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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30 The Linguist Vol/59 No/2 2020 ciol.org.uk OPINION & COMMENT Email linguist.editor@ciol.org.uk New challenges in training I am one of the baby boomers, born in the 1960s and raised in West Germany. I moved to the UK because of my husband Les and obtained a BA in Language Studies at Essex, followed by an Applied Linguistics MA in 1998. In the same year, people began to send emails to each other. I decided to create my own website after completing a European Computer Driving Licence and it was a success because not many translation websites existed at that time. The generation of baby boomers has now given way to a generation of millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996). Most millennials have not experienced the freedom of being without internet, laptops or smartphones, or the lack of protection we had to navigate in a relatively technology-free world. When we travelled by car, we drove without a mobile phone. Now most people have their phones on them at all times – just in case – and there is an app for everything. Teaming up, linking profiles and being part of the virtual world of social media is taken for granted as part of modern life. Many universities in the UK today offer an extensive range of degrees in translation, interpreting and subtitling for business, government or the health sector. Graduation ceremonies are not only attended by the graduates in person, but are also broadcast online, viewed by friends and family. The world for us baby boomers was so slow in terms of getting the qualifications we needed or wanted, because the process of finding information about how to become a professional translator or interpreter was slow. This was also the case when seeking opportunities to advance as a translator. As a mentor for students aged 18-25 in Essex, I am now working with a new generation: Gen Z (born between the late 1990s and early 2000s). Young people can – and often have to – act faster than ever before when it comes to making choices for their future careers. The sheer amount of options available to them seems enormous to me. Each keyword in a search engine throws up pages and pages of linguistic degrees in language teaching, translation and interpreting, which can make it difficult for the undergraduate or postgraduate student to make the right choice. Millennials and Gen Z will develop the language industries at a much faster pace than us baby boomers ever could. That is not only because they already have well-developed communication skills, resulting from the constant use of tablets and smartphones from a young age, but because they are supported by 150 UK universities, offering a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, as well as short courses and refresher courses. Beatrix Mett FCIL CL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Clues with an asterisk are European capitals: the answer is the city's country in one of its national languages. Across 7 Tokyo.* (6) 8 Athens.* (6) 9 Man in Turkish. (4) 10 A language of France spoken in e.g. Colmar. (8) 11 Heavy metal element, of uncertain etymology. (7) 13 Prague.* (5) 15 Originally from Persian, you might buy an ice- cream from here. (5) 17 Vilnius.* (7) 20 Bern.* (8) 21 Dublin.* (4) 22 Belgrade.* (6) 23 Rome.* (6) Down 1 Official language of a Pakistan region near Karachi. (6) 2 Unsolicited emails, inspired by a Monty Python sketch. (4) 3 Moderately slow in music. (7) 4 A click language, official in South Africa. (5) 5 What you have if the arches have fallen. (4,4) 6 A woven fabric deriving from Syria. (6) 12 'Middle Life', a geological age also known as the age of dinosaurs. (8) 14 Term originated by a Polish scientist in 1912 for an essential element of nutrition. (7) 16 Turn upside down. (6) 18 Ancient Roman poet who wrote The Aeneid. (6) 19 Symbol of Lebanon. (5) 21 In Hebrew 'Skywards', Israel's official carrier. (2,2) Crossword no.25 Solution, page 33 © SHUTTERSTOCK