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/1207047
16 The Linguist Vol/59 No/1 2020 ciol.org.uk/tl AWARDS FOCUS the biggest challenge, however, is not the number of languages but the recruitment of interpreters who have studied subjects other than languages, she says. "the best interpreters we ever found had languages by chance. they studied engineering, law, medicine, and then they used language as a tool, and that is the best way. At the same time, you learn from the people who speak those languages." she continues: "i think the secret to being a good interpreter is to be interested in what people speak about; you have to listen, analyse and then give a good synthesis of what you have understood. language is less important than knowledge and interest, because interpreters have to understand so many very difficult elements of economics, social policy, law. You have to understand agricultural policy, you have to understand fisheries. so, you see, i always come back to the subject matter, rather than to the language as language itself." Van hoof-haferkamp herself was known for doing "a sort of consecutive" even when working simultaneously. "i did not translate every word. i was trying to know what it was all about," she explains. this may be the ideal but, for many, the study of languages is the only way to acquire linguistic skills, especially for native English speakers based in anglophone countries. At the Ciol Awards event in November, Van hoof-haferkamp was impressed by the prizewinning police officers, who had taken an academic route to language learning and are now qualified to interpret. "they are useful and happy, i think, with what they are doing for human beings. their work is very important for people who are interviewed when they have committed a crime and depend entirely on interpreters. But it is true that they came there through studying languages," she concedes. A century of knowledge inevitably, the conversation turns to Brexit, with Van hoof-haferkamp surprisingly critical of the Eu in this respect. "[the British] are not in schengen, they have a different currency, they have always been different, but we wanted them in, and many thought they were not happy with us. And that is a failure of the European union, of what we were doing and what my whole European life was trying to get to. it's a pity," she laments. in this context, her teachings on European politics are, perhaps, more important than ever. Acquired through decades of cross-cultural communication at the centre of government and policy-making in Europe, her knowledge and understanding provide invaluable insights. After leaving the Commission in 1995, she developed a programme of lectures by leading Europeans at harvard university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and lived there for 20 years. since returning to Brussels in 2015, she has continued to work with the harvard Club of Belgium, discussing matters of politics, finance and business, and visiting universities in the us every year. it is this knowledge that Van hoof-haferkamp is committed to passing on, yet our interview inevitably focuses on language. "You insist very much on discussing languages but i am not the right person," she says. "in spite of my whole career based on languages, nobody will remember me as a linguist but because they want to talk about what happens in the world. Because through my languages i learnt so much." And in that final thought, i can't help feeling that she is, indeed, a very fitting advocate for languages. Notes 1 the Ciol david Crystal Award 2019 STAR TURN Interpreting for the European foreign affairs committee in 1956 (main image); and at the first European Commission in 1958 (above), in the days when interpreting was "glamorous"