At the Interpreting Division's 'Diversifying Your Career
Portfolio' event on 21 November, Christelle Maignan
MITI, a personal performance coach, was the first
speaker. Her presentation, 'Reinventing Yourself: How
understanding the change process can help you take
the leap', addressed approaches to change
management, gave attendees an insight into why
people instinctively tend to resist change and
explained how that can be dealt with efficiently.
Change is nearly always perceived as a threat,
which is normal, and it is only natural to resist it. We
all respond in different ways: stagnation (the freeze
response), transformation (re-training) and adaptation
(taking on a new speciality, diversifying, etc). What we
need to bear in mind is that, while change is external,
the resulting transition happens internally over time.
From her experience as a coach, Christelle has
found that one of the biggest problems people face
is getting stuck at one particular stage (denial, anger,
depression) and finding it difficult to move on. Thus it
is important for us to be open to change, to embrace
it and to become more creative.
One of the most interesting questions asked at the
end of her presentation was: "How do we know if our
ideas for diversification are too daring or whether the
'panic effect' simply makes it seem that way?"
Christelle explained that we need to make a list of
what is really important to us and what we enjoy, and
then reflect on whether it is in line with what we are
trying to do. Then we need to break it down into
smaller goals (which keeps you motivated while
maintaining a sense of direction) and allow ourselves
to fail and learn from that.
In his presentation 'Adding Another String to your
Bow', Michael Wells outlined his work as a French to
English translator, interpreter and language trainer in
a business environment. His journey started with a
love of African literature, which led to work in
Namibia and Burkina Faso. Back in Europe, he
worked in Paris for an NGO and then as a translator
for the EU.
His work experience is wide and varied, and he has
always managed to combine his personal interests
(such as botany) with his language skills. More
recently he was involved in live TV interpreting for a
Parliamentary Committee on the situation in Calais.
Michael also enjoys language teaching and recently
discovered a new way to combine his love of art with
teaching by holding a one-to-one session in an art
gallery, where he could talk about architecture-related
terms that were essential to his student.
He concluded that it is important to try to transform
every potential threat (weakness) into an opportunity.
Interpreters should not be afraid to 'stretch' their skills
and be open to researching and learning new
terminology as part of doing something they enjoy.
He blogs at swithunwells.com.
After lunch, a panel, including our speakers, fielded
questions from the audience in a Q&A session.
See ciol.org.uk > Membership > Divisions >
Interpreting for a full report.
thelinguist.uberflip.com
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2016 The Linguist 33
INSTITUTE MATTERS
CONTACT DETAILS
Judith Ridgway,
bpg@ciol.org.uk
Christine Pocock,
id@ciol.org.uk
Michael
Cunningham,
td@ciol.org.uk
Leslie Ray,
cambridgesociety
@ciol.org.uk
Stephanie Tarling,
germansociety@ciol.org.uk
Francis Lee,
hongkongsociety@
ciol.org.uk
Candia Hillier,
lincolnshiresociety@
ciol.org.uk
Rannheid Sharma,
londonsociety@ciol.org.uk
Katrin Hiietam,
northwestsociety@
ciol.org.uk
Majorie MacRae,
scottishsociety@ciol.org.uk
Rose Mary Bell,
spanishsociety@ciol.org.uk
BPG
ID
TD
CAM
GER
HK
LINC
LON
NW
SCOT
SP
9-11 September
Study weekend
This annual event, held
with other professional
language bodies, will
be in Weimar in 2016.
19 November
AGM
Held at the HMCA.
Lunch and talk
Networking event.
GER
HK
LINC
LOOK AHEAD
Making changes
DIANA SINGUREANU JOINS THE INTERPRETING DIVISION AT AN EVENT
FOCUSING ON HOW TO DIVERSIFY AND REINVENT YOURSELF PROFESSIONALLY
China
that few westerners
see, by Rodney Mantle
FCIL, who lived in China
for 10 years.
Call 01522 526695
by 7 May to book.
Wig & Mitre, 30 Steep
Hill, LN2 1TL.
