Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Linguist: Food For Thought
The Linguist: Food For Thought
The Linguist
Greek is
the word
Bestselling novelist Victoria
Hislop reveals how her
passion for Greek began
Food for
thought
The tool getting learners
out of the classroom
and into the kitchen
Clause for
concern
How to identify and
avoid inappropriate
NDA restrictions
CONTENTS
20 10
Reviews
IMAGES © SHUTTERSTOCK
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Chair J Guardamagna BA MCIL CL (Translator) IAPTI APARU
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Miranda Moore
What the
papers say…
Consumer rights groups in the EU are said a spokesperson for the group. EU officials
insisting that health information for a future have suggested they may allow materials to
Covid-19 vaccine be printed in all 24 official be printed in a limited selection of languages,
European languages. The move comes as with other language versions available online. ‘From Voicing Nazi Video Game Characters
drug companies asked the EU to suspend the However, Monique Goyens, Director of to Talking Cats, We Chat with Synthesis
rules for packaging, labelling and instructions the European Consumer Organisation Localisation Studio’, 25/9/20
in order to speed up delivery of the vaccine. (BEUC), argued: “Speed is important. But In Dishonored II for the main character, Corvo,
Vaccines Europe, which represents large speed should not be at the expense of safety we used the German voice for Bruce Willis. He
pharmaceutical companies including Sanofi, and certainly not be an excuse for cutting is probably one of the most prominent voices
GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, wants the consumer protection measures.” Suggesting actors. We found out that his daughter is also
EU to pick just one language to use on that some users may not have access to the a voice actor and she got the role of Emily, the
inoculation materials for all 27 member states. internet, she continued: “It is important that in-game daughter of Corvo. This was really
“We need an early agreement from EU consumers have information available in their appreciated by the fans who loved to find out
authorities on the language to be used on language and on paper about possible side that they were really father and daughter and
the packs and labels for Covid-19 vaccines,” effects of vaccines.” that that was unique to the German version.
© SHUTTERSTOCK
common languages spoken in the UK are not crisis will get worse: “Although applications
supported, including French and Tamil. to ITE [initial teaching education] have
Concerns were raised that visitors would be increased because of the pandemic, the
unlikely to change their phones’ language effect could be short-lived and underlying
Learning
settings while staying in England and Wales. problems are likely to remain.”
On the plus side, the paper also
French press
reported that government-sponsored
private school teacher training partnerships
complain to EU
appeared to be very successful, allaying
fears that they would disproportionately
benefit independent schools.
French journalists have complained to the Meanwhile, the National Association of
European Union about the institutions’ Language Advisers published a report What worked best as
increasingly monolingual media based on interviews with more than 500
communications. Members of the Association language professionals, saying that asks what techniques
of European Journalists described the lack of language GCSEs are biased against poor
press releases in any working language other pupils, students in care and those with
L
than English as a “repeated practice, now special needs. As the TES noted, this is ockdown caused us all to adapt the
almost systematic”. They stressed that this because questions require responses way we work. Worldwide, teachers
gives an unfair “competitive advantage to based on personal experiences which stepped up to the challenge of
the English-speaking press, which does not these groups are less likely to have. delivering lessons remotely. For languages
need to translate and can simply copy and This is backed up by an OECD report, teachers, who distil a cocktail of cognitive
paste extracts”. Legally, EU communications quoted in The Telegraph: “among 79 skills into an engaging format for pupils to
must be written in several EU languages. countries, the UK ranked in the bottom four absorb, practise and produce in front of
in hours dedicated to perfecting second them daily, this challenge was arguably
Mask translator
language skills in secondary schools”. greater than it was for most.
Although Scotland did the worst of all four How did they teach? What worked best?
UK nations, The National celebrated the What did teachers learn that they have taken
A face mask that translates speech in eight success of its ‘1+2’ languages policy. The back into the classroom? We sought to
languages is in the final stages of production. National Centre for Languages stated answer these questions through a survey of
The C-Face device is designed to be worn “languages as a whole enjoy a higher languages teachers. The vast majority of
over a face mask and does not itself offer percentage uptake than biology or physics” the 105 respondents teach at UK
protection from Covid-19, but it does enable in Highers over the last seven years. As secondary schools, with 9% at primary and
people to talk at a safe distance of up to ever, language policy is a long game! 10% at schools outside the UK. We hope
10 metres apart. Made by Japanese the data is a representative sample to
developers Donut Robotics, it will be released Philip Harding-Esch is a freelance languages inform best practice going forward.
in February, covering languages including project manager and consultant. So what did languages teaching and
Japanese, Korean, English and French. learning look like during lockdown? The
from lockdown
Qwiqr, can be used by pupils to record
target-language speaking, and by teachers
for giving feedback. Indeed, video and
audio are among the most effective media
for delivering feedback.1
• Real-time internet research. Pupils search
for relevant, authentic resources (e.g. train
schedules, restaurant menus, newspaper
lessons went online? Eleni Pavlopoulos articles) and share them with questions for
the class or with a summary.
s teachers have taken into the classroom As in many sectors, the pandemic
accelerated innovation in languages
teaching. At the same time, moving online
cross-section of teachers surveyed indicated aspirations of individual pupils were prepared; underlined the value of connecting in person
that most lessons were delivered by setting virtual projects, escape games and trips were when teaching languages. The power of
work for pupils to complete independently, designed. Despite innovative self-recording body language to communicate and physical
without online teacher support, but nearly all solutions (e.g. role-play on ChatterPix), the presence to motivate, as well as the ability to
had used an interactive classroom with a live majority of teachers felt that the least assess progress accurately, are diluted in a
streaming option, such as Microsoft Teams, progress was made in speaking. virtual environment. We will take our learning
at some point. Nearly half of participants reported that their from lockdown back into the classroom with
The consensus was that blended/hybrid school’s Languages Department collaborated us and continue to innovate and adapt, but if
learning (a combination of live online lessons more than usual in planning and/or sharing truth be told, it’s great to be back!
and independent work) enabled learners to resources during lockdown. Interactive online
make the most progress. Live teaching activities which teachers designed were seen Notes
enabled modelling, pace-setting, reassurance as the most effective form of remote learning: 1 Hattie, J and Timperley, H (2007) ‘The Power
and formative assessment, while independent pupils contributed written answers on shared of Feedback’. In Review of Educational
practice was helpful in consolidating learning. documents or via a chat function, receiving Research, 77:1, 81-112
Surprisingly, the greatest barrier to learning instant teacher/peer feedback.
was not IT-related, but rather pupils’ waning Pupils successfully collaborated on web-
motivation over the lengthy period of school
closure. Ever resilient, teachers developed a
based research and presented their findings to
the class in the target language. To support
TL Eleni Pavlopoulos teaches German
and French at a London secondary
variety of strategies to maintain engagement independent work, knowledge organisers, school where she is also Head of Careers.
in addition to praise and positivity. Customised listening pyramids, teachers’ own slide decks She is on The Linguist’s Editorial Board.
online materials to reference the interests and and ready-made lessons from Oak Academy
V
ictoria Hislop’s love of Greece runs
through her eight novels – every one
of them set in the country. So much so
that she was awarded honorary Greek
citizenship in July for promoting the nation’s
history and traditions. Though I knew of her
reputation as a dedicated hellenophile, I was
less aware of her passion for languages when
we spoke in October. I discovered a bestselling
novelist who describes her life’s work as the
study of Greek – who grew up speaking French
with the English girl next door and still plays
make-believe with her grown-up son (the actor
Will Hislop) to teach him Greek. (“He could get
a book if he wanted to, but this is a fun thing.”)
How her love of Greece began has been
well-documented: as a 17-year-old with little
experience of trips abroad, she was taken to
Greece by her recently divorced mother Mary,
and instantly fell in love with the place.
Coming from a fairly “typical” family in Kent,
who holidayed on the South Coast and were
not particularly interested in languages, it was
all very exotic. Though she returned to Greece
often as she embarked on adult life, she didn’t
have much of a connection with Greek until
much later. “At the time, the language
seemed so completely alien because of the
alphabet. A privately educated person might
have had fun transliterating, but I hadn’t done
Ancient Greek at school. I didn’t think there
was any possibility of speaking it.”
This is slightly surprising when you consider
Hislop’s early aptitude for languages. She
choose to speak not just French with her
friend, Angela, on the walk to school, but also
German and Spanish when their grammar
school introduced those languages. “It sounds
so funny now but we absolutely did this, and
thelinguist.uberflip.com
FEATURES
we walked to school and back every day for can speak the language.” There were two new children’s version of The Island in the
a decade,” she says. One of them was “very specific” events that began her journey language. It felt right because “my
always top of the class in languages. “We with Greek. The first came after The Island vocabulary is probably like an eight-year-old’s
were competitive in a nice, friendly way, was translated into the language. It was an and that’s the audience for the book,” she
because we egged each other on.” instant hit and a nationwide book tour says. Due for publication next year, the book
A “ghastly” French exchange aged 11 (“I followed. “At the first presentation I had an will include some new, younger characters.
was far too young”) almost put her off going interpreter and I couldn’t stand it because Though Hislop will probably never write an
to France. She describes the environment as everything I said took twice as long in Greek. adult novel in Greek, knowledge of the
“very alien”. “I was in France, with smells of It seemed to take hours,” she says. language does inform the way she writes. “I’m
garlic, which I’d never even tasted. I’m talking “It’s hard to explain – I was kind of angry not writing as though an English person were
1971. Spaghetti only came out of tins in those because I felt foolish, like a three-year-old speaking, because the Greeks do express
days! Culturally, we weren’t European in any who’s being patronised. It was a great themselves differently. I don’t know whether
way in Britain.” But the experience did not incentive.” She returned to London and that comes across to the English reader, and
affect her enjoyment of the language, which began intensive 1-to-1 lessons. “My teacher it’s not every time a character speaks, but I
she spoke with her Parisian step-father. “I asked ‘What’s your motivation?’ I said ‘In hope sometimes I get it,” she says.
absolutely loved speaking French. For many three months’ time I want to be able to “I don’t think there’s any such thing as
years, I had in-house French conversation conduct an interview about my work.’ So he direct translation because people do express
and I really grabbed that opportunity.” kind of swallowed and we got on with it.” themselves differently in other languages,
She went on to study English at Oxford, and words tend to have different nuances. I
where she met her husband, Private Eye explore that as much as I can when I’m
Editor Ian Hislop. After a career in publishing “You have to act – in writing my novels.” Instinctively Hislop feels
and public relations she became a journalist, that she, too, expresses herself differently in
writing her first novel, The Island, in her 40s. verbal terms – to start the other language. In French, she doesn’t
Inspired by a trip to the former leper colony speak ‘in translation’, and she is getting to
on Spinalonga, the book was an immediate with. You’re acting that point in Greek too (which she speaks
bestseller and has since been translated with a French accent).
into more than 30 languages. The sequel, being French or When it comes to the translation of her
One August Night, published in October, books, her knowledge of European languages
explores the tragic events that follow the Spanish or Greek” gives her an interesting insight. Occasionally
colony’s closure. a fan who has read her work in another
In 2010, The Island was made into a language asks her about something that she
successful TV series in Greece. Hislop was Soon after, she was introduced to Manoli, doesn’t remember writing. “I can go and
heavily involved in the production, and even an elderly Cretan man who had survived check that the translator hasn’t changed
had a walk-on part, along with Ian. She sees leprosy. Her desire to connect with him anything, and sometimes they have. It is
a correlation between acting and language became another powerful motivation. “We probably quite annoying for them,” she adds.
learning: “Language to me is a lot about had a real connection and I dreamt of being Despite selling millions of copies around the
being prepared to act, because you have to able to communicate with him directly,” she world, Hislop doesn’t consider herself to have
act – in verbal terms – to start with. You’re says. “There was always a time limit because many ambitions – except with Greek. “That’s
acting being French or Spanish or Greek.” he was 82, he had problems with his lungs. I where I can make big improvements. It’s still
With Will, they pretend he is a Greek man, knew I didn’t have 10 years. If you’ve got a a very exciting learning curve.” A generous
and he is learning the language in this way. real target with language learning that helps.” conversationalist, she asks about my linguistic
Both children speak French and Emily With its many declensions and cases, and experiences as the interview comes to an end,
“thinks, lives, breathes Spanish”. the different alphabet, Greek is not an ‘easy’ and seems genuinely interested when I talk
In a sense, writing fiction is also a form of language for English speakers. But it’s not all about learning Spanish in Mexico. Excited by
mimicry, reflecting how people speak, react the hard climb, says Hislop. “You kind of go the many options for TV viewing in Spanish,
to situations and understand events. Hislop’s up a steep slope and then suddenly you she recommends a few telenovelas, trying to
novels have always been meticulously think ‘Wow, I can understand people’, and remember the ones Emily has most enjoyed.
researched, even before she was able to then there’s the next steep hill and you’re on Her parting words to me? “Languages:
understand the language, but she admits: “I a plateau where you can have a conversation they’re the most exciting thing that your
don’t think you can get beyond a certain point with somebody.” brain can undertake, I reckon.”
of understanding a country or the people, or The current challenge is writing in Greek, Victoria Hislop’s latest novel, One August
the way they live or communicate, unless you as she decided to write the first draft of a Night, is published by Headline Books.
N
on-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) relationship. Their purpose is to restrict an NDAs can be valid for various periods but
are variously known as confidentiality, employee from entering into any sort of terms of between one and ten years are
disclosure, proprietary information competition against their former employer common in Europe. Five-year terms are more
and secrecy agreements – or even as once the employment has ended, for example common in the USA. Some are (worryingly)
‘gentlemen’s agreements’. They are legal by working for the ‘opposition’. As far as vague as to duration and may be expressed
contracts between at least two parties to freelancers are concerned, such clauses may to last “indefinitely” or “as long as possible”,
protect confidential information which one or be a fetter on our freedom and flexibility to or to expire “at the end of the assignment”.
more of them wish to restrict further access to work with (not for) others. The stranglehold Questions we should be asking ourselves
by third parties. They usually protect will be even more acute where we have are do we want to be tied to NDAs which
information comprising personal information, succeeded in carving niches in specific sectors. may never end, and if an NDA expires at the
trade secrets and private business information. end of an assignment, when does that
NDAs are commonly used by employers TYPES OF AGREEMENT assignment actually end – upon delivery or
to prevent employees from disclosing The three main classifications of NDA are after payment? We also need to be vigilant
confidential information to their competitors. unilateral (one-way); mutual (two-way); and when an NDA ends but some of the
However, freelancers are increasingly being multilateral. The majority are unilateral and confidentiality obligations continue, perhaps
asked by language service providers (LSPs) to these are the ones that clients are most likely for life. This situation would be relevant
sign them in the spirit of what sometimes to ask freelancers to sign. They involve two where the material in question is particularly
looks and feels like a quasi-employment parties and apply where only one party sensitive for political or other reasons, such as
relationship. Is this yet another blurring of anticipates disclosure. Mutual agreements are company buy-outs.
employment/self-employment boundaries in used where both parties want to protect their Freelancers should be wary about agreeing
addition to less serious ones, such as requests information, while multilateral agreements to be tied up for long periods. Before we do
for our availability details over public holidays? involve three or more parties. The party who so, we would be well advised to discuss the
Many NDAs contain non-competition intends to share information is known as the implications with our professional indemnity
clauses (also known as non-compete restrictive disclosing party (typically the client in this case) insurers, because such agreements could
covenants), which are a classic example of this and the party receiving the information (e.g. negatively affect our chance of gaining work
sort of attempt to control an employment the freelancer) is known as the receiving party. with other clients in our chosen sectors.
EARLY TERMINATION a source that is not a party to the contract, “in the same way” as they protect their
How easy is it to get out of an NDA before for example through working for multiple own information (and clarify how this
the expiry date? We may wish to exit an NDA clients in the same subject area – which is, of should be done).
early because the information concerned is course, what many of us do. • Clarify the type (and amount if relevant) of
now in the public domain or because the NDA With regard to non-compete clauses, many any penalty for breach, e.g. a fine of €1,000.
undermines our future working practices. An corporate clients place assignments across a
example would be a clause preventing an range of LSPs at any given time. This increases SEEKING LEGAL ADVICE
interpreter from working with any other the possibility that we will come across the Where can you get advice if you find yourself
organisation or individual linked to wind farms same confidential information over and over, on the receiving end of an NDA you don’t
in France where this is their specialist area, or without necessarily knowing the identity of like the look of? The obvious first port of call
restricting a translator from working with the end client. Thus it is almost impossible for is your lawyer, who may or may not be au fait
companies with subsidiaries in Malta when us not to breach clauses of this nature. with NDAs as they relate to language
that country provides the bulk of their work. professionals, but who will no doubt charge a
It may be possible to take advantage of an CHECKING THE ‘SMALL PRINT’ hefty fee. A better source may be your PII
early termination clause (if there is one), such Prior to signing an NDA, freelancers should legal department – ask if you’re covered in the
as “Either party can terminate the NDA at check the provisions in the disputes clause as event of a dispute with a client whose NDA
any time by providing written notice of their to how any disputes are to be dealt with – in requires you to destroy all of their ‘materials’
intention to terminate to the other party.” Of particular, which country has jurisdiction: ours upon delivery. This would involve destroying
course, the other party has to agree. This may or the client’s? This is important, as legal any evidence that could vindicate you if your
occur where the relationship with this client is systems can differ widely and it is possible that work was ever called into question. It is worth
unlikely to continue, perhaps because they will your professional indemnity insurance (PII) may outlining such concerns to clients, and better
not be able to offer us this sort of work again. only cover work carried out for the source still asking your PII to put their advice in
NDAs are legally enforceable contracts, so if language country. If the policy holder is based writing so you can share it with the client.
they are breached the non-defaulting party in the UK, work carried out in the USA, for In my experience, many project managers
may be able to sue for breach of contract and example, will often incur a higher PII premium. are unaware of the issues – often because
NDAs can run to 20 pages or more, so if they haven’t read their own NDAs and have
you are unable to unpick every single line of never thought through the implications of a
Project managers every single page, you should at least: destruction of materials clause! In addition,
• Pay attention to clauses which define what is seek help from experienced colleagues
are unaware of issues considered to be ‘confidential information’ – and/or mentors, and make use of your
e.g. definitions of ‘financial information’, professional organisation’s free legal advice.*
like this, often ‘software materials’ and so on. For example Where there appear to be only one or two
the disclosing party should be very clear if dodgy-looking clauses in an otherwise
because they haven’t ‘financial information’ includes details just seemingly innocuous NDA, why not ask the
about their bank accounts or also about client to delete them? Alternatively you could
read their own NDAs staff wages. Equally, it is important to know provide your own draft NDA, or at least
whether or not ‘software materials’ include suggest amendments to the offending clauses.
materials owned by any subsidiaries. The bottom line is that you and your client
damages (financial compensation), and/or • Clarify any permitted disclosure and are business partners, and in the event of a
apply for a court order to prevent any further exclude liability for breach due to a party dispute reaching court, any unreasonable
disclosure. But why might we want to disclose already known to be working in the clauses may be struck out. Where the entire
confidential information? We may want to relevant subject area, e.g. where the client NDA is causing you ‘to sign or not to sign?’
share it with a proofreader or subcontractor is aware of the translator’s reputation as an anxiety and/or the client is unwilling to make
translator. If so, we should first seek the client’s expert in this particular field. amendments, this is definitely a bad sign.
permission, and the third party should sign an • Restrict use of the information other than * CIOL members can access a free legal
NDA, whether with us or through the client. for the use stipulated in the NDA. helpline by logging in to CIOL Advantage:
So can confidential information be disclosed • Require the receiving party to ensure ciol.org.uk/benefits/ciol-advantage. A team of
without such penalties being invoked? Yes, compliance by their subcontractors and legal advisors can discuss legal queries and
where the court orders disclosure or, more proofreaders (and clarify how this should offer straightforward legal advice to help find
commonly, where the information is already in be done). practical solutions to implement yourself.
the public domain. Also where the receiving • Require the receiving party to use their Should you decide to pay for a lawyer, they
party already knew about the information via “best efforts” to protect the information can put you in touch with a specialist team.
Magic in class
Valérie Harkness celebrates the teachers
© THIERRY BAL
How does language form the world around us and what is
the impact of the pandemic on this, asks Catherine Boyle
I
n Language Acts and Worldmaking, we argue that strands are linked by a shared interest in exploring and THOUGHT-
language empowers us by enabling us to construct our understanding the movement of people and language PROVOKING
personal, local, transnational and spiritual identities across time and space. Performance by
(www.languageacts.org). Language also constrains us, We foreground the ways in which learning a language Caroline Bergvall in
through the ideological force of the history of these means recognising how the cultures embedded in it are Tilbury, 2016 – part of
identities. It is this complexity that we understand as shaped by encounters with other cultures and languages. her Ragadawn project,
worldmaking: we shape the world around us through This is the force of language learning, and Language which was given a
the language we use and are shaped by the languages Acts and Worldmaking advocates for the potential of the grant by Language
around us. If one language can give us a sense of place discipline of Modern Languages to open pathways Acts and Worldmaking
and belonging, learning another helps us move across between worlds past and present. From the start, our
time and place, encounter other ways of being, other goals have been imbued with a political consciousness,
histories and realities. For us, language is a material and which has been strengthened throughout the project.
historical force that opens us to the world that surrounds The beginning was 2014, when we started to develop
us; it is this belief that informs the work we do. our ideas in response to the Arts and Humanities Research
The project consists of six strands of research that Council’s Open World Research Initiative (OWRI), which
cover literary and cultural history, linguistics, translation, called on projects that would have a transformative effect
performance, digital humanities and pedagogy. These on Modern Languages in the UK.1 We took the call as a
provocation and an opportunity: it would be the place language teaching and learning, and identifying emerging
from which we could break down barriers between research fields and new communities of study – help us
academic research and teaching in universities by articulate our own position in the field. It is this community
collaborating with broad sectors of society, including of researchers that will be the force behind changes to
education, faith groups, commerce and the third sector. how we approach language learning and research.
Our team of academics, teacher-researchers,
postdoctoral researchers and PhD student researchers is Worldmaking in the time of Covid
drawn from King’s College London, Queen Mary If the EU referendum meant that we started the project in
University of London, the Open University and the a complex environment of closing borders, the pandemic
University of Westminster, as well as modern language meant that we came to the end of the funded part of
centres. The project started formally in July 2016, a fateful our work in an environment of the extreme closing of
date that would inform all our thinking, as the outcome borders, where we were part of a global experience but
of the EU referendum shaped our engagement with the increasingly isolated from one another.
world. The funded period ended in June 2020, in the In April, King’s College offered ‘Rapid Response to
midst of a global pandemic that sees us rethinking the Covid-19’ funding to projects with an emphasis on
nature of the dynamic between the local and the global. science and medicine. We proposed that language has a
crucial role to play in understanding how Covid-19 is
Community building being lived, and used the principles of Language Acts
Building a community has been central to the ways in and Worldmaking – that language is a material and
which we conduct our research. In its broadest sense, we historic force – to make a call for a deep and textured
understand this as building the capacity for creative and understanding of the pandemic. Our thesis is that we
critical thinking. We structured our work to engage with narrate everything; we construct the world around us by
the widest possible community of language learners, telling its stories; these set a crisis in context, relate it to
educators and researchers. our historical experience, help us to understand it in the
At the heart of this endeavour is our Small Grants context of our local communities, and contrast those
Scheme, awarding funding of £500-£1,500 through stories to dominant narratives.
annual competitions dedicated, above all, to promoting In Worldmaking in the Time of Covid-19, we have
integration and inclusion. We attract projects from engaged in a process of digitally mining sources from
people who would normally have little access to funding, European languages, Arabic, Cantonese, Hebrew,
or who work in areas where access to formal language Japanese, Mandarin, Korean and Russian. We work with
teaching and university is limited. student linguists, who used digital tools such as Lexis ONLINE
The Small Grants Scheme has become a particularly Nexis to collect the data through which we are comparing INFLUENCE
exciting part of Language Acts and Worldmaking. and analysing how the pandemic has been narrated. How does our (often
Through it we have expanded our research community How do words relating to war, conflict and invasion monolingual) digital
and brought our research into the public sphere. This travel across the world? What new languages emerge experience shape our
has included community work with the Domestic around the experience of quarantine and lockdown, perception of the
Abuse Research Network (DARNet), led by Dr Olumide around our ideas of normality, of morality, of the future? world around us?
Adisa at the University of Suffolk, for an event working At its most simple, these are words that describe
with migrant and refugee women; collaborations with behaviour, e.g. Covidiota (Portuguese) or ‘covidiot’; a
prominent artists such as Caroline Bergvall and her combination of two diseases, e.g. Covidengue (Spanish);
Ragadawn project; writers and translators supporting the digital experience, e.g. On-nomi (Japanese) for a
residencies at Cove Park; and schools like Queen digital happy hour; the ways in which we prepare for
Katharine Academy in Peterborough celebrating their lockdown, e.g. Hamsterkäufe (German) for people
multicultural community. hoarding goods; or the symptoms, e.g. ‘Dracula cough’.
We have been introduced to innovative, consistently There are many more, and we have gathered them in
© SHUTTERSTOCK
thought-provoking work, which helps us to meet our core our online resources section. This has been an excellent
objectives while offering welcome challenges. These opportunity to develop students as co-researchers, giving
challenges – e.g. enhancing inclusion and diversity in them insight into constructing and seeing through a
IMAGES © SHUTTERSTOCK
research project, and communicating their findings in anglophone, model on which digital culture and
writing and through podcasts, which we will share soon. technology are based?
They were introduced to digital humanities The event involved various synchronous and
methodologies that open up languages research by asynchronous interventions. The synchronous component
providing the means to gather information around the was attended by 300 users from all over the world, and
use of the terms ‘coronavirus’ and ‘Covid-19’. They used about 230 watched it on YouTube relay. The
their language skills to broaden the searches of key asynchronous component invited 41 researchers from
words and were trained in Voyant Tools to engage in a 16 countries to address multilingual challenges for
practical distance-reading approach to identify large- knowledge infrastructures, transcultural approaches to
scale trends. In this way, we have begun to see how the digital study, artificial intelligence, machine learning,
movement of the virus across the globe has meant the neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) in language worlds,
emergence of languages that locate narrations in and the challenges in working with multilingual data. We COVID SLANG
relation to geopolitical interests, to histories of empire expect the workshop to contribute to new partnerships Language around the
and to a complex questioning of the idea of the global. focused on multilingualism and geo-cultural diversity. pandemic includes the
These questions of monolingualism and multilingualism, German Hamsterkäufe
Disrupting digital monolingualism and the approach of combining research and practice, for people hoarding
Also in the context of the pandemic, we have had to are shared across all the research strands. The study of goods (top) and
consider how we engage with our co-researchers and language in its worldmaking force informs our conceptual ‘covidiot’ for those
practitioners. Our Digital Mediations strand led the way understanding of the ways that languages act in the behaving without due
with a two-day online workshop, ‘Disrupting Digital world. This in turn informs our practice and our activism care, such as by
Monolingualism’, which explored the challenges of in creating communities of co-researchers who promise wearing a face mask
multilingualism in digital practice. There is a recognised the transformative impact with which we were tasked by incorrectly (above)
bias towards firstly English and then European languages. the Open World Research Initiative. We will continue our
The workshop brought together leading researchers, work in the series of books we are launching in 2021 with
educators, digital practitioners, language-focused Hachette UK/John Murray Learning, and as part of the
professionals, policy makers and other interested Arts and Humanities Research Institute at King’s College,
parties to address the challenges of multilingualism as the Centre for Language Acts and Worldmaking.
in digital spaces and to propose new models and
solutions. The goal was to combine theory and practice Note
to explore a key question: how do languages, 1 For information about the four funded projects see
translation, and translingual and transcultural dynamics https://ahrc.ukri.org/research/fundedthemesand
disrupt the predominantly monolingual, and particularly programmes/themes/owri
1 Explain the hashtag Matter campaign, which launched on University’s ‘Welsh for beginners’ class
#whereistheinterpreter Twitter @InterpretersM in September? during lockdown?
2 What welcome update did 2 Which discontinued translation app 3 A-levels in languages not usually taught in
Google Translate introduce? unwittingly shared the data of some of schools in England and Wales fell by more
3 What update for Amazon its users over a six-month period? than 40%, but by how much did Gujarati
Alexa did Countdown’s 3 What can a high-tech glove, invented by (the worst hit language) decline?
Susie Dent work on? UCLA bioengineers, do by connecting with 4 How many more girls than boys achieve a
4 Why was the Wikipedia contributor a smartphone app? pass in a language GCSE, according to the
AmaryllisGardner, an American teenager, 4 What does the Cardmedic app do? report ‘Boys Studying Modern Foreign
accused of “cultural vandalism”? 5 Why did WhatsApp add a sticker pack that Languages at GCSE in Schools in England’?
5 What did researchers dub the software they includes these stickers? 5 What All-Party Parliamentary Group did the
created to decode mooing after discovering Labour MP Taiwo Owatemi establish due
that cattle can communicate with each other to concerns about the impact of Brexit on
about things like food and the weather? 70,000 students in the UK every year?
1 2 3 4 5
WHO’S WHO? WATCH WORDS WHO SAID (AND WHY)?
Can you identify the people above and the 1 Why were there special updates to the 1 “Can you imagine Christmas at Sandringham
language-related reason they have been in OED in April and July? is like: ‘I’m sorry your majesty, but I only
the news? 2 Why was a US professor sacked after using drink yang yank yong ying ming milk’.”
the Chinese word na-ge (那个) in a lecture? 2 “When, in my books, Italian succumbs and
3 How did the world learn the Chinese word takes on dialectal cadences, it’s a sign that,
EMBARRASSING BLUNDERS jiayóu (加油; lit. ‘add oil’) in January? in the language as well, past and present
1 What retailer was accused of using 4 Why was a family barred from putting are getting anxiously, painfully confused.”
“garbage machine translation” after In ár gcroíthe go deo (meaning ‘in our 3 “I’ve wasted the entire morning insulting the
labelling a cat T-shirt with a vulgar word hearts forever’) on a gravestone in Coventry mothers and rhetorical paucity of Spanish
due to the double meaning of ‘pussy’? (a decision that was later overturned)? fascists and Francoists on Twitter. But I have
2 Why did Sky apologise to the fans and 5 Funding was cancelled for the translation of learned that ‘smell your balls’ is actually a
players of Rangers (pictured) and Celtic US census forms into which languages? compliment. So it’s a bit of a break-even.”
football clubs following an incident 4 “[I] told them that I would only accept a
dubbed Translate-gate? NEWSWORTHY translation with no cut of any sort. They
3 How did Facebook get into trouble with 1 Released in the UK in February, what is the basically wanted to cut almost all parts
the Chinese President Xi Jinping? film Les Traducteurs about? referring to contemporary China, and in
4 Why did an Australian mining company 2 What percentage of adults in the UK particular to inequality and opacity in China.”
JOHNSON (CC BY 2.0); ‘BTS FOR LG ELECTRONICS IN 2018’, ©LG ELECTRONICS (CC BY 2.0); ‘SAMUEL L JACKSON ON JUNE 26, 2019’,
change its name from Adani to a Latin attempted to learn a language during the 5 “It would be kinda like The Matrix – you
‘GLASGOW RANGERS VS HEARTS, IBROX STADIUM, 23/7/11’, ALEX CHAPMAN (CC BY-SA 3.0); ‘BONG JOON-HO 2017’, DICK THOMAS
word meaning ‘crooked’, ‘mercenary’ first lockdown? want to speak a different language, no
© GLENN FRANCIS, WWW.PACIFICPRODIGITAL.COM; ‘MISHAL HUSAIN; REPORTER FOR THE BBC’, WILLSTAR 7/5/10 (CC BY-SA 3.0)
or ‘assassin’? 3 Why was rapper Jay Park allegedly slapped problem, just download the program.”
5 Why did Fox News anchor Sean Hannity by UFC featherweight Brian Ortega? Answers on page 29.
change the subtitle for his book Live 4 In which language did Prince William
Free or Die: America (and the world) congratulate Alex Duguid as the TV
after it was published by Threshold interpreter was awarded an MBE?
Editions in August? 5 Why was a ‘Happy Brexit Day’ note
reported to the police after it was pinned
up in a Norwich block of flats?
WHAT LINKS…
1 Canadian Brewery Hell’s Basement
and Huruhuru leather shop in
New Zealand?
2 Artists Black Eyed Peas and
Minor Science?
3 Pando, Miss Rona and
happy hypoxia?
4 Changes to education policy
in India and Mongolia?
5 BLM, Megxit and TikTokers?
@Linguist_CIOL
FEATURES
A
significant challenge for nations task design. These blend well with Human-
worldwide is how to improve the Computer Interaction (HCI) design principles,
foreign language proficiency of their which also use an iterative development cycle.
workforce and students. The question is: how TBLT has so far predominantly been based
can we engage people with language on tasks to be undertaken within the
learning? By helping learners to acquire a classroom that simulate real-world tasks.
language while they cook, the Linguacuisine There have been few attempts to employ the
project1 tackles the challenges of bringing the methodology in naturalistic settings outside
foreign culture to life and motivating people the classroom, but this project takes TBLT
to study languages. It also addresses the principles out of the classroom and into the
age-old problem of classroom language kitchen. Given the emphasis of the authentic
learning – namely that students practise using Using the service is simple: click ‘try it online task within TBLT, we have used the kitchen
the language in classrooms, rather than using now’ on the website to browse recipes in 14 environment as a learning context. The act of
it to carry out real-world actions. languages, including Chinese, German, Greek, cooking a meal is an authentic task with a
At Newcastle University,2 linguists and Quechua and Turkish. Choose a recipe and clear goal and a motivating end product.
computing scientists have been working your smartphone or tablet will speak to you The cooking task was designed according
together for 10 years to determine what in the foreign language, talking you through to Rod Ellis’s criterial features of TBLT.3 Firstly,
language learning might look like if we took, all of the cooking stages. There are photos we designed it to encourage learners to focus
as our starting point, what young people are and audio files of all of the ingredients and on meaning rather than purely on language –
interested in: digital technology, overseas equipment you need, and video clips that is, they use the language to complete a
travel, global cuisine and cooking, and explaining the cooking processes. If you can’t culinary task rather than focusing primarily on
hands-on experiences. My colleagues Phil understand, just press a button to get a photo, the language itself. Secondly, learners must
Heslop and Ahmed Kharrufa and I used audio file, text or video showing you what to employ all four language skills in a holistic
these as the design basis for our solution. do. Users can access different levels of help manner to achieve the task. Typically, pairs of
Cooking is a universal physical activity to support their language learning. It is best learners listen to the audio/video, write down
which has considerable resonance with both to work in pairs to help each other and information, read the text instructions and
culture and language. Such is its appeal that practise speaking in the foreign language. discuss the task with each other.
countless TV programmes are devoted to it. Thirdly, the task is situated in an authentic
It involves all five senses, you can work with Pedagogical concerns real-world context: the kitchen. The task is
friends and you get to eat the end product. Linguacuisine is an adaptation of Task-Based goal-oriented, involving the production of a
There are intimate connections between Language Learning and Teaching (TBLT), a dish. Fourthly, cooking tasks are carried out
language, cuisine and culture. If you think of well-known and well-researched approach to in pairs, which sometimes generates
your favourite festival in your own country, language learning in which students learn interaction in the foreign language. Finally,
certain food and language will be associated while completing a task. When determining learners can measure their own success by
with it, which will give a window into the our pedagogical approach, TBLT had major non-linguistic goal completion, through
culture. Many adults are motivated to study advantages. There was a natural match with cooking and consumption of the food.
languages through an interest in foreign the chosen activity of cooking, which could We adopted the cyclical TBLT framework
cuisine and culture, and this project taps be easily conceptualised as a task. TBLT has put forward by Ellis, which divides activity
into that. well-developed procedures and principles for related to the completion of a task into three
phases: pre-task, during-task and post-task. users in following it, detecting their activity IN THE KITCHEN
The pre-task in Linguacuisine involves and giving feedback. This can help a person Students model how Linguacuisine works
gathering the equipment and ingredients, to continue cooking for themselves at home
and learning them as vocabulary items. The rather than going into care. cultures and cuisines as possible, promoting
during-task involves carrying out the cooking, We immediately saw that the concept could cross-cultural understanding and
making use of a wide range of support from be adapted to language learning: a) to communication. Linguacuisine has been used
the app, the kitchen context and pair work. maximise the links between language, culture by more than 9,000 people in 83 countries,
The post-task involves evaluating the food by and cuisine; b) to take the sound principles and been selected by HundrED as “one of
eating it, as well as evaluating and reflecting developed in task-based learning out of the the world’s most inspiring innovations in
on what has been learnt in terms of language. classroom and into the kitchen; and c) to give bilingual education”.
Our research showed that the method is learners a motivating and enjoyable physical In terms of future directions, the same
successful for learning vocabulary.4 We tested task with a tasty product. The first generations technological and TBLT principles can be
50 learners of English on 16 words. The mean of technology used digital sensors to detect applied to cultural activities other than cooking
of 8.51 in the pre-intervention test rose to actions, and the third generation is an app. to promote language learning. Therefore, in
12.24 in the post-intervention test, showing a early 2021 we will be releasing the new app
significant gain. We found that people learn Sustainable future ENACT (enacteuropa.com) for creating and
foreign words better when they are physically Linguacuisine’s recipe builder software using cultural tasks for language learning,
touching food and cooking utensils, and using enables people to add cuisine from their such as dancing, embroidery and origami.
them to prepare food, compared to looking native countries in their own languages, so
at photos of the objects.5 When you are that people all over the world can learn from Notes
cooking, you involve all of your senses in the them. A video tutorial takes you through the 1 The Linguacuisine project (linguacuisine.com)
learning experience – touch, smell and taste, process, which can be done in your own was financed by a €324,000 Erasmus+ grant
as well as hearing and seeing – delivering a kitchen with a tablet or smartphone. The in 2016-18
vivid, kinesic language-learning experience. software can be used by teachers to input 2 With partner organisations the Hellenic Open
their own recipes so that their students can University, Workers Educational Association,
Project origins learn specific language points. The ‘extras’ University of Modena and Reggio-Emilia, and
So how did Linguacuisine come about? facility allows uploads of additional cultural or Action Foundation
Twelve years ago, my colleagues and I in the language teaching materials. There is even an 3 Ellis, R (2003) Task-based Language Learning
language school were looking at technology annual competition (LinguaChef) for the best and Teaching, Oxford, Oxford University Press
produced by our counterparts in Computing language-learning recipe, with a £200 prize. 4 Seedhouse, P (2017) Task-based Language
Science. We tried out the Ambient Kitchen, The infrastructure has been set up so that Learning in a Real-World Digital Environment: The
designed to assist people with early-stage any number of new recipes can be added in European digital kitchen, London, Bloomsbury
dementia with their cooking. Digital sensors any language, dialect, region or country. Our 5 Park, J and Seedhouse, P (2017) ‘Sight and
detect the ingredients in the kitchen, find an long-term aim is to build a bank of language- Touch in Vocabulary Learning: The Korean digital
internet recipe which uses them and assist learning recipes from as many languages, kitchen’. In Ibid.
“I’ve noticed I’m more engaged when an as we avoid the three ‘t’s in stuttering the last two words aloud (with the stress on
author chooses words that – if spoken – are succession. My conclusion? It’s better to ‘our’, pronounced as a monophthong) and
pleasing to hear.” cut the stutter. the horrific homophonic cacophony emerges.
“While most readers won’t be able to define Where does the punchline go in a joke? ‘The unmistakable kick that thrills the soul’ is
the elements of good rhythm, they’ll notice This also seems quite nice, and it even offers a step forward at least. In short, we should
if the words just don’t sing.” a spot of assonance with the repeated /ō/ in listen out for double entendres.
“When you listen to a speaker, you hear ‘go’ and ‘joke’. But what if we turn the Having suppliers that were forthcoming
words, to be sure, but you also hear tones… sentence around? With ‘When you tell a joke, was a really important part of the project:
Gather your sentences by ear, and reimagine where’s the punchline?’, the key element hits taking part in meetings on more than one
them in your writing… If you think deep home because it’s placed at the end. And it’s occasion, putting forward solutions,
enough, you think musically.” arguably more natural to put theme before monitoring progress, etc. One way to firm
rheme. The moral? Finish with impact. up this limp-sounding effort is to use the
Musical writing is more engaging, more She appeared poised in an inimitable dramatic pause of the colon for more
appealing, more memorable writing. Authors silhouette. Go through that again and listen emphatic effect: ‘The engagement of our
Jack Hamann and Suzannah Windsor Freeman carefully to how it all sounds. Did you trip suppliers was vital: they contributed to
point out as much above, before the poet over that ‘in an inim-’ sequence? Me too. meetings, proposed solutions and helped
Robert Frost notes how we might start to Instead, how about ‘She appeared in a us monitor progress.’ This revision also slims
make it happen. As linguists – as writing silhouette of consummate poise’? As you can down the overlong first element in the list
professionals – it’s our job to tune in to hear, it pays to read it out loud. of three. (Lists generally sound better when
these elements and orchestrate them to Kerbrapp 666: an exciting, decidedly the first element is shorter.) The lesson?
elegant effect. contemporary incarnation of freedom. So Attune to the flow.
I set the scene for what ‘sound’ writing begins a puff piece about a (fictional) high- At the Kerbrapp 777 stern is the
entails at the CIOL Conference earlier this year end speedboat. But does the expression submersible hatch, the innovative and highly
– about strings of stresses, sentence length ‘decidedly contemporary’ feel a bit ponderous appreciated system used to move the garage
patterns and individual sounds that echo the next to ‘exciting’ – and not exactly exciting door and swimming platform, offering guests
meaning they impart. This article is the next either? Edit it to ‘Kerbrapp 666: freedom all the comfort of a spacious beach club and
step: a discussion of ten real examples of incarnate, in stirring contemporary style’ and allowing the crew to easily manage a tender
how we can achieve this in practice. Walk this both the flow and the meaning are working measuring up to 5 metres long. Bloated and
way, then, for some musical editing. harder to provide some vital pulse-quickening flaccid? Let’s give it some pep by snipping it
Started to campaign. Taken out of context, oomph. That’s the benefit of binning the bulk. up to draw attention to the key point: ‘The
this short phrase looks perfectly reasonable Power and performance. The unmistakable Kerbrapp 777 vaunts a much-lauded feature
on the surface. But we can improve it. What thrill of our soul. The phrasing is a little odd at the stern: the submersible hatch. This
about ‘Began to campaign’? It might seem a here, and that’s probably because it was ingenious system opens the garage door out
trivial change, but listen: the final ‘n’s alliterate, written by a non-native speaker. But the to form a swim platform with all the comfort of
and the syllable rhythm feels more agreeable, worst problem comes out in the sound: say a spacious beach club while the crew handle
two adjacent stresses ‘guests pass-’ with it) with Jack Hamann’s sharp, rhythmical
the more flowing ‘guests who pass’. But original: “Baby books bore me, and Alice can
perhaps more importantly, it provides a new tell. Too stilted. Too bland. Too predictable.
matching pair of sounds (stage/stories) to By contrast, Shel Silverstein’s poems surprise
exploit the effect of alliteration. and amuse. Sly storylines duck down
Every Zugatti supercar is the outcome of unexpected alleys. Clever phrases squeal and
the cutting-edge R&D, technology and sing. Cuddled in my lap, Alice senses
construction for maximum stylistic effect and a enthusiasm, hears delight. ‘Sidewalk’ enthrals
quality, highly functional, extremely efficient, Alice because Silverstein enthrals me.” In
beautifully engineered result. This is another sum, we have several individual techniques at
one that would benefit from a break, not least our disposal, but we obtain the best effect
to improve the rhythm of the concluding list. when we put them together.
your 5-metre When there are more than three elements, it It’s always useful to discuss concrete
tender with ease.’ can all become a bit of a litany, so let’s reorder examples, and I hope this list provides food
We gain a less the four as two pairs: ‘Each Zugatti supercar is for thought. As an exercise, why not re-edit
tedious synonym for the the fruit of elite R&D, cutting-edge technology those phrases and sentences yourself to
un-innovative ‘innovative’ and masterly construction skill. And the results enhance their rhythmical effect and the
and conclude the whole thing are there for all to see, in the superb quality soundscape they create? Then nourish your
on an emphatic stress that exudes and excellent amenity, the optimum efficiency mind with some well-chosen reading. Treat
the very feeling the marketer is trying and supreme stylistic effect, all engineered yourself to some masterly examples of fine
to create. But the key was breaking the with total precision.’ My advice: split that list. writing that have gone down in history, like
sentence with a bang. I find books that have been written for the one I conclude with here: the resounding
The Grand Hotel is the habitat for the small children somewhat tedious, and Alice ‘I Have a Dream’ speech by the Reverend
countless stories of the thousands of guests tends to pick up on this fact. Some of them Martin Luther King, which certainly needs no
passing through its doors. Here we have a are bland, predictable or stilted, among editing or commentary from me:
breath of alliteration, with ‘habitat’ echoing other defects. The amusing poetry of Shel “When we allow freedom to ring – when
‘Hotel’, but is ‘habitat’ the right collocation Silverstein, however, surprises. Offbeat plots we let it ring from every city and every
for ‘stories’? Wouldn’t it be more natural to take turns that can only be described as hamlet, from every state and every city, we
say that stories play out on a stage, especially unexpected. Intelligent wording bursts with will be able to speed up that day when all of
as the establishment is bigging itself up as a personality and sonorous quality. Cuddled in God’s children, black men and white men,
great setting for beautiful people to be seen my lap, Alice senses the enthusiasm in my Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics,
in? So let’s rephrase: ‘The Grand Hotel is the voice and senses delight as she listens. will be able to join hands and sing in the
© SHUTTERSTOCK
stage for the countless stories of the ‘Sidewalk’ enthrals Alice because Silverstein words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at
thousands of guests who pass through its enthrals me. I’ll leave you to contrast this last, Free at last, Great God a-mighty, We
doors.” This eases the rhythm by replacing paragraph (and all the mistakes I poked into are free at last.’”
Embassy insights
HE Torbjörn Sohlström, the Swedish Ambassador to the UK, talks
to Romana Sustar about promoting his culture and language
Q How does the embassy promote Swedish FACT FILE: SWEDEN CUTTING EDGE
culture and language in the UK? A fashion exhibition at the embassy in October
A Britain and Sweden have a long relationship The largest country in Northern Europe, (main); and (inset) Torbjörn Sohlström
of exchanging culture and sharing history. Sweden has low population density
Every year, the Embassy supports projects with 10.3 million citizens. Most of the literature in English, and to represent the
that bring Swedes and Brits together around people live in 1.5% of the territory and interests of those involved in the translation
art and culture. There are also several relevant 66% of the country is covered by forest. of Swedish literature into English.
organisations, such as the Anglo-Swedish It ranks very highly in terms of quality
Society. Grants can be awarded through the of life, equality, education and health; Q What is your favourite Swedish word?
Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation, set up recycles 99% of its waste; and has 52% A Gryning och skymning (‘dawn and dusk’).
by the writer George Bernard Shaw with renewable energy. A cat called Kitty
funds from his Nobel Prize. Much of the lives at the embassy in London. Q What is the meaning of Fika?
exchange, however, takes place without the A Fika means to have a break with a cup of
involvement of the Embassy, through music coffee and a kanelbullar (cinnamon bun). It’s
and films and the thousands of family links the UK – such as children’s books by Astrid part of our social life. It allows us to get to
that unite our countries. Lindgren about Pippi Longstocking – or watch know each other better, and in a business
films and TV series such as Wallander or The environment it enables employees to meet
Q What is unique about Swedish? Bridge in their Swedish original versions. with executives in a more relaxed setting.
A Swedish is a Nordic language, spoken in
Sweden and in parts of Finland by a little Q What is SELTA? Torbjörn Sohlström started his UK post in
over 10 million people. It is close enough to A The Swedish-English Literary Translators’ 2016. He studied journalism, working at
Norwegian and Danish to allow people to Association, which promotes Swedish- Dagens Nyheter newspaper and for national
understand each other reasonably well. language literature while also representing TV news before joining the Foreign Service.
One easy way to experience Swedish is to literary translators of Swedish. SELTA works Twitter: @sohlstromt or @swedeninuk
visit an Ikea store. The various furniture models with publishers and relevant cultural and Council member Romana Sustar MCIL CL
often carry names taken from the Swedish literary organisations in Britain, Sweden and is a multilingual digital marketing
language. If you become an expert, you can Finland. The main goals are to promote the manager, language tutor and reporter.
read Swedish books that are well known in publication of Swedish and Finland-Swedish Twitter @RomanaSustar
Language
This is an unusual work, if only for the sheer for mining, logging and farming. In contrast,
range of languages that have been studied in New Guinea (just under 290,000 sq km) is
Dispersal,
the remotest parts of the world: it covers home to over 1,000 languages, many of which
South East Asia, Oceania, Africa and South have survived despite cultural disruption
Diversification
America (with particular reference to the associated with factors such as colonisation,
Amazon). Enormous efforts must have gone slavery and the spread of Western diseases.
and Contact
into collecting data and following up on the This is a highly specialised area and to fulfil
various hypotheses that have emerged with the promise of the book’s subtitle – ‘a global
regard to the way in which languages can perspective’ – a variety of teams have been
spread with movements of population. These brought together from universities across the
Mily Crevels and Pieter Muysken (eds) can then diversify, though it is interesting to world. They present carefully researched
see the ways in which some languages seem material with a whole range of charts and
Oxford to have had more influence than others. maps. It is perhaps unfortunate for the less
Linguistics, 2020 Contact is not always easy, though the specialised reader that they go into topics
360 pp; ISBN sheer range of languages to be found even such as genetic phynologies and partible
978-0198723813 in relatively limited areas is quite remarkable. paternities, but the first section of the book
Hardback Of the 700 or so languages thought to have covers general approaches to the subject,
£75 been spoken in the Amazon basin (an area of including key concepts relating to language
2 million sq km) when the Portuguese arrived, diversity and contact. That makes for very
fewer than half have survived, and many of interesting and informed reading.
those are under threat as land is taken over Professor Tim Connell HonFCIL
How Dead
syntax. The last part alone comprises a their brevity: cēterīs paribus (‘other things
forensic analysis of person, number, tense, being equal’); fiat lux (‘let there be light’).
Languages
mood and voice. A close reading of an extract English, in contrast, no longer has the
from a canonical text follows (e.g. The Iliad, inflected forms of its Old and Middle variants.
Work
Annals, Beowulf ). Its script, transliteration, Instead, we use word order, pronouns,
word-by-word translation and final version prepositions and auxiliary verbs. The
are worked through painstakingly. Similar subjunctive is now expressed in part by
forms and meanings traced across linguistic modality (e.g. ‘must’, ‘should’, ‘will’).
Coulter H George boundaries are highlighted as “points of Indo-European inflections occur in
contact” between languages: ‘kin’, ‘loud’ predictable patterns, but phonological change
OUP, 2020 and ‘ode’ have Ancient Greek origins. can disrupt them. New verbs are regular by
240 pp; ISBN The numerals one to ten are usually the default (e.g. vacuum+ed) while old words
978-0198852827 best conserved words in a language; the display established forms (e.g. ‘man’/’men’).
Hardback pronunciation may change, but the spelling This is because “language users don’t create
£20 rarely does. Kinship words behave similarly. irregularity spontaneously; but they are
Indo-European family resemblances are clear: certainly happy to retain it.” Change occurs at
pitar (Sanskrit), patēr (Greek), pater (Latin), different rates. ‘Summer has come’ was sumer
‘father’ (English), Vater (German). The changes is icumen in Middle English, closely related to
in initial and middle consonants are accounted the modern German sommer ist gekommen.
for by Grimm’s Law. The reason for greater Other languages covered here are Old Irish
Do the Greeks have a word for it? Whatever it flexibility in word order is made clear. More (“arguably the most difficult… almost willfully
may be, the answer is yes, according to the opaque, from an anglophone perspective, is so”), Welsh (“quite straight forward by
author of this erudite and scholarly work. tracing the complete meaning of a word with comparison”) and Hebrew, not Indo-European
A classicist, linguist and professor at the a stem that has six or eight case endings. but included because of biblical scholarship
University of Virginia, he claims that Ancient When the Romans needed new words to and its influence on ancient languages.
Greek – via its highly inflected grammar, epic talk about mathematics, philosophy and A couple of minor criticisms: the sections
tales, Socratic inquiry, Olympic spirit and theology, they looked to Sicily and other on phonological change would benefit from
more – presents the reader with unique Greek outposts. These words passed into diagrams and more widely understood script.
insights. His task is to convince the ‘Greekless’! other European languages via monasticism And ‘dead’ languages? ‘Ancient’ would be
For each language under scrutiny, he and the vernacular tongues. Latin phrases better. Now, I’m off to find my Latin primer!
reviews the phonology, morphology and carry a heavy semantic load and impress with Graham Elliott MCIL
cÉwvtáàá
Listen and learn
Inspiration, intrigue, advice – whatever you’re looking for in a podcast,
A Way
Lingthusiasm Philosophy Bites With Words
Panayiota Vatikioti MCIL John Worne, CEO Alexandra Man, CIOLQ Development Officer
From the linguists In my favourite podcast, A Way with Words is a
Gretchen McCulloch and David Edmonds and Nigel really funny podcast
Lauren Gawne, this is one Warburton interview top focusing on languages. The
of my favourite podcasts. philosophers on a wide two co-hosts – American
Gretchen focuses on the range of topics. Since writer and radio presenter
language of the internet launching the podcast in Martha Barnette and
and is the author of 2007, they have written American lexicographer
bestseller Because Internet: Understanding and produced an enormous range of Grant Barrett – discuss all things related to
the new rules of language. Lauren’s interest is endlessly fascinating content, including two languages with callers from across the world.
how people speak and she runs the generalist very successful books based on the series. From complex questions about grammar,
linguistics website Superlinguo. As well as discussing ethics and aesthetics, literature and linguistics to entertaining ones
With a new 30-minute episode every Philosophy Bites covers language, psychology concerning slang, dialects, expressions, jokes
month, they have released 50 podcasts since and the philosophy of mind, with some great and riddles, the podcast is a fun way to relax.
launching Lingthusiasm three years ago. episodes for lovers of language and linguistics. In one episode the discussion centred on
Subjects include language learning, translation Three of these which set me thinking were whether the term ‘bloody’ is offensive. It was
and constructed languages (e.g. Esperanto). Guy Longworth on J L Austin and Ordinary amusing to stop and think about the
One standout episode is ‘How Languages Language, which argues that when it comes to connotations of this word, which is so
Influence each Other’, exploring African language, context is everything; Barry Smith popular in Britain.
languages through an interview with Hannah on Wittgenstein’s Conception of Philosophy, Accessible to all generations, the podcast
Gibson, who reveals unusual details (did you which covers the argument that language is is especially useful to those who are studying
know that Swahili has 16 grammatical necessarily shared; and Joshua D Greene on English as a foreign language and want to
genders?). I also loved the one about the the Construction of Thought, exploring areas learn all kinds of linguistic titbits. I’ve always
way people integrate emojis with words. in the left temporal cortex and suggesting wondered why we say what we say, and how
The hosts explore various interesting topics. they may be a subject-object-verb ‘structure’ certain expressions came into English.
Their style is direct, fun, friendly, enthusiastic in the brain. Language is what makes us Barnette and Barrett give answers to such
and passionate – as if you are having coffee human; Philosophy Bites explores that and questions and enable listeners to discover
with friends and talking about language! more with precision and erudition – a joy! new things. It’s a must for language lovers!
lingthusiasm.com philosophybites.com www.waywordradio.org
© KARINE LEROUX
How a hobby can illustrate commitment to and expertise
in your specialist field – this time looking at photography
photo shoot I had done previously; pictured), France to offer my translation services; they
I wrote a short blog post about the website’s are keeping my details on file for the future.
new look and shared it on LinkedIn. This Joining a membership organisation related
KARINE LEROUX prompted some of my contacts to look at to your hobby shows commitment to and
During a crisis, a hobby can do more than my website, and their ‘likes’ and comments knowledge of your field. I mention my Royal
help with mental wellbeing: if it matches one on LinkedIn meant that my post was Photographic Society (RPS) membership in my
of your specialisms, it could be harnessed as automatically showing in their contacts’ feeds. marketing communications, and am keen to
a marketing tool to make you stand out. As A hobby can offer less direct, but no less apply for one of their distinctions, so LRPS
a translator specialising in art, I use my pertinent, ways of gaining exposure for your may follow MCIL and CL after my name.
photography to show art clients that, beyond business. In June, the online newspaper Bristol Regularly updating your contacts on your
a genuine interest in visual arts, I am also very 24/7 published my ‘Rainbow City’ project, a activities is advisable too. About twice a year,
active in their field. By mentioning some of series of abstract compositions of brightly I email existing and potential clients about my
your activities on LinkedIn and other social coloured houses around Bristol. Even if the latest translation projects and a little peripheral
media platforms, you demonstrate that your primary focus of an article is on your hobby, a news. This summer, I mentioned that some
expertise goes beyond terminology, and that little information about you makes the piece of my photos had been selected for group
contributes to gaining clients’ trust. more interesting and relatable; this is where exhibitions abroad. As I work with art
There are various ways you can portray you can refer to your profession and include galleries and exhibition catalogue publishers,
yourself as being active in your clients’ area contact information. The article mentioned this piqued my clients’ interest, and some
of work. As art is my main specialism, my that I was a translator and gave my website. I contacts asked for more information and links
website must display pictures. Being a cross-posted on my translation blog to to my photographic work. Such exchanges
photographer means copyright isn’t an issue, illustrate my hands-on experience and strengthen my business profile with potential
but producing photos that were relevant to present myself as a translator who shares her clients and my relations with existing ones.
my work and didn’t clash with my green logo clients’ passion for visual arts. On LinkedIn, Don’t be shy about citing your main
was a challenge. I decided on a street art this generated ‘likes’ and congratulations activities to direct clients. It is a chance to get
theme to reflect my place of residence: from art clients and contacts. in touch and an excellent way to ensure they
Bristol, a major UK art hub and a city well- Business opportunities may also come your keep you in mind as the best person for the
known as a street art Mecca (Banksy, Upfest). way while engaging with your hobby. During job next time they need a linguist.
This geographical link lets clients know that I lockdown, I entered a few photography
am in a good place to keep abreast of the competitions. Most are open to international
arts and be part of the art community.
After updating my website with close-up
artists, so their websites are translated into
English, sometimes to poor standards. In one
TL Karine Leroux MCIL CL is the
founder of Linguistic Alchemy.
shots of a piece of graffiti (based on a yoga case, I contacted a competition organiser in
was awarded a penalty but not case the phrase, written only in
Athletic; 3 Improve their English; Irish, was seen as political; 5 All
4 A language exam required for native languages except Navajo. 22 23
Italian citizenship; 5 For not Newsworthy. 1 How Dan Brown’s
learning Italian after two years. Inferno was translated; 2 10%
Apt apps. 1 Call for “interpreters according to a British Council
left behind in Afghanistan” to be survey; 3 For interpreting insults Across Down
given asylum in the UK; 2 Google directed at Ortega from Korean; 1 Bird, and subject of a poem 2 Passively? The opposite. (8)
Translator Toolkit; 3 Translate 4 BSL; 5 Hate speech: it said by Edgar Allan Poe. (5) 3 The French are moved by this
American Sign Language; 4 Help people speaking other languages 4 Language of South East Asia flightless bird. (3)
healthcare staff speak with Covid- “infected this once great island”. which uses an abugida writing 4 Instrument enabling you to
19 patients; 5 To aid talk about What links… 1 Both found out system. (4) see far. (9)
the pandemic in a “funny, they had used the Māori word for 8 The ancient language of 5 European mountain range,
educational and universal” way. ‘pubic hair’ (huruhuru); 2 Released Etruria. (8) possibly derived from the Latin
On the page. 1 She won the albums inspired by bilingualism; 9 A now discredited name for for ‘white’. (4)
International Booker with author 3 Covid slang; 4 A change to the the Sami language of 6 A religious painting, or a
Marieke Lucas Rijneveld; 2 The language of instruction: Mandarin Scandinavia. (4) pictogram on a computer. (4)
Guardian; 3 The last speakers died will be used for certain subjects in 10 The French imposed a Latin 7 Latin soul. (6)
before it was finished; 4 Martina Mongolia; Indian primaries will no alphabet on this language in 11 To change into gas or
Navratilova; 5 They were reacting longer use English; 5 Words 1910. (10) steam. (9)
to the new Urdu translation and added to the Collins Dictionary. 13 The native word for Flemish 12 Relating to mum and/or
confiscated only the Urdu copies. Who said (and why)? 1 Piers Dutch. (6) dad. (8)
Back to school. 1 Speaking will no Morgan after Peter Phillips (the 15 Language closely related to 14 Demonstrations. (3-3)
longer be part of the grade; 2 It Queen’s grandson) appeared in a Czech and Polish. (6) 17 City and strip of territory of
became their most popular course TV advert for state milk in China; 16 The first language of a the Palestinians. (4)
for students in Wales; 3 96%; 2 Novelist Elena Ferrante in a rare Carioca. (10) 18 A neologism describing a
4 More than double; 5 Erasmus+. interview; 3 David Simon, creator 19 Piece of furniture taken from modern-day anxiety. (4)
Who’s who? 1 Bong Joon-ho of The Wire, after assuming olé tus Arabic via Turkish. (4) 21 Regret in the French
directed Parasite, the first foreign- cojones (‘you’ve got balls’) was an 20 Place called Al-Nasira in street. (3)
language film to win ‘Best Picture’ insult; 4 Thomas Piketty when told Arabic. (8)
at the Oscars; 2 K-pop band BTS to cut 10 pages from his Capital 22 A neologism meaning ‘aware
hosted Korean lessons during and Ideology; 5 Elon Musk when of social issues’. (4)
lockdown; 3 Samuel L Jackson asked what his Neuralink 23 A greeting, or an expression
encouraged Americans to vote by technology will do in five years. of surprise? (5)
Parent’s view
the former People’s Republic of Mongolia, the near future and that would be the end of
and is still the official script in democratic both the Mongolian language and script”.
Mongolia today. However, in recent years the Literacy in the traditional script ensures the
traditional script has been taught in schools survival of Mongolian culture as a living entity ‘En famille’ (TL59,5) on freelancing and
from grade 6 and its informal use has been that can be handed from generation to parenting struck a chord, as I have been doing
encouraged by the Mongolian government, generation. Without it, the language could the same for 14 years since having twins. My
which has plans to adopt the traditional script be relegated to the past, accessible only to professional life as a translator adapted around
for official use alongside Cyrillic from 2025. scholars. For many Mongols this would them. I have found this to be a common
Since the establishment of the People’s fundamentally undermine their cultural experience among freelancing friends and
Republic of China (PRC), Chinese and identity. Mongolian language and culture are clients. With the latter, snippets on the fun and
Mongolian have both been official languages part of the world’s heritage. They deserve frustrations of parenting are exchanged while
in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. proper respect and protection. It is the duty the work files go back and forth. Great article,
Mongolian language has been taught and of the international community to say so. Debbie, many thanks for sharing it with us.
Mongolian-language textbooks have been Enkhee Namsrai MCIL CL Ceri Marshall MCIL CL
Of libraries
and languages
Britain is known as the home of excellent
public libraries which are all free. Ever since
their growth in the 19th century, they have
En famille
developed to suit all ages and requirements.
My own library, in Cheltenham, has a brilliant
IMAGES © SHUTTERSTOCK
foreign language section, offering books,
usually fiction, in some eight languages,
including Hindi and Urdu. I regularly take out
books in French, Spanish and Italian, as I can
read these easily, and sometimes in Polish and
German, where I need to use a dictionary.
When I first saw this selection I was
Why parenting skills are transferable skills
delighted that speakers of foreign languages
were catered for, but then I learned that the
books were intended for native speakers of the project manager trusts you, which means
the languages offered. I realised that many of you can work once the kids are in bed.
the books were translations of British and Then there’s the ability to focus while
American authors. The aim was to introduce DEBBIE GARRICK everything around you is crumbling. I’ve had
foreign visitors to English-language writers. Nothing in life can prepare you for being a to learn to tune out the distractions of kids
I was disappointed until I saw that books by parent. It takes time to figure out what works arguing, a messy kitchen, the baby sleeping
native speakers were key texts and very good for you and your child. The good news is that on me, and just get on with the job. I can
indeed. I read, in Spanish, several books by the skills you learn in parenting equip you also work anywhere while waiting for my kids.
Juan José Millás, the incisive El Pais columnist, well for freelance business. Let’s start with Another very useful skill is motivation. As the
and Isabel Allende. Every so often, the books, keeping your cool in a crisis. If there’s one main carer in my household, the whole family’s
which are supplied by an organisation called quality all children share, it’s that they are mood feeds off mine. Motivating everyone to
Bright Books, are refreshed so I know there unpredictable. Your youngest rips her toenail get up and out of the house in the morning is
will always be something new to read. off when you’re already late for school? No a never-ending challenge. Being a freelancer
If any readers do not have this facility at problem. You learn to cope, get everyone means being extremely self-motivated, and if
their local library, they should request it. where they need to be and take control – you can motivate a whole family, motivating
Librarians are some of the unsung heroes of perfect for managing a deadline crisis, yourself becomes a breath of fresh air. When
our time and are always willing to help. calming a stressed-out client or learning to it comes to making people happy, no one is
Maurice Varney FCIL think outside the box. as hard to please as your offspring, so use
Next there’s time management. Scheduling those people-pleasing skills to get project
activities, appointments, play dates, haircuts managers and clients in your corner.
Crossword solution and a host of activities for your family makes My kids have taught me a great deal.
Puzzle page 29 you a brilliant organiser. You know exactly They’ve turned me into a multitasking
O L L E H E K W O how much you can fit into your day and what machine – which only occasionally drops the
23 22
A U A S T M you need to juggle to make it happen. ball. They’ve introduced me to a whole new
H T E R A Z A N A F O S When it comes to soft skills for business, vocabulary – from baby items to the latest
21 20 19
N A I R F your kids are the world’s best trainers. You TikTok trends – so keeping up with language
18
E S E U G U T O R P learn 20 ways of phrasing every request, and developments, fashion and popular culture
17 16
R P I P Y how to manage a situation to get different requires almost no effort. Most of all, they’ve
K A V O L S A M S A L V personalities on board without anyone taught me that I’m blessed to have a job I
15 14 13
P C U V E feeling overly put out. This is a great exercise love and can fit around family life. It’s often
12
E S A M E N T E I V in knowing your target market and writing to manic but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
11 10
S E I O I their needs. You practise the art of negotiation
P P
L
A L
E
9
N
A
A C
I
S U
M
R T
C
E
8
daily (two more bites of broccoli; yes you do
need to wear your wellies), so why not try it
TL Debbie Garrick MCIL is a French/
Spanish > English translator and
7 6
I A H T N E V A R out with your clients? A close-of-play deadline copywriter; garricktranslations.com
can easily be switched to 9am the next day if
5 4 3 2 1
A
be Eʋevi dzidzi ene la, nye dukɔa vɔ megbe la, mewɔ dɔ me ŋu la nye nukpekeame aɖe
sukudede le ɖevime ma abe Iŋlisigbefiala kple dɔnunɔla ƒomevi ɖe vovototo si le yevuawo
ɖe dukɔ eve siwo nye ene le suku gã aɖe si le Gɛ dua ƒe dekɔnu kple Afrika dekɔnuwo
Togo kple Ghana la dome. Le esia me la me, kpe ɖe dome la ta, kpe ɖe nyawo ƒe
ta la, gbe etɔ̃ dodo nye nyeƒomea Fransegbefiafia ŋuti. Le ƒe 12 anyimanɔmanɔ na susu kple
ƒe gbegblɔdzeside. Ke esi mege siwo kplɔ esia ɖo me la, mewɔ dɔ nyatiwo le hadome nunya kple
ɖe Legon yunivɛsitia me abe le asitsadɔwɔƒe gã aɖe siwo hiã dzɔdzɔmeŋutinunya me la ŋu.
dzɔdzɔmeŋutinunyasrɔl̃ a ene la, gbe eve sese deto la me le Kuxi bubuwoe nye
nyemebui kpɔ be mava zu dɔwɔla Afrika-Ɣedzeƒe dukɔ siwo doa nyagɔmeɖedɔwo ƒe asì ɖeka dzi
le gbegbɔgblɔ kple ame siwo zaã Fransegbe kple Iŋlisigbe la me. manɔmanɔ; dɔnalawo kple
gbe eve la dome o. Nyagɔmeɖeɖe ƒe hiahiã siwo dɔwɔhatiwo ƒe ame makpɔmakpɔ
Esime menɔ sekendrisuku dem vana edziedzi kple gbegɔmeɖedɔ ɖe naneke me kple tutuɖo
la, nyemelɔã ŋu le gbegblɔgblɔ siwo mewɔna le takpekpe veviwo maxɔmaxɔ edziedzi. Akpa si ŋu
kple dekɔnu kpakple kadodo si le me lae meva zu ɖokuisidɔwɔla. ko fetu le lae nye dzidzeme kple
gbegblɔgblɔ kple susuɖeɖe dome Nyagɔmeɖeɖe tso/yi ɖe dzidzɔ ƒe seselelãme si vana
la gbɔ o. Ke nusi de dzo lã me Eʋegbe me (si hã wodona le nenye be dɔwɔha gãwo kple
nam be mazu Franse kple Iŋlisigbe Gana, Tɔgo, Bene, kple Nigeria gbeta dɔwɔhawo abe Xexeme
gɔmeɖelae nye esime woda akɔ ƒe Ɣedzeƒe-Anyiehe du aɖewo Dukɔwo Katã Ƒe Habɔbɔ ene tsɔ
nam meva zu yunivɛsiti la ƒe me) ya va emegbe. Ebola dɔlélé dɔ nam be mawɔ le Anyigbe
Franse Habɔbɔa ƒe nunɔla. dranyi la na mɔnukpɔkpɔ geɖem Sahara Afrika nutowo me.
Nublanuitɔe la, esi mebia mɔ be be maɖe kɔdzi dodokpɔ Le nye vovoɣiwo la, mekpɔa
maɖɔli nye nusɔsrɔ̃ ayi ɖe biabiawo gɔme ɖe Afrika dzɔdzɔmeŋutinunya-nyakpakpa
Susuŋutinunya kple Fransegbesɔsrɔ̃ gbegbɔgblɔwo me. Kuxi siwo ku ƒe vidiowo eye mexlẽa agbalẽ
me la, womeda asi ɖe edzi o. ɖe nyawo gɔmeɖeɖe ɖe Afrika siwo ku ɖe Afrika nunya goglo
Le nye ƒe ɖeka ƒe subɔbɔ na gbegbɔgblɔwo abe Eʋegbe ene kple susu ƒe gbe la ŋu.
A
s a native Ewe, my professional (French and English) conference interpreting jobs led Other difficulties include a lack
childhood education was came when I was elected president me into private practice. of standardisation in pricing for
split between English- of the university’s French Club. Translation from/into Ewe interpreting and translation
speaking Ghana and French- Sadly, my request to change course (spoken in Ghana, Togo, Benin, contracts; lack of recognition by
speaking Togo. Trilingualism was to a BSc in Psychology and French and parts of southwest Nigeria) clients and some colleagues; and
therefore part of my family’s was denied. came later. The Ebola pandemic lack of continuous professional
linguistic identity. But when I Following national service, I created opportunities for the development. The rewarding
joined the University of Ghana as a worked as an English teacher and translation of clinical trial part is the feeling of satisfaction
biological science student, I never head of department at a prestigious questionnaires into African and accomplishment when
considered that my career would school in Accra, with additional languages. The challenges of contracted by big corporate and
be in the language and bilingual responsibility to teach French. Over translating into African languages international organisations, such
communication services sector. the next 12 years, in both French- like Ewe seem insurmountable in as the UN, to cover meetings in
In high school I had developed and English-speaking West Africa, terms of the gap between Sub-Saharan Africa.
some interest in language and I worked in corporate organisations Western and African cultures, In my leisure time, I watch
culture, and the link between requiring strong technical writing with a lack of vocabulary for science-fiction films and read
language and thought. The and bilingual communication skills. concepts and terminologies in books on African philosophy and
inspiration to become a bilingual Regular requests for translation and both social and applied sciences. the language of thought.
COUNCIL
NEWS
Judith Gabler reports
on the November meeting
with new CEO John Worne
Welcome to our new CEO,
T
he German Language Society event, the speaker was VVDÜ President An important exercise is to recalibrate all our
(GLS) is the continuation of the Natascha Dalügge-Momme, who has policies annually. Despite the restrictions and
German Society, founded in 1986. gained an understanding of the need ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic, our staff
The team that successfully led the society for migration and integration while team are to be credited with enormous resilience
for decades said farewell in September interpreting the often terrifying stories by going over and beyond to ensure that we are
2019. With the pandemic hitting soon of refugees in court. Our fourth event, fully compliant with statutory legislation.
after, the new team had to embrace ‘Hope is Illegal’, focused on the story of Financial stability remains challenging, but not
new ways of continuing the society. In a Nigerian migrant in Austria. impossible, and this is our top priority. Since
many ways, digital life worked in our Moving to an online delivery was not becoming Chair I have frequently accentuated that
favour due to our locations in London, without its challenges, and we are we need to be an agile, evolving and responsive
Cambridge, Frankfurt and Wismar. grateful to the Midlands Network team, organisation in order to meet challenges head-on
We became the German Language who provided very useful information. and define our roadmap in line with our ambition.
Society in order to broaden our reach The CIOL communications team also This work is underway. Council has endorsed
and make everybody feel welcome, with offered generous support in regard to the plan to weld stronger synergies between
the aim of connecting all German- social media and marketing campaigns. membership, training and qualifications in order
speaking countries and expanding our We will end the year with a festive to create a leaner and harmonised ‘One CIOL’.
network. To enable every CIOL member event in December, where our guest will We are investing in technology to transition our
to learn about German-speaking nations be the real German Santa Claus! After qualifications to online delivery; drive smarter
we decided to create one event a month, the problems of 2020, we will focus on services; and equip our members and the language
alternating in German and English. the positives next year with our ‘Sag es profession with cutting-edge knowledge. We are
Addressing current concerns, our positiv! #21’ series, covering education averaging 250+ live attendees at our training
online series ‘Migration hat viele and professional life with speakers from webinars. At around 90% so far, our retention
Gesichter’ (‘Migration has Many Faces’) cultural societies, embassies and more. rate has already exceeded last year’s position.
also reflects a long history of migration in My wish is to expand the society and Council received annual reports from our three
German-speaking countries. We started make it accessible to all, regardless of divisions, which are all doing splendid work to
in July with the 1974 film Angst essen how well they speak German. The idea enable us to stay relevant and in demand. We are
Seele auf (‘Fear Eats the Soul’; pictured). is to promote our passion for languages. determined that as the pre-eminent body for
It tells the story of a widow working as a We believe that everybody has a fantastic language practitioners we will put ourselves at
cleaner and a younger mechanic from story to share, and we encourage the heart of the profession as convener and
Morocco, who lives in a room with five members to send us suggestions and facilitator. Our online Resources & Public Policy
other Arabs. We compared this to the become an active part of the society. page, as well as our Policy & Position Statements,
situation in Germany today. For details email GLS@ciol.org.uk. are regularly updated to reflect this.
It is so important to learn from our Follow the society on Facebook These are just a few highlights from November.
colleagues and for the next event Walter CIOLgermanlanguagesociety and I hope wherever you are you are keeping well
Chromik shared his experiences before Twitter @CIOL_GLS. For CIOL networks and staying safe.
the fall of the Berlin Wall. At our third visit ciol.org.uk/networks-events.
CONTRIBUTORS
Catherine Boyle
Catherine Boyle is Professor of
Latin American Cultural Studies
and Director of the Centre for
Language Acts and Worldmaking
at King’s College London. She is
Principal Investigator of the Out of the Wings
project looking at Spanish and Spanish American
Theatres in Translation. Her research interests
include Spanish American literary, cultural and
theatre studies; translation and cultural
transmission; and gender studies. See p.14
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