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
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thelinguist.uberflip.com OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2016 The Linguist 5 The latest from the languages world The Welsh-language channel S4C was celebrating in August after the BBC Trust confirmed it would secure its current level of funding until 2022. The current agreement is due to expire in March, and the BBC had previously only guaranteed the annual funding of £74.5 million until 2018. Announcing the arrangement, the then BBC Trust Chairman Rona Fairhead recognised the "important role played by S4C for Welsh-speaking licence-fee payers". The Welsh Secretary, Alun Cairns, said: "S4C plays an important role in Wales, cementing the Welsh language and culture within NEWS & EDITORIAL School language departments can still enter pupils in the EU's 2016 competition for 17-year-old language learners. The registration deadline for Juvenes Translatores is 20 October, as the European Commission continues its search for Young Translator of the Year in each member state. Participants must translate a short set text using any pair of the EU's 24 official languages in an attempt to win a trip to the European Commission in Brussels. In the 10 years since the contest began, 2,031 UK students have taken part. For details see http://ec.europa.eu/translatores/index_en.htm. The BBC's Controller of Languages has left the corporation after a quarter of a century. Announcing the news, James Harding, Director of BBC News and Current Affairs, said: "Liliane Landor has been a defining figure in shaping the World Service over the course of her 26 years at the BBC." There were reports that differences of opinion with senior management over the future of the World Service may have played a part in her decision to leave the position as head of the BBC's 28 language services, spread across radio, TV and internet. "At Liliane's behest, the language services transformed the BBC's ability to make sense of the world, bringing its expertise, first-hand knowledge and courageous on-the-ground reporting to all parts of the BBC's global coverage," Harding continued. In November 2015, the UK government gave the World Service an extra £85 million a year to develop its services around the world. Channel 4's first sign language-only TV commercial became the talk of Twitter in September after it was broadcast without subtitles during the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games. One of three ads for Maltesers featuring disabled people, the 30-second film aimed to celebrate diversity during the Games in Rio. The light-hearted ads courted attention for their racey themes as much as for their use of British Sign Language (BSL) and disabled actors. "This is a first step for us, and with a fifth of the UK population living with a A recent survey has found that 20% of translation companies in the UK are expecting zero or negative growth in 2016/2017. However the research, carried out by the Association of Translation Companies (ATC), was not all bad news, with average expected growth for 2015/16 at 11.3%, and some companies forecasting growth of up to 48%. ATC spoke directly to translation companies to gather information for the 2016 UK Language Industry report. The highest gross margins reported were 65%, with average gross margins of 45% and a low of 25%. The average earnings of survey participants before interest and tax was 15.45%, which, according to ATC, "is quite a high figure when compared to larger players in France and elsewhere in Western Europe". This may be "why there is such a huge interest in buying LSPs [language service providers] in the United Kingdom these last few years", it continued. Funding secure for Welsh TV Young translator competition BBC languages head resigns 20% of LSPs face 0% growth BSL ad trends on social media disability, and the nation focused on this great sporting event, this is the right time to join the conversation," said Michele Oliver, Vice President of Marketing at Mars Chocolate UK. The advertisements were the result of a Channel 4 competition to find the strongest campaign featuring disability and disabled talent, with a prize of £1 million worth of free advertising. "The calibre of competition entries demonstrated that the UK ad industry can be world-leading in improving representation of disability in advertising," said C4 Sales Director Jonathan Allan.