The Linguist

TheLinguist 58,3-June/July 2019

The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology

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@Linguist_CIOL 'Canadiens and Canadiennes in Uproar as Student Paper Takes Stand on Gender', 8/5/19 Montréal Campus – the student newspaper serving Université du Québec à Montréal – announced in February that it would cease favouring the masculine over the feminine. Wherever possible, non-gendered terms are now used… to "re-establish balance in the matter of gender equality"… News articles reporting on Montréal Campus's decision were flooded with what [Editor] Bernier called "violent, ill-informed" comments – including a death threat, duly reported to Montreal police. What the papers say… The latest from the languages world The Home Office comes under investigation for revoking 34,000 visas in foreign student 'scandal' Students cheated? An investigation into the conduct of the Home Office is due to be published as we go to press, with findings expected to show whether the government department was right to revoke the immigration visas of thousands of foreign students after accusing them of cheating in English tests. A large number of the students deny the allegations and have been struggling to prove their innocence for five years. The BBC's Panorama programme uncovered evidence of cheating at two test centres in 2014, and the government subsequently ruled that of the 58,458 students who had taken the Home Office-approved test between 2011 and 2014, 34,000 had cheated and only 2,000 had definitely not cheated. As a result, it cancelled or curtailed the visas of 34,000 students. More than 1,000 have been deported and hundreds have been placed in detention. The National Audit Office (NAO) launched a formal investigation into the Home Office's NEWS & EDITORIAL handling of the situation earlier this year. According to Nazek Ramadan, Director of the charity Migrant Voice, which has been leading the campaign in support of the students: "Many were wrongly accused and have spent the last five years trying to clear their names in the courts. Most remain trapped in a legal labyrinth, facing Home Office appeals and delays at every step and living with the daily threat of detention and deportation." He continued: "The criminal allegation against them means that they cannot continue their studies, get a good job or obtain a visa to travel anywhere in the world. The Home Office's handling of this issue has been spectacularly unfair and opaque, and it's high time the truth was brought to light." A spokesperson for the Home Office said: "We have been supporting the National Audit Office in its work on this investigation since the start of the year. We will consider the findings of the report once it is published." 'The Truth About the "Awful" German Language', 11/4/19 German gets the worst rep of all the Western European languages. But while it may lack the romantic mellifluousness of French, the flamboyant cadences of Spanish and the warm musicality of Portuguese and Italian, there are good reasons to learn it… [It] is fully capable of expressing profundities and complex ideas. Some of these words are quite beautiful. Fernweh means a longing to be far away, Waldeinsamkeit means 'forest loneliness', Weltschmerz means 'pain caused by the world', and Kopfkino is literally 'mind cinema' – that feeling of going over things in one's head. 'Asda Offers "Free Alcohol" with Incorrect Welsh Translation', 17/4/19 A spokesperson for the supermarket said it was now changing the sign, which read am ddim as opposed to di-alcohol… [Shopper Guto Aaron said]: "I have much more of an issue with the way the sign looks than its content. They have chosen such a dark font for the Welsh to ensure it's practically invisible from afar. It feels deliberate." JUNE/JULY The Linguist 5 STEVE CADMAN VIA WIKIPEDIA (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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