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/883785
30 The Linguist Vol/56 No/5 2017 www.ciol.org.uk OPINION & COMMENT Q. Tell us about your role? A. I work in the department of modern languages at Pearson Education, editing the learning resources to make sure they are as effective as possible. Q. What are your day-to-day responsibilities? A. I am responsible for the French, German and Spanish learning resources, editing and proofreading. I also manage the freelance proofreaders and the suppliers that we use. Q. How important was your French and German degree in getting the job? A. It was necessary, as the role requires fluency in the languages I work on. The languages magazine I started at university also meant that I had good experience of publishing and content creation. Q. Why did you study languages? A. Languages have always interested me, and they were the subjects I was drawn to most at school. Doing a languages degree meant studying lots of subjects at once: culture, history and literature, as well as the language aspects. The idea of a year abroad also really appealed. Q. Did your degree make you want to use languages in your career? A. I don't think I'll ever be happy if I'm not using my languages in my life. The feeling of fluency and the gift that it gives is addictive. I find it rewarding to use my languages and I think I will always want to be using them. Potentially I would live and work abroad again. Q. How do you think languages have influenced your life? A. Speaking other languages gives you an openness and a new perspective on the world. On a communication level, learning languages is an exercise in expressing yourself. It helps you attune your ideas and crystallise what you're trying to say. It also means you don't take your own culture for granted, because you see it within the spectrum of all the others. Throughout my degree, I loved thinking about the similarities and differences between cultures and languages. Q. What attracted you to the job? Firstly, the chance to use my languages. Secondly, Pearson attracted me as it's a global company and a market leader in modern language learning. More than 2,000 schools use our products, and that's a great opportunity to reach people and to help them learn. That's a fundamental thing that I enjoy: helping people to learn and to get the bug for languages that I got at school. Interview by Amy Wakeham. Editorial Board member Madeleine Kilminster discusses her role as Content & Learning Specialist at Pearson Education Just the job Links online ALBA SORT Translator and integrated marketer Alba Sort shares her top tips for getting the most out of LinkedIn. If you offer your language services to companies, LinkedIn should be your priority on social media. It can help you manage and strengthen your professional relationships, reach out to new and interesting contacts, and research the people and businesses you want to work with. Best of all, you can do it all with the free version. Your LinkedIn profile is incredibly important. A good profile picture is a must; make sure that your face is well-lit and that you come across as professional and friendly. Pay attention to your headline; by default, LinkedIn shows your latest job title, but consider including the keywords that potential clients might use in their searches. In the summary section, highlight your credibility and explain how you add value. By all means, complete the sections on experience, accomplishments and education, but be succinct and use search-focused keywords. To support discoverability, create your profile in other languages: from your profile page, click on 'Add new language'. Then go to 'Edit your public profile' and 'Edit your profile URL', so you can change your personalised URL to, e.g. www.linkedin.com/in/yourname. References are another great feature. Your connections can endorse you at the click of a button. If you ask for a recommendation, send a personalised request reminding your contact when you worked together and specifying what you would like them to mention. They are doing you a favour, so make things easy for them! Aim to update your LinkedIn profile once a week. As with other social networks, you can post updates, upload photos, share links and even publish articles. The activity feed will show you what your connections have been up to, and you can like, comment or share other people's updates. Share your thoughts @Linguist_CIOL using #TheLinguist.