Chartered Institute
of Linguists
NEWS & VOICES
Changing patterns of demand, unmapped or unforeseen, rapid regional and national changes in the need for different languages and the requirements for rare languages pose challenges both for procurement and...
By Anita van Adelsbergen
The inventor of the languages game League of the Lexicon discusses his passion for words and why it is all about being curious. He explains all to CIOL Council member Anita van Adelsbergen.
Joshua, you’re a game publisher, a marketing specialist, a photographer and designer, you’ve co-founded an art gallery and written a book...
27 October was National Mentoring Day in the UK – so what better time to look at the benefits of a mentoring programme, wherever you are in the world!
National Mentoring Day was founded in 2014 to celebrate, connect, inform and support mentors, mentees and mentoring initiatives, to encourage more people to achieve their full potential through mentoring. In...
Sara Horcas-Rufián
Tell us about your early experiences. Have you always had a passion for languages?
I vividly recall my fascination with the (big) wide world long before I could articulate it in words. As a child, I felt an exhilarating sense of adventure watching the cartoon Around the World with Willy Fog. I began writing short stories and for three years in a row I...
By Mark Robinson
I like to think that we’re ahead of the AI (artificial intelligence) curve in the world of professional translation. We have had a form of AI – neural machine translation – around for a few years now, and it has become a helpful tool for professional linguists - in certain circumstances only, and for appropriate projects with careful checking. The large...
By Dr Joseph Lambert
"Happy robots” - AI and robots are now literally everywhere..! Photo from Joseph’s recent trip to Copenhagen.
What are the biggest threats and opportunities to you as a professional freelance translator today? Are you happy with your rates of pay and working conditions? What is the longer-term outlook for the...
By Karl McLaughlin
Translating inflight magazines and why it is the perfect gig for translators with wanderlust!
Who has not read a travel magazine or supplement and felt jealous of the writers who are paid to visit appetising destinations? Among linguists, such travel possibilities tend to be associated with conference interpreters lucky enough to be...
By Giulia Lucania
Food conveys history, identity and tradition. These aren’t just empty terms, they symbolise worlds whose stories are just waiting to be told.
Translating and writing for the food and beverage industry isn’t always a piece of cake. It has two main flavours, technical and creative. This sector is brimming with lots of different text types, from...
By Diana Singureanu
This article is written in response to WIRED's Pro Interpreters vs AI Challenge, referenced within the article
Translators and interpreters have been conscious of the threat of AI for some time. Many view the question of whether machine interpretation will take our jobs as a when rather than an if. I must also declare I'm sceptical that machine...
By Clare Richards
For Clare Richards, translation and autism are interwoven, but until she started an online forum for disabled translators she didn’t realise how many others felt the same way
It’s almost exactly a year ago and I am walking towards London’s Southbank to meet a fellow literary translator. One sensory onslaught is replaced by another –...