Chartered Institute
of Linguists
NEWS & VOICES
In a previous blog I explored Is Machine Translation replacing human translators? My conclusion was that the best answer for the present and foreseeable future is “Augmented Translation” mutually reinforcing human-machine translation workflows but with the human to the fore.
CIOL explored this topic at a recent All Party Parliamentary Group meeting in the House...
By Helle Gulowsen
It is said that the key to survival is not strength, but the ability to accurately perceive your environment and successfully adapt to it. This is very good news for public service interpreters. Navigating the labyrinths of our courts, not knowing what your working day will bring, requires an adaptability and agility of mind that goes far beyond pure linguistic skills...
By Rosa Insua Salgueiro
As an English to Spanish translator and interpreter, I joined CIOL while I was still studying for my MA in Translation and Interpreting. What attracted me at the time was the discounted student fee and the thought that it would be a great way to launch my career.
I am now a full member and a Chartered Linguist. In an unregulated profession such as ours, it...
At an event to mark a new collaboration between CIOL and Duolingo, guests sat in on a conversation between the CEOs of the two organisations
CIOL’s motto is ‘universal understanding’ and Duolingo’s mission is to make language learning universally accessible, so working together makes perfect sense. One practical way of doing that is to share what we know about language learning...
By Karine Chevalier-Watts MCIL CL
I became a self-employed translator and language teacher in 2011 when I created a small language services business in Wiltshire, offering teaching, translating and interpreting services in various languages to local small businesses and private individuals. However, as I started receiving more and more enquiries for certified translations and for more...
But where are you from?
Where are you really from?
Yes, but where were you born?
I mean where did you grow up?
Yes, but where are you originally from?
If you happen to be a person that was born in one country, moved to another, and was raised in a third, with parents from different cultures or countries, you know the struggle. If you happen to...
When we hear about fixers for the media, it is often about supporting foreign journalists in conflict zones. However, another area of the media that makes extensive use of bilingual fixers is TV (and radio) coverage of sports events. This can represent a rich opportunity for work and memorable experiences for linguists – especially if, like me, you’re also a sports fan.
A translator and...
Bokani Hart considers how language gaps are impeding the UN’s peacekeeping mission in eastern Congo.
Once again, the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are on a knife edge. And, once again, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) is in the firing line for allegedly not doing enough to protect civilians from the armed groups that have...
By Mark Thompson
The call came out of the blue in November 2015, when I was least expecting it. Thrown in at the deep end, I literally became a linguistic services project manager overnight.
First interpreter called in to the site of a mining dam disaster in southeastern Brazil, to assist English speaking executives and specialists flying in from all around the globe, I very...
It was two years ago that I took my final leave of CIOL’s offices in Fleet Street, caught my last commuter train home and entered what the French call “le troisième âge”, the successor to childhood and a working adult life.
So what is life as a retired linguist really like? Well, the retired bit is easy – newfound time to read, an abundance of hours spent cycling, days out, art...