Chartered Institute
of Linguists

NEWS & VOICES

Category:
The Linguist

By Jonathan Downie

Should interpreters adopt the marketing approaches of automated interpreting devices, asks Jonathan Downie.

“Imagine being able to snap your fingers and become fluent in twenty languages.” That may well be the dream. It is also the first line of an advert for a device that claims to be able to deliver “professional grade translation” by going “a step further”...

Published on Wednesday, 22 July 2020 - 3:51pm
Category:
The Linguist
Category:
The Linguist

By Michael O’Laughlin

I work as an expert witness in the courts of Massachusetts, USA. I am in demand because I have found a niche in which language issues come quickly to the fore. I was a court interpreter for most of my life, and I am also the Director of Interpreter Training at Boston University. I realised that I could combine my interpreter experience, academic position and...

Published on Thursday, 4 June 2020 - 4:56pm
Category:
The Linguist
Category:
The Linguist

By Jessica Oppedisano

With the success of on-demand platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, audiovisual translation (AVT) is gaining more and more visibility. Big companies that plan to release their shows on a global scale have to pay attention to the quality of the translations and to the working conditions of their translators. However, translating for these big platforms covers...

Published on Wednesday, 6 May 2020 - 4:22pm
Category:
The Linguist
Category:
The Linguist

 

In a small computer room with Mexican-style artwork adorning the walls and Frida Kahlo-inspired cushions softening the benches, Lucy is talking about volunteering at a hispanic nursery while studying for her Spanish A-level. “I went every Saturday morning last term,” says the 17-year-old student at Channing School in North London. “It was really cool to be able to practise speaking...

Published on Wednesday, 22 April 2020 - 12:54pm
Category:
The Linguist
Category:
The Linguist

By Magdalena Bartłomiejczyk

In Jonas Jonasson’s The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared, the Swedish protagonist, Allan Karlsson, ends up in Moscow having dinner with Stalin. As well as the dictator, his two cronies and Allan, at the table sits “a little, almost invisible young man without a name and without anything either to eat or to drink”: the...

Published on Wednesday, 8 April 2020 - 4:08pm
Category:
The Linguist
Category:
The Linguist

 

In the under-representative world of publishing, can a mentorship for a minority ethnic translator make a difference, asks Miranda Moore

It has been five years since journalist Danuta Kean published a report on the severe underrepresentation of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people in the British literary industry. In addition to a legacy of “white male elitism” that...

Published on Wednesday, 12 February 2020 - 9:16am
Category:
The Linguist
Category:
The Linguist

By Erwin La Cruz

Do measures that pit machine translation against human interpreters give an accurate picture, asks Erwin La Cruz

The fight for translation supremacy between machines and humans rages on. The reports from the front line are delivered in code: LEPOR 0.68, NIST 0.56, BLEU 0.46, METEOR 0.56, WER 0.39. These acronyms are translation quality evaluation metrics. These...

Published on Wednesday, 15 January 2020 - 9:18am
Category:
The Linguist
Category:
The Linguist

 

Fuschia Hutton and mentor Oliver Lawrence outline the benefits of CIOL’s mentoring scheme from both sides

CIOL launched its mentoring programme, through which seasoned translators and interpreters share their knowledge to help less experienced linguists reach their full potential, at Members’ Day 2018. Mentees can choose mentors according to the skills and expertise they most...

Published on Thursday, 2 January 2020 - 10:20am
Category:
The Linguist
Category:
The Linguist

By Anita van Adelsbergen

Anita van Adelsbergen considers the many challenges of specialising in canine and equine translation

When you are working on a translation and can’t find a certain word, Google will usually find your answer. But as an interpreter in the middle of a field, arena or paddock, that is a bit more difficult. And when it comes to equine interpreting, just...

Published on Wednesday, 9 October 2019 - 9:16am
Category:
The Linguist
Category:
The Linguist

Frank Gardner tells Miranda Moore how his passion for Arabic drives his work as BBC security correspondent

Frank Gardner talks about languages the way an explorer might talk about his most exciting voyages. To him, they are the start of an adventure: “the wardrobe that leads to Narnia… the door to someone else’s world”. It’s not just that the renowned Arabist found his passion for...

Published on Wednesday, 13 February 2019 - 12:03pm
Category:
The Linguist