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 DECEMBER/JANUARY The Linguist 27 REVIEWS Judith Gabler, Chair of Council The King's Speech (2010) opens with the Duke of York (Colin Firth) climbing an endless flight of steps into Wembley Stadium. The crushing weight of addressing the crowd is captured by a heavy silence of expectation. As he stutters his opening words, the viewer is drawn into a suffocating world dominated by fear of failure and the burden of a king who doesn't want to be a king. The imperatives of clear and persuasive communication prevail. The interplay of the duke's wife (Helena Bonham Carter) and unconventional speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) reveals how class distinction is reflected in language and expression. Logue's technique, interspersed with disarming and brilliant colloquialisms, leads to a shift of dependency between king and subject, culminating in a riveting climax with the live broadcast of Britain's declaration of war on Germany. This film exemplifies courage, persistence and the triumph of language and communication. A must-view! Jane Martin, Midlands Network There are not many films that put language and translators at centre stage, but Arrival (2016) does just that. Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguistics expert, is called in to try to communicate with aliens who have arrived on Earth. Their language is unlike any known before and she succeeds in gaining a basic understanding of the complicated circular symbols that form the written language. The world is teetering on the edge of global war as Louise and her team race to find a way of speaking with the aliens and discovering why they are here. As she starts to think in a language that has no beginning or end, her perception of time shifts from linear to circular. I love this film because, as well as being a gripping, edge-of-your-seat story, it is also philosophical and thought-provoking. It tackles big questions, such as how linguistics shapes our perception, the power of communication and the dangers of misunderstanding. I would highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the role language plays in our lives. along their journey with languages and crosscultural expression Arrival The King's Speech Saihong Li, Council The Farewell (2019) is a tragi-comedy "based on an actual lie" from the life of its American-Chinese writer and director, Lulu Wang. Switching between Chinese and English, the story aligns viewers closely with an American-Chinese girl, Billi, living in the US. The plot centres around a family decision not to tell Billi's grandma that she is dying of cancer. Instead, they plan a hasty wedding to give her one last enjoyable event. They see this act as a kindness, and a cultural norm, but it is hard for Billi to imagine concealing the painful truth. The film explores the emotional conflict of second-generation migrants when their limited language skills prevent them from fully engaging with their family culture. Wang shows how different cultures deal with responsibility, happiness and grief. For most Americans, their life is their own; for most Chinese, their life is part of a whole which belongs to their family and to society. The Farewell is a timely meditation on individuals whose successful assimilation into new countries is vitiated by hidden sadness and a disconnection with their cultural origins. The Farewell