The Linguist

@Linguist_CIOL FEBRUARY/MARCH The Linguist 31 INSTITUTE MATTERS Meet our members WHY A CHANCE MEETING WITH CIOL'S ROYAL PATRON LED PETER MITCHELL TO JOIN CIOL AND BECOME ITS YOUNGEST FELLOW Tell us a little about your background… I went to Durham University to read law but got bored rather quickly and wanted to add something more romantic to it. What better than Russian? I found myself enjoying Russian more than law. I spent a year in Siberia as a Language Assistant and was often asked to translate from Russian into English. After pursuing postgraduate diplomas in both teaching and translation, I continued to a Master's and doctorate. I am now a teacher and translator based at Tomsk State University. Last year I established a new Department of Translation and Language Communication. I am launching a Global MA in ELT Leadership, to be offered online, with an international teaching staff and student body. It's a great opportunity to make a contribution to the next generation of leaders in language education. What one thing has most surprised you about working as a linguist? I started out teaching in a very traditional classroom with no more than a blackboard, and translating dull academic texts. Little could I imagine that 15 years later I would have visited 107 countries, worked with a wide spectrum of audiences, and translated everything from headline criminal cases to today's greatest threat: climate change. You joined CIOL nearly four years ago. Why did you decide to join at that time? It was thanks to a chance meeting with HRH Prince Michael of Kent, who initially thought I was Russian ("Where did you learn English? You speak without an accent!"), since I had been introduced as coming from Siberia. We spoke about a range of matters, including CIOL and, after learning about the benefits, I just had to join. It's an honour to belong to an organisation whose Royal Patron is so enthusiastic about its work, and humbling to become CIOL's youngest Fellow (at 34). CIOL offers so much to its members, especially in this difficult year. Your work in building relations with cultural organisations and embassies involves a lot of diplomacy. Can you give us an example? I wish I could, but that would hardly be diplomatic of me. Let's just say that the key to any solution is understanding the desires of the other party, which requires stepping out of one's own cultural anchor. Demonstrating your respect for the other person's point of view generates true goodwill. Which assignment has been most fun? By far the best part of my job is teaching future linguists. Every summer, I organise a trip to an exotic destination. We've been to 45 countries so far, covering every country in Southeast Asia (including Myanmar, pictured) and Central America, most of South America and a fifth of Africa. We visit universities, meet with local business leaders and politicians, participate in seminars. Often the students haven't travelled abroad before. Seeing them grow, not just as linguists but as people, in the space of just a month is inspiring. A job's worth ALEXANDER TULLOCH If you are interested in etymology and want to find some unexpected gems, you could do worse than have a look at the names we give to jobs. When we need a plumber or a gardener or the services of a doctor, we simply pick up the phone and give them a call. But how many of us pay much attention to where the job titles come from? Not many, I suspect. Take the plumber for instance. Those of us who went to school in the days when Latin was on the curriculum probably remember the snigger that rippled around the class when the teacher informed us that it came from the Romans' term for lead: plumbum. Possibly the same teacher also explained that a 'doctor' was originally just a man or woman who had been taught things, from the Latin word doceo ('I teach'). The word 'gardener' has tentacles that reach out even further. Its etymological links go all the way back to ancient Greece and the word khortos, an enclosed space reserved for the feeding of domestic animals. So perhaps the original gardeners were more concerned with tending pigs and cows than keeping the lawn edges neat and tidy. Other everyday occupations have more exotic origins. A 'pundit' (paṇdit) was an Indian scholar versed in Sanskrit lore; a 'tycoon' (taikun) was a Japanese warlord; and the person we refer to colloquially as 'white van man' probably has no idea that his vehicle takes its name from the Sanskrit word for a camel (karabha)! And then there are those which have morphed into surnames, of which there are many. A 'Hayward' in former times was the man who looked after hedges; a 'Baxter' was a female baker; and a 'Barker' will have forebears whose job it was to strip the bark off trees and sell it to the tanning factories. Alexander Tulloch FCIL is the author of Just the Job: How trades got their names (2020; Bodleian Library), It's All Greek and Understanding English Homonyms.

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