Chartered Institute
of Linguists
NEWS & VOICES
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...
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...
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...
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...