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/1277318
@Linguist_CIOL AUGUST/SEPTEMBER The Linguist 7 NEWS & EDITORIAL Q Tell us a bit about your language… A Macedonian is a Slavic language, and our greatest spiritual and cultural heritage. We owe it to our ancestors to preserve its uniqueness, and to future generations to secure its legacy. So the embassy has placed a significant focus on promoting the language. Q How do you promote the culture and language in the UK? A I am proud of re-establishing cooperation with UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies and of re-introducing Macedonian evening courses. We provide essential support with learning and teaching materials, and I was a special guest in one of their classes, which I plan to repeat. This year, with the support of our Ministry of Education and Science, we donated a collection of books presenting our authors and language. Another promotional event was my reading of Letter to Kalina by the leading Macedonian dramatist, screenwriter, essayist, lecturer and intellectual Goran Stefanovski on International Mother Language Day. Stefanovski (1952-2018) lived in Canterbury for the last two decades of his life. Q What's your favourite Macedonian word? A Љубов (ljubov): love. Love moves the world, it maintains it. Without love there is no progress. Q What is the difference between Macedonia and North Macedonia? A Macedonia is a geographical region in the Balkans that spreads over three countries: North Macedonia, Greece and Bulgaria. With the Final Agreement, signed with Greece in June 2018, a geographical qualifier ('North') was added to the constitutional name of my country (Republic of North Macedonia) to The North Macedonian Ambassador, HE Aleksandra Miovska, talks to Romana Sustar about Macedonian culture and language in the UK make a distinction. When describing anything related to our ethnic or cultural identity, the adjective Macedonian alone is correct – e.g. Macedonian history, Macedonian culture, the Macedonian Cyrillic alphabet. The two countries acknowledge that their respective understanding of the terms 'Macedonia' and 'Macedonian' refer to a different historical context and cultural heritage. Тhis agreement helped overcome the decades-long difference between our countries and established a new historical framework for strengthening friendly relations, mutual trust and good neighbourliness, and pursuing comprehensive bilateral relations. Find out more about the embassy @MKembassyUK. HE Aleksandra Miovska has been Ambassador to the UK since 2018. Twitter @a_miovska Council member Romana Sustar MCIL CL is a multilingual digital marketing manager and language tutor. Twitter @RomanaSustar North Macedonia has been a member of NATO since 27 March 2020 and is about to start accession negotiations with the EU. According to the last census (2002), there are 2,022,547 citizens (Macedonians and people from Albanian, Bosnian, Roma, Serbian, Turkish, Vlach and other communities). The official language, Macedonian, is written in the Cyrillic script. FACT FILE: NORTH MACEDONIA LOVE, ART AND CULTURE Aleksandra Miovska (inset); and with artist Armando Alemdar-Ara at Zari Gallery (main) Embassy insights