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 The Linguist 33 INSTITUTE MATTERS Members of the Business, Professions and Government (BPG) Division gathered at the Civil Service Club near Trafalgar Square for its AGM in June, and a talk on 'Language and Thought in the Multi-Competent Individual' by Benedetta Bassetti of the University of Warwick. BPG Chair, Judith Ridgway, welcomed the 21 attendees and presented her Annual Report, explaining that the division is keen to promote the value of languages in all walks of life and seeking ideas on how this could be achieved. Other Committee members also gave reports and it was noted that BPG membership was 15% up on the previous year. CIOL Chair of Council Karen Stokes gave an overview of CIOL developments over the past year. It had been a busy year with progress in many areas. The strategic planning exercise at the end of April had been productive and would soon bear fruit in a new Strategic Plan for 2017-2020 and beyond. Following a convivial lunch in the club restaurant, we returned to our meeting room to hear Dr Bassetti's talk. She considered linguistic diversity: how different languages represent reality differently and speakers of different languages think differently. Multi-competence is the overall system of a mind that knows more than one language. Dr Bassetti presented research showing that the way of thinking of an Italian speaker is different to the way of thinking of a German speaker. She gave examples of nouns that have different genders in Italian and German (e.g. sole/Sonne; 'sun'). This can mean that native speakers of one language will 'see' the noun as a masculine thing, while those of the other will perceive it as a feminine thing – complete with all that 'masculinity' and 'femininity' imply. She concluded that multi- competent second- language users are exposed, through their two languages, to two representations of reality. This may reduce the effects of any one language on thinking. Thinking different AT THE BPG'S AGM, BEATRIX METT CONSIDERS HOW THE LANGUAGES WE SPEAK AFFECT THE WAY WE THINK CONTACT DETAILS bpg@ciol.org.uk Judith Ridgway id@ciol.org.uk Christine Pocock td@ciol.org.uk Pavla Dohnalová cambridgesociety @ciol.org.uk Leslie Ray germansociety@ciol .org.uk Stephanie Tarling hongkongsociety @ciol.org.uk Francis Lee lincolnshiresociety @ciol.org.uk Candia Hillier londonsociety@ciol .org.uk Rannheid Sharma midlands@ciol .org.uk Eleanor Bridgwood northwestsociety@ ciol.org.uk Katrin Hiietam scottishsociety @ciol.org.uk Eneida García Villanueva spanishsociety@ ciol.org.uk Jean Boyd BPG ID TD CAM GER HK LINC LON NW SCOT SP MIDS 'MINORITY LANGUAGES': TALK AND AGM Saturday 25 November Edinburgh A talk by Professor Bernie O'Rourke of Heriot-Watt. For further details, see ciol.org.uk/scottish-society. December 'LEGAL TRANSLATION FOR THE TERRIFIED' Friday 1 December CIWEM, Saffron Hill, London Event leader Danaë Hosek-Ugolin is a solicitor and legal, business and maritime translator. For further details, see ciol.org.uk/td. SCOT TD Student Affiliates: 30 IoLET Affiliates: 365 Unfortunately, due to the large number of new Student and IoLET Affiliates we are unable to list them. Career Affiliates: 8 Melanie Bacchi Chloe Fairfoull- Mendelsohn Domini Lucas Daniela Manske Kalyani Mehta Daniela Morgan Connie Oetting Joanne Seymour Associates: 4 Wang Leung Lee Jiaqi Luo Izabela Piskulla Steven Rae Members: 40 Francis Agbana Nabeel Al-Saadi Mohamed Alsalah Mahmud Showkat Azad Ahmed Baqer Ute Boronowsky Marianna Brazda Yin Hong Chan Sabine Citron Sergio Cordeiro Christopher Davies Konstantina Drakou Tom Ellett Valentina Faelli Conor Gray Natalia Greig Elisabetta Hall Maria Hoskins Jin Huang Severine Hubscher- Davidson David Kinloch Zita Kovacsne Koder Yolanna Lamar Cordoves Tanja Lampa Bertrand Lapicorey Neta Lavee Jen Lawson Gesheng Li Irene Macias Aleksandra Marsh Pedro Matias Tezcan Mohr Ekin Odabas Reg Rushton Dorothea Sabirowsky Fabio Said Elena Scott Paola Slajmer Melodie Teruel-Vaissiere Natallia Thompson Nataliya Yachmeneva Ka Hei Yu Honorary Members: 1 Adam Ladbury Fellows: 5 Simon Deefholts Jake Irwin Estrada Karl Mclaughlin Kathryn Phillips-Miles Penelope Porter Visit ciol.org.uk/join to apply for membership. The Translating Division is taking the results of its recent event survey into account in planning its events for the last quarter of 2017, and will continue to refer to the survey when organising future events. The division welcomes any suggestions and feedback via ciol.org.uk/td or td@ciol.org.uk. Follow the TD on Twitter @CIOLTranslating. Translating Division update ADMISSIONS