The Linguist

@Linguist_CIOL 'I Thought He Was an Alien': Meet the 5-year-old blowing people away on Tiktok, 18/4/22 [Sebastian] has wowed millions of people online with his "photographic" memory and ability to write in 10 different languages… Sebastian has a reading age of 18, has memorised the Greek, German, Armenian, and Turkish alphabets and can recite the entire periodic table of elements by heart… "Sebastian can't put on his own shoes, but he can write in Russian – and that's fine." What the papers say… How to Learn Foreign Languages as an Adult: The definitive guide, 21/3/22 When Benny Lewis was learning Spanish, he would copy the mannerisms of Captain Jack Sparrow, the swaggering adventurer from Pirates of the Caribbean. "If you imagine his character, he always has these dramatic pauses. I would implement that in my Spanish. I would say, I want to go…" Lewis pauses and draws, like Sparrow, an exaggerated spiral with his finger, "to the supermarket." He had spent six months in Spain and had not learned the language despite taking classes. Things changed rapidly when he decided to simply start speaking, as he puts it, "caveman Spanish". Mastermind: Inside the world of competitive quizzing, 16/4/22 At the European Championships, unlike the World Championships, everybody gets the same set of questions delivered in English, with only key terms translated. This has lead [sic] to accusations of Anglo-centrism, but impressively means many global stars, such as Belgium's Ronny Swiggers (the current world champion), have won European Championships in their second or even third language. The latest from the languages world NEWS & EDITORIAL JUNE/JULY The Linguist 5 From April 2022, the Secretariat of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Modern Languages has been provided by the Chartered Institute of Linguists. This arrangement is co-funded by CIOL, the British Academy and the British Council. The new arrangement is a reflection of the breadth of the APPG's remit, which covers "the educational, skills-related, employment, competitive and cultural benefits of learning and using languages throughout the UK". The APPG expressed its gratitude to the British Council for providing the Secretariat for many years, and its confidence in working with the three organisations going forward, with the CIOL as lead partner. See www.appgml.org for further details. CIOL supports all-party group CIOL member Jo Durning is conducting research into the impact of Brexit on the delivery of translation and interpreting services from the UK to the EU. She would like to hear from linguists who are UK based and have clients in the EU, whether or not they have noticed any effects. To contribute to the study, contact josephine.durning65@law.ac.uk. Brexit study A recent study has revealed that conservation research is being hindered because much of the work is not translated into English. The international literature on biodiversity covers just 5% of species, but this could be increased to 32% by translating existing research. An international team of scientists consulted 419,679 papers written in 16 languages for the study, which was published in Plos Biology. "We are essentially not using scientific evidence published in non-English-languages at the international level, but if we could make a better use of [it], we might be able to fill the existing gaps," explained lead researcher Tatsuya Amano at Queensland University. The scientists identified 1,234 non-English- language studies that could be added to the Conservation Evidence database, expanding it by 25%. This research tends to focus on different regions to those covered by English- language studies, so translating it would double the geographical coverage of the database. The most productive languages were Japanese (26.7%), Hungarian (15.3%) and French (12.9%). "We urge wider disciplines to rigorously reassess the untapped potential of non-English-language science in informing decisions to address other global challenges," advised the researchers. tinyurl.com/PlosTrans Translation gap harms ecology © SHUTTERSTOCK

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