The Linguist

ON THE PAGE 1 How did Dutch > English translator Michele Hutchison gain international attention? 2 Which newspaper received complaints after regular columnist Zoe Williams said learning Welsh was "existentially pointless"? 3 Why was the publication of the first dictionary of the Indigenous Australian language Umpithamu bittersweet? 4 Which tennis star spoke about her relationship with languages in the book How Languages Changed My Life? 5 Why was Mohammed Hanif's A Case of Exploding Mangoes 'seized' by Pakistani officials 11 years after it was first published? BACK TO SCHOOL 1 What change to the 2021 language GCSEs in England and Wales (in response to school closures this year) caused consternation? 2 What was significant about the Open University's 'Welsh for beginners' class during lockdown? 3 A-levels in languages not usually taught in schools in England and Wales fell by more than 40%, but by how much did Gujarati (the worst hit language) decline? 4 How many more girls than boys achieve a pass in a language GCSE, according to the report 'Boys Studying Modern Foreign Languages at GCSE in Schools in England'? 5 What All-Party Parliamentary Group did the Labour MP Taiwo Owatemi establish due to concerns about the impact of Brexit on 70,000 students in the UK every year? 18 The Linguist Vol/59 No/6 2020 POLITICAL MANOEUVRES 1 What was described as a "historic advancement" as Stormont (the Northern Ireland Assembly) reopened after three years? 2 What did Leicester City Councillor Ratilal Govind partially blame for the local Covid-19 outbreak in July? 3 What did French Canadians call "disrespectful" and "dangerous", especially during a pandemic, as they held Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to account? 4 How many European Union interpreters had their contracts terminated in response to the pandemic in June and July? 5 What did French journalists complain to the EU about in a letter dated 23 September? HIGH TECH 1 Explain the hashtag #whereistheinterpreter 2 What welcome update did Google Translate introduce? 3 What update for Amazon Alexa did Countdown's Susie Dent work on? 4 Why was the Wikipedia contributor AmaryllisGardner, an American teenager, accused of "cultural vandalism"? 5 What did researchers dub the software they created to decode mooing after discovering that cattle can communicate with each other about things like food and the weather? It's been a hard year, but what have been the key moments for languages? SPORTING TIMES 1 Who was told by refugee Rasheed: "There is a saying in Balochi language, that if you give me a glass of water, I owe you my entire life. In fact you did more"? 2 What translation 'error' was blamed for Athletic's loss to Real Madrid in a key La Liga match with four games left to play? 3 What did Everton Manager Carlo Ancelotti order staff to do so they could adapt to life in the Premier League? 4 In what context was Uruguay striker Luis Suárez (pictured) accused of cheating? 5 Why was striker Cristiano Ronaldo blasted as "ignorant" and "lacking respect" for Juventus teammates? APT APPS 1 What is the Interpreters' Lives Matter campaign, which launched on Twitter @InterpretersM in September? 2 Which discontinued translation app unwittingly shared the data of some of its users over a six-month period? 3 What can a high-tech glove, invented by UCLA bioengineers, do by connecting with a smartphone app? 4 What does the Cardmedic app do? 5 Why did WhatsApp add a sticker pack that includes these stickers? thelinguist.uberflip.com BIG 2020 QUIZ © SHUTTERSTOCK; LUIS SUAREZ IN 2014, L.F. SALAS VIA FLICKR. IMAGE ISOLATED (CC BY 2.0)

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