Chartered Institute
of Linguists
NEWS & VOICES
by Isabelle Heyerick
The interpreter selects strategies in real time, but little is known about this process. Isabelle Heyerick asks how signed language interpreters make such decisions
Any interpreter can attest that the cognitive work we perform entails more than merely rendering words from language A into language B. There is context to consider, the social rules and norms of...
As we gradually see the pandemic restrictions being lifted, it is clear that life will never return to the same ‘normal” as pre-pandemic. The workplace has undergone a quiet revolution in terms of the way people now want to work and it has been proven that new ways of working can be implemented.
For many, home working or partial homeworking has become the norm and is likely to remain...
by Michal Glowacki
Michal Glowacki considers the challenges of translating for the cycling industry and why it can sometimes be an uphill ride.
Imagine an amazing day, sunny, with hardly any wind – the perfect day for my first ride with a group of fellow cyclists (Polish zgrupka), some six years ago. I was enjoying the ride and learning the various hand gestures cyclists use to...
by CIOL
In response to the crisis in Afghanistan, we have recently published an interview with Mehdi Bahrami MCIL CL, an experienced interpreter and translator as well as a language and cultural advisor.
In this video, Mehdi talks to CIOL's CEO John Worne to discuss the professional opportunities that exist for working in Dari and Pashto in...
by John Forster
Overview on back cover
This little booklet, inspired by and dedicated to my two grandchildren, consists of a series of anecdotes in which I recall events and personalities during my 25 years of military service and thereafter, with the odd white-knuckle episode, making the most of the dying embers of the British Empire. I am now in my 87th year, ostensibly fit...
by Annie Rutherford
Why Annie Rutherford added linguistic diversity to her translation of The Peacock, and how she approached the Scots text
It’s a strange thing: as a reading public, we think nothing of British novels set in Botswana, France or Brazil – and yet with translated books there’s an expectation for them to function as ambassadors for the countries they’re from. When...
by Sophie Llewellyn Smith*
Sophie Llewellyn Smith offers her advice on self-assessing a C language, and effective approaches to turning it into a B language
An interpreter’s quest for rock solid passive languages is never-ending. How can you assess the lacunae in your passive or ‘C’ languages and design an action plan to address your weaknesses?
Resources for foreign...
by Hero Cai FCIL, CL, MITI
It is commonly acknowledged that being a translator or interpreter requires bilingualism (or multilingualism). But is it the same case with teaching English to speakers of other languages? We seem to be less certain when there is a native English speaker who does not speak the mother tongue of his/her students and a local teacher whose native language is not...
How are bilingual Welsh-English shows made? Miranda Moore speaks to the makers of Keeping Faith and Hidden to find out
Faith Howells is one of those roles that actors dream of playing. Relatable, funny, empassioned and complex, the character had viewers gripped as she struggled to make sense of her husband’s disappearance in the surprise BBC hit Keeping Faith. Eve Myles brought...
As a UK-based and internationally-engaged, organisation, we can only be glad that the UK Armed Forces and diplomatic service have done what they could in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan in recent days; of course we wish they could have done more.
CIOL made urgent contact with the UK Ministry of Defence regarding interpreter access to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance...