or is that restrictive? Do I need to live in...
The CIOL Code of Professional Conduct
The CIOL Code of Professional Conduct
The principles of honour and sustainable business practices originated in Europe in Italian and North German trading centres around the 12th century and were embodied by the figure of the ‘honourable merchant’ who could sleep peacefully knowing they had done honest...
When I first received my Masters in Interpreting, I was very proud of myself for completing a challenging course. But I wrongly assumed that a Masters would be enough to cover any kind of work that I might want to do.
I moved to the UK in 1997 to study and had just started my first publishing role in 2002. Although I liked my job, I knew I wanted to use my language skills in future—perhaps on a freelance basis. So, I decided to look into good translation courses and recommended qualifications.
I quickly realised that the CIOLQ DipTrans...
One of the things that we occasionally get asked is how as a mentor you can make your profile stand out and look attractive to potential mentees.
Let’s start by looking at how the matching process works and why a profile is important. Once you have registered to participate in our mentoring programme the next step is to complete your profile. For mentors this information will help us to...
By Stephen Doswell
Income (both rates of pay and getting paid). Competition. Quality. Technology. These are uppermost among challenges facing language professionals according to the latest CIOL Insights report on the Languages Professions, published August 2022*. Indeed, three years on from a similar survey, CIOL concludes that these concerns have grown since 2019 as a...
"As Chair of CIOL Council I am really delighted to see CIOL Voices coming to life."
As linguists we all have things to say and it is important that members can share their experiences in their own words. We won’t always agree on everything, but as a community I have generally found that we value and respect diversity of expression as part of our...
Does being a Chartered Linguist really matter?
This is a question that maybe many ask; why is it important to have such a title?
I remember many years ago - to be precise 12 years ago - when I embarked on the journey of becoming an interpreter, that I was looking for an accountant for my self-assessment tax return. Yes, I know many people do this on...
Prior to embarking on a mentoring relationship there are a few key things to consider before determining if it is the right path for you.
1. Purpose
A good starting point is to consider why do you want to have a mentor and what specific challenges are you looking to address? The more carefully you consider what skills and experience you are looking for then the better the...