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
Issue link: https://thelinguist.uberflip.com/i/1172840
30 The Linguist Vol/58 No/5 2019 ciol.org.uk/tl OPINION & COMMENT Q. Why did you choose to study languages? A. I grew up in Kempten, Germany and languages were a crucial part of my life as I have relatives in the US. But I was never the best language student at high school, so I didn't expect to do a job in this area. At the end of my military service, I couldn't decide what to study, so I applied to do sports science in Munich and foreign languages in Kempten, and let fate decide: the language institute replied first. So I slipped into a career in languages accidentally. Q. When did you decide to become a conference interpreter? A. During my final year. I realised early on that doing only translation wasn't for me, but we had one hour of simultaneous interpreting a week, which I really enjoyed. After graduation I became a lecturer in interpreting and translation at the Euro Language Institute in Ingolstadt, Germany and a conference interpreter. Not a day has passed when I have not felt that it is my dream job. This is where sports came back into my life as I started to get interpreting work for the Fifa World Cup in Brazil, the Euros in France and Champions League matches, as well as during interviews with big names in sports. Q. Why did you go freelance? A. I was employed part-time at first because I wanted to have the financial security of a regular income and I was afraid of taking the step into full-time self-employment. So many skills are required, such as learning how to acquire (and keep) new clients, do your accounts (quite a steep learning curve with the German tax system) and negotiate your rates in a confident way. I registered with agencies, which gave me the experience I was lacking, and my direct clients now outweigh my agency work. Once you establish yourself, clients will approach you directly and colleagues will refer you. The first two years were hard but then I started to focus on my interpreting business and dared to make the move to become a freelancer. Q. What do you like about the work and what are the challenges? A. New places, new people, new topics, great colleagues and, best of all, lifelong learning. However, at times it feels a bit like Groundhog Day when (once again) you are negotiating prices with clients. Q. The job involves a lot of travel. Was that part of the appeal? A. It is one of the reasons I love this job. Often you do not see a lot of the cities you visit but if you take the time to arrive early or stay a day longer, you see beautiful cities and countries, stay in gorgeous hotels (most of the time) and meet amazing people. Q. What are your career plans? A. To keep improving until I interpret at the Munich Security Conference and World Economic Forum in Davos – and never to stop aiming for bigger goals. How Benjamin Jedlicsek launched his career after an MA in Conference Interpreting at UCLan Just the job I enjoyed reading the last issue (TL58,4), as always. One article in particular caught my attention: 'Barred from Teaching', which I read with interest and great sadness. When I came to the UK from my native France, I sent my Licence ès Lettres (English, Italian, Latin) to the Department of Education, who supplied a document of equivalence with a BA, thus allowing me to apply for teaching jobs. My first post (teaching French, nothing else) was in a medium-size Direct Grant school, where most of the language teachers were native speakers. The choice of languages was wide: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, etc; when three or more students wanted to learn another language, the school would almost always manage to find a teacher and offer it. Previous to that, like practically all university language students, I was an assistant for a year in a UK school. Manchester University ran a course one day a week for the language assistants in the area (hundreds of them from different countries). This was in the late 1960s/early 1970s, before the UK became part of the European Economic Community! Should we be optimistic about what could happen to languages in the UK post-Brexit? Claire Charlwood MCIL Rise in barriers to teaching © SHUTTERSTOCK