Chartered Institute
of Linguists
NEWS & VOICES
Inspiration, intrigue, advice – whatever you’re looking for in a podcast, CIOL staff, volunteers and members have it covered.
The Allusionist
The Allusionist is the podcast for language nerds. When it began, it primarily focused on exploring English lexicon, etymology, idioms, slang and more. Over time, Helen Zaltzman’s “adventures in language” have evolved to embrace languages...
By Vasiliki Prestidge
Is a marathon session with a team of creatives and translators an effective way to localise an ad campaign, asks Vasiliki Prestidge.
One evening in February, when Europe was not yet the epicentre of a pandemic, one of my regular agencies called me and asked if I would be available for an on-site, live transcreation assignment. At first, I was rather confused...
By Bernadette Clinton
As the speaking element is removed from the 2021 GCSE, will Year 10s be taught any speaking skills at all?
The closure of UK schools to all but the children of key workers and vulnerable children has had a major impact on the lives and learning of our young people. While many schools worked hard to provide online learning and a phased return for some year...
When Patch Magtanong failed to win Miss International 2019, fans in her native country were quick to blame the interpreter, who was accused of omitting parts of the Filipino contestant’s final speech. Trained to be ‘invisible’ conduits for communication, interpreters suddenly find themselves in the spotlight when working at the ‘Big Four’ pageants (Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss...
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”...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...