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/582271
This issue of The Linguist presented me with a new challenge: editing an article in Greek (p.32). Our series of members' profiles in languages other than English has already given us items in Spanish (a language I know) and French (a language that is, at least, familiar to me). But working in a non- Latin script on the Greek version of Angeliki Petrits' autobiographical piece seemed insurmountable. Of course, it was Angeliki who wrote the final article but, with both language versions in front of me and google translate as a rough guide, I was able to make a number of suggested edits. I look forward to working with Russian next time! A recent article by The Guardian's Books Editor, Claire Armitstead, about the problem of omissions in poetry translation (p.5), caused me to reflect again on the impact of censorship, as outlined by Reza Shirmarz (p.8). Many of his own translations of plays into Farsi have been banned in Iran, although he uses a range of strategies in an attempt to meet the censors' requirements while staying as close as possible to the original. I hope you will find Abigail Leffler's research into the difficulties in communicating important health messages to multilingual communities in Nigeria – and the implications of the failure of current approaches – equally important (p.10). I was also interested to find out about the challenging work of linguists specialising in the translation of history books (p.13). In addition to considerations such as the knowledge-base of the target audience, the subject matter has to be treated sensitively as it can be highly politicised, necessitating a different response depending on the nationality and language of readers. Miranda Moore 4 The Linguist Vol/54 No/5 2015 www.ciol.org.uk NEWS & EDITORIAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S NOTES As the summer exam season reached a close, results in schools showed a small increase in the numbers reaching the highest grades in some languages, which is an encouraging argument against languages being seen as 'hard'. At the same time, however, the range of languages to be offered post 2018, following the GCSE and A level curriculum reviews, is under threat. This contrasts with the full range of world languages delivered by IoLET (the Institute of Linguists Educational Trust) to meet Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) requirements, which demonstrates the importance of higher level skills for diplomacy, defence and security, as well as global business. Candidates were able to sit IoLET's Certificate in Languages for Business (CLB) in May and June this year, with a small cohort of secondary and university students achieving a good set of results. Although offered only in French, German and Spanish during these inaugural sessions, the CLB will soon be available in a wider spread of languages, providing an alternative qualification in schools and higher education. Similar contrasts exist in public service interpreting. The outsourced Ministry of Justice contract is due for renewal next year and CIOL continues to be active in promoting the use only of fully qualified and experienced interpreters. The exact tender specification is not yet available as this issue of The Linguist goes to press but it is scheduled for release during the autumn. The National Health Service concluded its consultations on a charter for interpreters and medical practitioners earlier this year, and this has now been published with some welcome guidelines on interpreting standards and procedures. The Institute continues to mark the 10th anniversary of its Royal Charter with another 'History in Six Objects' in this issue (p.7). The milestone will be celebrated at Members' Day and at a reception later in the year at the FCO's Lancaster House. This comes at a time when we are looking closely at how to attract more linguists starting out in the profession, as well as how we help and encourage existing members to register for chartership. This anniversary year gives us an unprecedented opportunity to talk to the industry in order to raise the profile and understanding of what being a Chartered Linguist really means and what benefits using a Chartered Linguist brings. Ann Carlisle EDITOR'S LETTER This milestone comes at a time when we are looking at how to attract more linguists