Chartered Institute
of Linguists
NEWS & VOICES
By Maria Cristina Petrizzi
Born in Brazil and a native speaker of Portuguese, from a young age, I have always been fascinated by foreign languages. English is definitely my favourite one and for over 35 years I have worked with it, first as a teacher and then as a translator and interpreter.
My career in translation started informally, but it didn’t take long until important...
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 Ceyda Aldemir-Down, MCIL Chartered Linguist
Growing up in Turkey, I studied English from the age of 11, and when I worked in a hostel for a year, it became a daily part of my life. As I read the English books left by visitors, it occurred to me that working with books and using my language skills is what would make me happy; I began by translating a romantic novel.
After...
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 Joanna Ramsden
It goes without saying that recent work circumstances have been even more challenging than usual for everyone.
On the one hand, freelance translators generally work from home on our own most of the time, so the transition to working online has been easier. However, on the other hand, it can be easy to get ‘...
CIOL is pleased to announce that we are now providing our members with a broader programme of CPD and training. As part of this review of our CPD activity, we are making the majority of video recordings from the eCPD Webinars platform available free of charge to CIOL members.
Over the coming months, 150 videos will be added to the library, available from the My CIOL area of the...
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 James Mallinson MCIL, winner of the 2019 Best Overall DPSI Candidate and Best DPSI Candidate in English Law.
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...