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/458734
34 The Linguist FEBRUARY/MARCH www.ciol.org.uk INSTITUTE MATTERS A life with languages IN A NEW SERIES OF MEMBERS' PROFILES, WE SPEAK TO JÜRG FISCHLIN FCIL 'my family had a bookbinding company in zurich, which made me enter that business, rather than studying history, which would have been my calling. in 1953, i had the opportunity to spend a year in west Bromwich as a student trainee at a large printing company. the General manager of my family business asked me to come back with a technical vocabulary in order to facilitate communication with the west Bromwich company. rather than leaving it at that, i continued to gather vocabulary over a period of more than 50 years. i worked through piles of prospectuses, instruction manuals, periodicals and technical books on all facets of the papermaking and publishing industry. i spent hours and hours with specialists at the machines, feeling that i had to come up with a very complete dictionary. i believe that, with more than 2,000 expressions in English and German, it achieves that. after working in the industry for two years in Canada, i bought a small printing and bookbinding company in eastern switzerland. But, with time, i realised that i wasn't born to be a businessman and i sold the firm in 1979. luckily, i had built up my languages with extended sojourns in Florence and France (i had studied French and English at school). Courses in simultaneous interpreting at the interpreters' school zurich allowed me to make a mid-life career change, working in German/English, German/French and from italian into the other three languages. as a part-time lecturer at the interpreters' school zurich, i established technical translation as a subject. it took 10 years to develop a solid base of clients with freelance colleagues i can call upon as needed. the biggest challenges are conferences where you don't have the manuscript, conferences for the medical profession, and speakers who don't know how to express themselves. i am planning to retire soon, which will give me more time for my work on the boards of three handcraft bookbinding organisations, and for learning norwegian. i also attend a spanish language class, so as not to get too much out of practise, and enjoy history, classical music, opera and ballet. For reasons of age, i have given up horse riding.' Jürg Fischlin's dictionary of the Graphic arts and paper-Converting industries German/English/German is available on CD-rom, priced CHF485 (approx. £325). For details, email fischlin.dolm@gmail.com. Nikos Anastasopoulos literary and cinema critic nikos anastasopoulos was previously the director of the hellenic Broadcasting Corporation's theatrical department. he has translated several plays from English into Greek, including shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Edward albee's Marriage Play. See p.20 Amanda Barton dr amanda Barton is honorary lecturer at the university of manchester, where she has worked in teacher education for 13 years. now working as a freelance writer, she has published extensively on language teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools. See p.18 Michelle Deeter michelle deeter aCil is a freelance translator working with technical texts. she also teaches Chinese, interprets for the nhs and uk courts, and participated in a three-month translation fellowship at the world intellectual property office in Geneva. michelledeeter.com. See p.14 Madeleine Kilminster madeleine kilminster is in the final year of a degree in French and German at the university of Birmingham, and launched the student languages magazine UoB Linguist in her first year. See p.16 Jessica Moore Freelance journalist and editor Jessica moore is a former acting Editor of The Linguist. Co-Founder of wm Editorial (wmeditorial.com), she has worked for several national publications, including The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Independent. See p.24 Luljeta Nuzi luljeta nuzi is the founder of shpresa programme, a user-led organisation that works to promote the integration of albanians in the uk. she is a trustee of the school for social Entrepreneurs and of Barking and dagenham Council for voluntary service (BdCvs), and a Governor at Gascoigne primary school, Barking. she was awarded the iolEt david Crystal trophy 2014 for fostering the study of languages. See p.10 Reza Shirmarz reza shirmarz mCil is a playwright, literary translator, singer and songwriter. he has written 16 plays, including Crystal Vines, Cinnamon Stars and Corners of Death, and the poetry collections My Paintings and New Season. he has translated more than 100 plays into Farsi, including works by plautus, odets and rattigan, all published in iran. See p.20 Raymonde Sneddon dr raymonde sneddon has been a teacher, teacher educator and researcher in multilingualism and education. her research and publications focus on multi-literacy, community languages and the development of complementary schools. she is currently a visiting research Fellow at the university of East london (uEl). See p.10 Karen Stokes karen stokes FCil Cl is a freelance translator and a member of Ciol Council. she designs and delivers continuing professional development workshops for the Ciol; and was closely involved with the preparation, planning and implementation of the relaunched Chartered linguist scheme. See p.26 ContriButors