the linguist 51-4

TheLinguistCHARTEREDINSTITUTEOFLINGUISTS 51/4 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2012

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE LINGUIST: 1962-2012

Get creativeSpecial focus on creativetranslation, from gaming toadvertising transcreation

Passport to EuropeHow to pass the EUaccreditation test

Cost oftuitionWhat price are languagedepartments paying for the fees hike?

KKnnooww ssoommeebbooddyy wwhhoo ddeesseerrvveess rreeccooggnniittiioonn ffoorrtthheeiirr wwoorrkk iinn llaanngguuaaggeess??

WWhhyy nnoott nnoommiinnaattee tthheemm ffoorr tthhee TThhrreellffoorrdd MMeemmoorriiaall CCuupp??

The prestigious Threlford Memorial Cup is presented to an individual or organisation who has been judged by a committee to have done most to”foster the study of languages”.

Previous winners have worked in a diverse range of areas including business, local government, community projects, academic institutions and charitiesbut have one thing in common: the commitment, enthusiasm and determination to “foster the study of languages”.

So if you know somebody whose work deserves to berecognised, nominate them for the Threlford MemorialCup now at www.iol.org.uk by 1st September 2012.

SAVE THE DATE

Members’ Day 2012

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Saturday 6 October

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Vol/51 No/4 2012 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER The Linguist 3

CONTENTS

News & editorialPRIMARY CONCERN . . . . . . 6

INSIDE PARLIAMENT . . . . . . 7News on the All-Party Parliamentary Group

Speak to the FutureMAKING AN EARLY START . 8Primary languages: what next for schools?

Creative translationTHE RIGHT WAY TO SUB? . 16What can fansubbers teach the professionals?

THE RULES OF THE GAME . 18The fast-changing field of games localisation

MAKING IT AD UP . . . . . . . 20An inside view of advertising transcreation

FeaturesTICKET TO EUROPE . . . . . . 10How to pass the EU accreditation test

50 YEARS IN PRINT . . . . . . 13The series continues with a look at the 1980s

A DEGREE DEARER . . . . . . 14Will the rise in tuition fees affect languages?

The editor reserves the right to edit all material submitted. Views expressed in The Linguistare not necessarily the official views of the Chartered Institute of Linguists. All rights ofreproduction, translation and adaptation reserved for all countries.The Chartered Institute of Linguists, The Linguist, and officers accept no responsibility

collectively or individually for the service of agencies or persons advertised or announced in thepages of this journal. The good faith with which we publish offers no implied/implicit guarantee.

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TheLinguist

Editor Miranda MooreEmail: [email protected] Sarah HeapsTel: +44 (0) 20 7940 3100; Email: [email protected]

Editorial BoardMs J Fraser MA DipTrans IoLET FCIL FHEA FITIMs A M Graham BA DipTrans IoLET AMIOEEMs S Heaps BA (ex officio)Mr D Luddy BADr G A Makin MA PhD DPSI MCILMr T Merz BAMr K Moffitt BSc DipTrans IoLET MCIL MITI Ms M Moore BA (ex officio)Prof J Munday BA MEd PhD PGCE DipTrans IoLET MCILMr A Peacock BA (ex officio)Mrs C Pocock DipTrans IoLET FCILMs K Stokes MA (Oxon) DipTrans IoLET MITI FCIL CL (Translator) (Chair)

The Chartered Institute of Linguists, Saxon House, 48 Southwark Street, London SE1 1UN; Web: www.iol.org.ukTel: +44 (0) 20 7940 3100; Email: [email protected]

Royal Patron HRH Prince Michael of Kent GCVO

PresidentDr N Bowen BSc MA PhD Dip TEFL RSA HonFCIL Vice-PresidentsProf T J Connell MA BPhil DLitt PGCE FCILMrs A Corsellis OBE BA HonFCILBaroness J Coussins MA HonFCILProf D Crystal OBE PhD FCSLT HonFCIL FRSAMr R Hardie MA FCA HonFCILDr J M Mitchell CBE MA DrPhil FCIL

Members of CouncilMr T Bell MA MPhil FCIL (Hon Treasurer)Mrs J Cambridge MA FCILMr M Cunningham BA MCILProf H Fulford BA MA PhD FCIL MBCS FHEADr M-M Gervais-le Garff MA Doct 3e Cycle FCILMs M J Lee MA DPSI MCILDr G A Makin MA PhD DPSI MCIL Mr K Moffitt BSc DipTrans IoLET MCIL MITI (Chair)Mrs C Pocock DipTrans IoLET FCIL (Vice-Chair)Mrs J A Ridgway BA FCIL MCMIMs K Stokes MA (Oxon) DipTrans IoLET MITI FCIL CL (Translator) Mr P Shipman BSc (Hons) MScCEng MIMechE MCIL

Senior Institute personnelMs H Maxwell-Hyslop MA (Joint Acting Chief Executive)Mr A Peacock BA (Director of Membership & Joint Acting Chief Executive)

IoL Educational TrustThe examinations are provided under the auspices ofthe IoL Educational Trust. Senior officers:Prof T J Connell MA BPhil DLitt PGCE FCIL (Chair)Dr N Bowen BSc MA PhD Dip TEFL RSA HonFCIL (Vice-Chair)Ms H Maxwell-Hyslop MA (Director of Examinations)

Printed by Ripping Image, London. Published six times a year and distributed free of charge to all members. Annual subscription £41 post free. Overseas subscription £54(airmail Europe), £58 (airmail rest of world).

ISSN 0268-5965This issue will be available online from 17 August at www.iol.org.uk/TheLinguist.html.

TheLinguistThe Linguist, formerly TheIncorporated Linguist, is theofficial journal of the CharteredInstitute of Linguists.

STARTING FROM SCRATCH . 22Translate from a new language within a year

A RISKY BUSINESS . . . . . . . 24Why do translators make certain decisions?

TUNING THE MIND . . . . . . 26Can singing help you to learn a language?

GLOBAL INSIGHTS . . . . . . . 28Public service interpreting in Sweden

ReviewsBOOKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Opinion & commentLETTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Institute matters PRIZE PERFECT . . . . . . . . . . 31A look at the CIOL’s awards, old and new

DIVISIONS & SOCIETIES . . . 32Details of events, including listings

FROM THE CHAIR OF COUNCIL . . . . . . . . . . . 34

FRONT COVER © ISTOCKPHOTO

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4 The Linguist AUGUST/SEPTEMBER www.iol.org.uk

NEWS & EDITORIAL

CHIEF EXECUTIVE’SNOTES

Q uis custodiet ipsoscustodies? (Whoguards the

guards?) As a recognisedAwarding Organisation withmore than 2,000 peopletaking our examinations inapproximately 40 languagecombinations and about 40 countries, the Trust (IoLET) issometimes asked who oversees our work. It is answerableto the Office of Qualifications and ExaminationsRegulation (Ofqual) and has recently gone through acomplex exercise to prove that it is compliant with thecriteria necessary for recognition. The production of thestatement of compliance involved the Trust Board,which had to scrutinise and verify what the Trust does.

Apart from accredited qualifications, the Trust offerscustomised assessments and has several arrangementswith universities and other institutions, for exampleDurham University and the FCO (Foreign &Commonwealth Office), to moderate and jointlycertificate their students and, in some cases, offerexemptions from units of our qualifications. Thesepartnerships work well, and there is steady interest bothin the UK and overseas.

Our most widely-recognised accredited qualificationsare developing. The DPSI (Diploma in Public ServiceInterpreting) has traditionally focused on the UK.However, there is now interest in the DPSI Health bothin the Gulf and in Greece. By its very nature, minimalchanges are necessary to ensure that the qualification is

suitable overseas. Obviously sourcing and training oralexaminers would have to take place locally, but it seemsthat there is a definite market.

We are also hoping to pilot a unit in Public ServiceTranslation in January, which would be set at DipTrans(Diploma in Translation) level but offered in the PublicService pathways of Law, Local Government and Health.The Certificate in Bilingual Skills (CBS) now has a pathwaydesigned specifically for the Metropolitan Police. This wasdriven by the need for an accredited qualification forofficers with foreign language competence suitable forbilingual skills work, but not at the level required forinterpreting, which is assessed by the Met Test.

I have just returned from a conference arranged bythe Northern Ireland Health and Social Care InterpretingService, which manages the recruitment, training and

deployment of interpreters in the health sector.Although it operates on a much smaller scale than theservice in England, it was illuminating to see how it wasorganised. They are now interested in developing theirinterpreters’ language skills to a higher level, which iswhere the DPSI comes in.

At conferences and workshops, the work of the CIOLand the Trust is jointly promoted and while I was inBelfast I publicised the benefits of membership. Theactivities of the Trust complement those of the Instituteand, although they are legally separate entities (theTrust is a registered charity), the synergy between bothorganisations enables us to make a comprehensive offerto the world of languages. The relationship between thetwo entities is valued and valuable.

With more than 2,000 people taking our examinations in about 40 countries, the Trust is sometimes asked who oversees our work

Hilary Maxwell-HyslopDirector of Examinations and Joint Acting CEO

Alan PeacockDirector of Membership and Joint Acting CEO


Learning another language makes you thinkdifferently about your own: it makes youanalyse the role each word plays in asentence. It also introduces you to the ideathat some cultures are so different from yourown that there are words which are literallyuntranslatable. Latin will help you learn pilesof other languages that have similarvocabulary… And it will give you excellentspelling and grammar in your first language. Natalie Haynes: It’s not Latin’s fault that toffsand Tories studied it, 25/6/12

What thepapers say…

Duolingo, a site that gives free languagetutorials and in exchange solicits aspiringlinguists to translate sentences from theinternet… The site asks users to rate eachothers’ answers and chooses only the top-ranked solutions. And the site has echoes ofa computer game. Points are offered foreach translation attempted; completing around earns the user a shiny gold medal; andlearners can follow each other, adding acompetitive edge. But is Duolingo really ableto teach people enough to reach fluency?The Evolution of those Annoying OnlineSecurity Tests, 20/6/12

Their mother tongues are English, French,Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese,Portuguese and Russian. So how do theheads of the G8 group of leading economiesactually converse? … It’s possible, of course,to provide interpretation into and out ofevery delegate’s first language. This is called‘symmetric’ and ‘complete’ interpretationand costs a bomb: a meeting at which all theEU’s 23 official languages had to besimultaneously interpreted into all the EU’s23 official languages needed 96 interpreters. ‘G8 Interpreters: The art of many differentdinner party conversations’, 21/5/12

NEWS & EDITORIAL

EDITOR’SLETTER

The majority of children in my daughter’sreception class speak more than onelanguage; many speak English as anadditional language. Yet there is nolanguage provision beyond a half-hearted‘Language of the month’ display board inthe corridor. I intended to do what I couldto change this, but then the Government

forced the school’s hand. Languages are now set to becomecompulsory at Key Stage 2 from September 2014. Fortunately, mostschools already have some provision, thanks largely to the previousGovernment’s commitment to establishing languages in the primarycurriculum. For those that do not, it may be a struggle to make thenecessary preparations in just two years, but it is a very welcome andpositive step, which we examine in more detail on pages 6 and 8.

At the other end of the spectrum, the decision to raise tuition feesthis year has seen applications fall, not only to languages degrees butacross all subjects. The uncertainty over funding for the year abroad hasbeen allayed somewhat (at least in the immediate future), but thereremain doubts over the impact that the new fees regime will have onlanguage departments. Jim Coleman, Chair of the UCML (UniversityCouncil of Modern Languages) addresses these concerns on page 14.

Technological advancements and the increasingly high expectationsof clients and end-users make creative translation an exciting andchallenging field to work in. Our three-article focus on newer forms oftranslation includes a personal insight into the world of transcreationfrom Bill Maslen of the Word Gym (p.20). Adriana Tortoriello asks ifprofessional subtitlers can learn anything from the amateurs (p.16), andSilvia Ferrero looks at how games localisers can keep up with theindustry’s rapid expansion into new markets and platforms (p.18).

We also launch a series of articles about the links between singingand language learning, with articles to come on language lessons foropera singers (now considered essential) and an interview with DowntonAbbey singer Mary-Jess Leaverland, who broke into the music industrywhile studying Chinese in Nanjing. In this issue we ask if singing in acommunity choir can help with language learning and encouragepeople to ‘have a go’ when it comes to languages (p.26).

Finally, for interpreters considering work in the European institutions,we bring you absolutely invaluable advice from David Smith of DGInterpretation, as he offers his tips on how to pass the EU accreditationtest (p.10).

Miranda Moore

The latest from the languages world


NEWS & EDITORIAL

Fewer learners in England continue withlanguages at 14 than in any other Europeancountry covered by a recent study. Managedby the British Council, the Language RichEurope survey reveals England’s manyadvantages, including innovative teaching and‘linguistic capital’ in the form of more than amillion school children who speak a languageother than English. Yet this potential is under-exploited because other languages are notconsidered ‘essential’. Most drop languagesat 16, with private and selective schoolsaccounting for the majority of languages A-levels, according to the EuropeanCommission funded report, launched at theLondon School of Economics on 28 June.

In a separate European Commission study, also published in June, young peoplein England were found to have the worstlanguage skills in Europe, with less than 10 percent of 14- to 15-year-olds able tocommunicate their interests and experiencesin a foreign language, compared to aEuropean average of 42 percent. Thiscontrasts sharply with the situation inSweden, the Netherlands and Malta, whichhad the best results in the SurveyLang studyof 16 EU member states.For details see www.language-rich.eu andwww.surveylang.org.

Languages to be compulsory forchildren aged 7-11 within two years

Primary concern

Michael Gove, the Secretary of State forEducation, announced on 12 June thatlanguage learning is to become a compulsorysubject in the primary curriculum in Englandfor the first time. This change, due to beimplemented in 2014, will provide students asyoung as seven with the opportunity to learnfrom a range of languages, including German,French, Mandarin and Latin. Not only will thishelp children to understand the world morefully from an earlier age, but it will also helpthem to develop a strong base in languagelearning to support study in Key Stage 3.

The Government had previously mademoves to improve the take-up of languagesin secondary education with the introductionof the English Baccalaureate but, until now,the issue of language learning in Key Stage 2had not been fully addressed. The reversal ofa commitment, made by the previousgovernment, to make languages part of theprimary curriculum this year would have leftEngland at a disadvantage.

A new CfBT Education Trust researchreport, ‘Lessons from Abroad: International

review of primary languages’, compareslanguage learning systems in primary curriculaacross the world. Its findings challenge theassumption that English speakers do notneed to learn other languages, not only oneconomic grounds but also because of thecontribution language learning can make tothe wider aims of education. The reportreveals that English-speaking countriesgenerally provide fewer resources andencouragement for language learning thanother high-performing education systems.

‘Lessons from Abroad’ is broken down intotwo parts. The first covers internationalresearch and developments in early languagelearning. It provides evidence of the benefitsof introducing languages in primary schools orearlier, as well as current policy developmentsin other nations. The second focuses on theissues that are common to all educationsystems and need to be addressed if primarylanguage teaching is to be a success. The report is available to download for free

from www.cfbt.com.Claire Pendleton

Teen languages:could do better

New inquiry isLost for WordsAn investigation into the public sector’spresent and future language requirementshas been launched by the British Academy.The inquiry will focus on public policy in theUK and assess the needs of Government,NGOs, business and the public sector,including the Armed Forces.

Overseen by a Steering Group chaired byDr Robin Niblett, ‘Lost for Words’ will reporton the state of languages provision in the UKcompared with overseas, and makerecommendations to Government andHigher Education providers.For details email [email protected].

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The importance of multilingualism in businessand the lessons that could be learned toimprove UK exporters’ trade in non-English-speaking markets, were the topics ofdiscussion at the meeting of the All-PartyParliamentary Group (APPG) on ModernLanguages in May. Baroness Coussins, Chairof the APPG, introduced Professor StephenHagen, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of theUniversity of Wales, Newport, who spoke onthe impact of languages on small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). He also discussedglobalisation and the importance ofimplementing strategies for growing globalcommunication demands, especially incountries that rely heavily on English.

According to Prof Hagen: ‘English iscurrently a major interface in the businesstrade, with 25 percent of the world’spopulation being familiar with it in one formor another.’ However, although English stilldominates communication in global business,the multicultural nature of trade is increasing,especially due to the strength of emergingmarkets. As a result, English is beginning tobe used less. This is particularly evident onthe internet. While internet usage increasedby 40 percent in the USA in 2006, there was a200 percent increase in Brazil, 300 percent inIndia and more than 500 percent in China.

The APPG noted that half of the world’spopulation now speaks one or more of 12languages, including Hindi, Spanish, Russian,Mandarin and Japanese. While this maycome as a relief to some internationalorganisations, Prof Hagen warned: ‘English isa double-edged sword because theavailability of skilled linguists within the UKable to cope with the demand continues todecline.’ This is putting the UK at adisadvantage compared to countries withexpansive multilingual workforces, he added.

This decline is evident in the number of

degree programmes offered in the sixprincipal languages, which has fallen by 46 percent since 2003, and the decreasinguptake at A-level. Even so, London is themost multilingual city in the world. ProfHagen noted: ‘There has been a major drivefor multilingualism within the workplace,which had been observed in regards toapproaches to training and recruitment.’

Proactive organisations, or ‘enablers’, asnamed by the British Chambers of Commercelanguage survey, consciously select markets toconduct business with, and adapt theirproducts, services and literature to meet theneeds of these markets. As a result, they focuson ensuring that staff have foreign languageskills. Exports from organisations within thisgroup were increasing by around €360,000 ayear. In contrast, exporters known as‘opportunists’ – a reactive market segmentthat places the least value on language skills –saw an average decline of €75,000 a year.

Prof Hagen added that in England andWales at least a quarter of export companiesregularly lost business due to language orcultural deficiencies. One estimate suggesteda lack of language skills cost the UK up to1.2 percent of GDP or £7.3 billion a year.The 2006 ‘ELAN: Effects on the EuropeanEconomy of Shortages of Foreign LanguageSkills in Enterprise’ study showed that ‘one in

ten SMEs had lost contracts due to a lack ofskills in foreign languages or expertise; 37 ofwhich valued the loss of business to equateto between €8-13.5 million.’

Among a range of communications andlanguage management strategies, ProfHagen discussed the employment of staffwith existing language skills and nationalpersonnel; a language management strategyincluding the planned adoption of a range oftechniques to facilitate effectivecommunication with clients and suppliersabroad; the use of professional translators;and the implementation of a multilingualand localised website.

He added that companies placing animportance on the use of languages inbusiness, and an awareness of the culturaland religious differences in the marketswhere they conduct business, demonstrateto their clients their long-term commitmentto conducting business with them. ‘If youdon’t really understand the cultural aspectsof a country, you can’t really understand thecountry – this means it is more than just ahandshake,’ he said.

Prof Hagen concluded that ensuring thatstaff have appropriate language skills and anunderstanding of each market’s culture willincrease the flow of market intelligence andprovide better opportunities for customerfeedback and analysis, ultimately improvingbusiness and revenue. He commented thatwhile ‘cultural awareness is more nebulous,intercultural competence is vital for asuccessful business’.

To attend the next APPG meeting, pleasecontact [email protected].

NEWS & EDITORIAL

Claire Pendleton on the recent activities of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages

Inside parliament

Claire Pendleton is ContentManager, CfBT Education Trust.

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PARLIAMENTARY COPYRIGHT IMAGES ARE REPRODUCED WITH THE PERMISSION OF PARLIAMENT


SPEAK TO THE FUTURE

considerable cognitive benefits for languagelearning across the whole of KS2 (from age 7).

We welcome the plans to make languagesa requirement of the primary curriculumthroughout KS2, starting in 2014. Indeed webelieve that the government should lowerthe age of beginning to learn a language to5, as suggested by Michael Gove in aninterview on the eve of the 2011Conservative Party Conference, and expectthat many schools will take this approach.

In spite of the hiatus, a strong, trainedworkforce is in place. Up to 2011, when theprogramme was abandoned, approximately6,000 teachers were trained as primaryspecialists in specially developed initialteacher training programmes.5 Theseteachers, who are still in our schools, candeliver lessons to their own and other classesfrom the earliest stages, monitor progressacross the school, and provide professionaldevelopment for their generalist colleagues.

Initially, the shortage of well qualifiedteachers with appropriate subject knowledgeand pedagogic skill to teach young learnerseffectively presented a significant challengefor head teachers, governors and parents.However, good progress was made and, ashigh-quality language and methodologyprogrammes were developed, head teachersenabled staff who lacked the confidenceand/or competence to teach a language, toattend a range of training sessions aimed atall ability levels. Funding from agencies suchas the British Council allowed staff to visitcountries where the foreign language isspoken to enhance their linguistic skills andprovide a rich cultural competence.

In the last decade, many countries aroundthe world have lowered the age at whichlanguage learning begins. The Eurydice ‘Key

Primary teachers were developing theirexpertise, enjoying learning languagesthemselves, and becoming more confident.Head teachers were committing tolanguages and, in addition to their intrinsicvalue, they began to see them as broadeningand enriching the wider curriculum. They alsoperceived languages as making a substantialcontribution to children’s personal, social and(English) literacy development.3 Finally,provision was becoming sustainable.

The Expert Panel that recently reviewedthe National Curriculum had recognised the‘importance of modern foreign languages’ andrecommended that language learning shouldbe part of the new curriculum in Upper KeyStage 2 (from age 9). STF published aresponse4 to the Expert Panel’s report, puttingforward a range of arguments, including

On 10 June, the Government announcedreforms to make languages compulsory fromthe age of 7. The Speak to the future (STF)campaign believes a focus on early languagelearning will bring about a step change in thelanguage competency of the country andwelcomes the Government’s plans. Whileconsiderable challenges lie ahead, there arefirm foundations, laid over the last eightyears, on which to build.

‘Everyone knows that with languages theearlier you start, the easier they are.’ This, in aspeech given to the University of Oxford byTony Blair, soon after he became PrimeMinister, signalled the development oflanguages in primary schools. Thepublication of the National LanguagesStrategy in December 2002 started to makelanguage learning in primary schools a reality,and those schools already teachinglanguages reported that ‘pupils who startlanguage learning earlier are generally morereceptive to learning languages and moremotivated. Early language learning canreinforce literacy skills and nurture enthusiasmthat is carried on into secondary school.’1

How disappointed were those working tomake this a reality when the proposed newprimary curriculum, which would have madelanguages statutory, was thrown out as thecoalition government took office in May 2010.The apparent end of central Governmentbacking for primary languages also meantthe end of local, tailored support, as the 150or so local authority posts were axed and thearmy of consultants disappeared.

There had been great enthusiasm for theinitiative, which was hugely successful:92 percent of primary schools offered at leastone language at Key Stage 2 (KS2; ages 7-11)and 69 percent offered languages to all fourKS2 year groups.2 In 2011, Ofsted judged theoverall effectiveness of primary languages tobe ‘good’ or better in two thirds of schools.

Nikki Perry on the challenges of introducinglanguage learning into primary schools

Making an early start

Regular updates on the campaign for languages

The UK and Slovakiawere the only countriesthat did not introducecompulsory languagesin primary school

GAME CHANGER: Michael Gove joins aFrench lesson at Ashlands Primary School

We are delighted to have launched our newwebsite at www.speaktothefuture.org. It istaking the campaign to the next level,making it easy for visitors to tell othersabout the cause on Twitter, Facebook andLinkedIn, and to find ideas and tools toconvince the wider public of the importanceof languages. We are also profilingindividuals who are speaking out forlanguages – actor Larry Lamb and RichardHardie of UBS, a CIOL Fellow and leader ofour business lobby, to name but two.

We are spending time talking to schools,most recently the Anglo-European Schoolat Ingatestone in Essex, whose students arekeen to help in getting the message acrossto their peers. It was great to hear abouttwo of their students competing in therecent Turkish Olympiad, singing songs and

reading poems in the language. We wantto feature inspiring individuals and projectsjust like these on our site.

As well as publishing a response to theExpert Panel’s recommendations on theNational Curriculum, Teresa Tinsley, ofAlcantara Communications, wrote on behalfof the campaign to The Express newspaperto voice concern over their article of 15 April,‘We Pay Tutors to Teach Immigrants theirown Language’. More to come in our nextupdate, as Dr Terry Lamb introducesObjective 1 of the campaign: ‘Everylanguage should be valued as an asset’.


SPEAK TO THE FUTURE

INSPIRINGPupils from the Anglo-European School inEssex compete in the Turkish Olympiad

Data on Teaching Languages in Europe’(2008) gathered information from 30countries, and found that the UK and Slovakiawere the only countries that did not introducecompulsory foreign language learning in theprimary school. In Singapore, languages areintroduced from the first year of primaryeducation and a large proportion ofcurriculum time (31 percent) is designated toforeign language learning. High performingcountries see languages as a key part of theprimary curriculum and so must the UK.

On behalf of STF, I am working withexperienced colleagues from the languagescommunity to ensure ‘a coherent experienceof languages for all children in primary school’.While we are extremely encouraged by theplanned reforms, we do not underestimate thechallenges in re-establishing the position oflanguage learning at the heart of the primaryschool experience, and will continue to adviseGovernment on policy and ensure thatdelivery is supported by Initial TeacherEducation (ITE) and professional developmentprogrammes over the coming years.

Notes

1 Languages for All: Languages for life. TheNational Languages Strategy, December 20022 NFER (National Foundation for EducationalResearch), 20093 Primary Modern Languages: Languagelearning at Key Stage 2, a longitudinal study,January 2010, the Open University, CanterburyChrist Church University and the University ofSouthampton, commissioned by DCSF(Department for Children Schools and Families)4 The STF view on teaching primary languages across the whole of Key Stage 2:http://speaktothefuture.org/files/downloads/STF_Primary_View_KS2_May_2012_final_version.pdf 5 Nunn, J, 2010, Training and DevelopmentAgency

FIND OUT MOREFor the latest about the campaign forlanguages, or to get involved, visitwww.speaktothefuture.org. We’re alsoon Twitter @speak2future, Facebook(www.fb.com/speaktothefuture) andLinkedIn – search in ‘groups’ for‘Speak to the future’.

On the campaign trailDominic Luddy looks at recent developments


FEATURES

Invaluable advice on how to pass the EU accreditationtest, from David Smith of DG InterpretationTalk to any student interpreter about what thefuture holds, and it won’t be long before theword ‘test’ pops up in the conversation. Likeit or not, testing is something you have to gothrough if you want to become an interpreter,whether during your course or when applyingfor a job, if only because, as an interpreter,you go live from day one, and any mistakesyou might make can’t be corrected.

In this article I will be talking solely aboutthe way in which the EU institutions testcandidates for accreditation as freelancers.While we are basically looking for the samequalities as any other employer, we have ourown specific requirements and our ownproven methods for selecting staff.

So, to begin at the beginning, whom dowe test? Our eligibility rules are explained onour website (http://bit.ly/LlrOFY), but basicallyyou must either have completed a course inconference interpreting or be able todemonstrate sufficient experience in the field.The language requirements will varyaccording to which languages you work into.The current requirement for candidates withEnglish as their main language is that theyshould be able to work from at least twoother official EU languages into English.

We are often asked which languages weare most interested in. It’s clear that in anorganisation with 24 official languages wewould like our staff to have as manylanguages as possible, but realistically wecannot expect university graduates to offer usfour or five languages including Polish andHungarian. What’s more, the languages mostspoken after English – which is the mostfrequently used – are French and German, sowe give highest priority to candidatesoffering at least one of those two languages.

Ticket to Europe

Applying for a testAssuming you meet the eligibility criteria, thefirst step is to apply for a test online athttp://europa.eu/interpretation/accreditation_en.htm. You will be asked to submit your CVand copies of any relevant qualifications. Ifyou are following an MA course inconference interpreting and have passedyour final interpreting examinations, you canapply for the test even if you have not yetreceived your diploma, providing that theuniversity supplies confirmation of your results.

Your application will then go to a screeningcommittee made up of interpreters from thethree institutions that have interpreting

services: the European Parliament, theEuropean Commission, and the Court ofJustice. The committee, which meets twice ayear, verifies the eligibility of each applicationbefore drawing up a list of candidates toinvite to the next round of tests. Selection isbased, above all, on current priorities withregard to language combinations, as well ason academic record.

If you are selected you will receive aninvitation for a specific time and date. If not,you will be informed either that you do notqualify (and why not) or that you are eligibleand may be invited at a later date. Onemight wonder, especially since the EU hasgiven a lot of attention to recruiting Englishinterpreters in recent years, why we don’tsimply test anyone who qualifies. The answeris one of cost – organising tests is anexpensive business and our resources arelimited, so we have to be selective.

Once invited to a test you will be givenaccess to the ‘speech repository’, an onlineresource which offers practice speeches forstudents and exam candidates, if you haven’talready got access through your university.You may also write to the relevant head oflanguage unit to request a few days ofdummy-booth practice in Brussels during therun-up to the test. This is at your own expense,but it can be very useful preparation, notleast because it will enable you to familiariseyourself with the test environment.

The test itselfTests are held in Brussels, and consist ofmorning and afternoon sessions. It is usuallya good idea to arrive the day before, evenfor an afternoon exam, to avoid unnecessarystress. On entering the room where the test is

Why don’t we simplytest anyone whoqualifies? Organisingtests is expensive, sowe have to be selective

to be held, you may be surprised by thenumber of people on the other side of thetable: two jury members from theCommission, two from the Parliament andone from the Court of Justice, plus thespeakers for the various languages andpossibly some additional assessors. Justremember that they are all there to ensureyour performance is fully and fairly assessed.

The test consists of a 6-8 minuteconsecutive interpretation and a 10-12minute simultaneous interpretation from twoof your working languages. At least one ofthe speeches, which are all given byspeakers in the room, will be on an EU-related topic, so as to find out what youknow about your future employer, but noneof the speeches will be on highly-specificsubjects requiring specialist knowledge.They are all intended to be ‘do-able’ by awell-trained, well-informed interpreter, andwill generally not be very different fromthose used at final university exams,although the assessment criteria may bemore rigorous. You will have to pass all fourtests to gain accreditation.

What is the jury looking for? In a nutshell,they will want to be sure that you haveunderstood and analysed the speaker’smessage and conveyed it effectively to thelistener. One jury member may be asked not to listen to the original in order toascertain whether the interpretation makessense in itself.

Next, the jury will look at whether thespeaker’s message has been distorted – hasthe interpreter actually changed the ideasexpressed by the speaker or altered thelogic of the original? – before looking atwhat has been omitted. Minor omissions

may be discounted, but the jury will want tosee all the essential elements of themessage included. The message has to beproperly presented: if the listener cannotfollow the interpretation without difficulty,nothing has been achieved, however wellthe interpreter has understood the original.This means that the interpreter has to behighly articulate, with a wide vocabulary anda good grasp of different registers ofspeech. Lastly, the jury will be looking for apleasant voice, a confident delivery and

natural intonation. Delegates sometimeshave to listen to interpreters for hours onend, so these qualities are important.

To sum up, then, the points weconcentrate on are mother-tongue, languageknowledge, analysis, presentation – andunderlying all that, general knowledge.

Preparing for the testMost candidates will already have attendeda training course at a university, whetherpostgraduate or undergraduate, where they should have acquired the requisite skillsand knowledge. But whether you alreadyhave a qualification in conference

interpreting or simply have extensiveexperience as a conference interpreter, itmay well be worth your while attending oneof the summer courses some universitiesnow offer as preparation for the EU and UNaccreditation tests.

As far as your own preparation isconcerned, I would suggest the following:

• Get as much practice as possible, bothduring your course and afterwards. Use thespeech repository or any other recordedresources you have access to. If at allpossible, work together with othercandidates – making speeches for others isitself a highly beneficial exercise, but evenmore importantly, you need to work for acritical audience. Practising alone for hoursmight sound like a good idea but maysimply reinforce bad habits and make youdepressed as you get tired and make moreand more mistakes. Actually working as aninterpreter, for example as a volunteer for anNGO, is immensely useful, so take anyopportunities that are offered.

• Record your performances and listen tothem critically: Did I make sense? Did Isound natural or was I just following theoriginal structure? If I missed things, why?Was it because I didn’t understand orbecause I simply didn’t hear, or because Igot too far behind?

• Spend as much time as you can in thecountries where your languages are spoken.It doesn’t matter what you’re doing there –picking grapes, working in a bar – as long asyou’re immersed in the language. And if youcan’t be abroad, use the available resources– internet, DVDs, podcasts, internet radio –to maintain your languages. That will alsohelp you to keep abreast of current events.


FEATURES

Remember that thejury members arethere to find newinterpreters, not toeliminate them

UNDER PRESSUREAn EU interpreter working in Brussels (left);and a candidate for the accreditation testdemonstrates her skills to the jury ( far left)


FEATURES

• At the same time, and this is the reallyhard part, keep up your mother tongue.Somehow you have to strike that balancebetween all your languages, so that whenyou’re interpreting into English you’re notusing franglais or having to search for words.We tend to take our mother tongue forgranted but it too needs cultivating.

• During your studies you will (one hopes)have become accustomed to publicspeaking, but this is another skill that you cantry to improve by, for example, joining adrama club or a debating society, or gettinga job as a tour guide.

• And last but decidedly not least, improveyour general knowledge. Here too, theinternet is invaluable, as are radio andtelevision. However, probably the mosteffective way to acquire the broad awarenessyou will need is to read a newspaper everyday and a magazine such as The Economist(as long as you read all the sections, not justthe ones you find interesting). Familiarity with the topics discussed makes it mucheasier to interpret speeches (as long as youdon’t allow your own knowledge tocontaminate the original). You may not knowthe names of all the world’s capitals or oftheir presidents by heart, but if you’ve heardthem before you’re more likely to recognisethem when mentioned.

That’s on the substance. For the mechanicsof the test you could look at the extract fromour video ‘Testing Times’, which gives aninsight into how tests are run. You can find itat www.youtube.com/watch?v=InpIBvAVRXE&feature=relmfu.

After all that you’re probably wondering ifit’s possible to pass our test at all. I can assureyou that candidates do pass (if they didn’twe’d have no interpreters), and accordinglymy next piece of advice comes from TheHitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: ‘Don’tpanic!’ It’s easy to say, I know, but rememberthat the jury members are there to find newinterpreters, not to eliminate them, so theyapproach tests in a very positive spirit.

IN THE BOOTHA candidate during an assessment in Brussels

EU interpreter FelicityRaikes passed theaccreditation test inFrench and Italian onthe second attempt.She has since passed inPolish and now worksfrom all three languages into English.

‘I first applied for an accreditation test freshout of interpreting school (Bath), but I wason the waiting list for a few months beforegetting my invitation. I don’t rememberhow many people were on the jury, but theoverall impression was encouraging, ratherthan intimidating. The test is structured sothat you start by interpreting two speechesin a row – one simultaneous and oneconsecutive – from two different languages.The order is up to you. I remember notknowing that amidon was potato starch andfinding the consecutive hard.

I waited outside for what seemed likeforever before hearing that I’d been

unsuccessful. However, the panel did givesome very useful feedback: you havepotential, go and get some experience,work on your vocabulary and come backwhen you’re ready.

Fast forward a couple of years and Idecided to apply again. I’d been workingfreelance and also doing some volunteerinterpreting for NGOs. Working for freemight not sound like much fun, but it is agreat way to travel, make friends and buildup a network of potential colleagues. It alsoprepares you for absolutely anything – fromthe French accents of Kinshasa andQuebec, to consecutive interpreting for twohours on stage. Learning to cope with stressthis way has been invaluable, not only in thetest but ever since.

Again, I found the jury friendly and thespeeches interesting. Only one was on anEU topic: of the other three, two were onrecent news stories. In the first simultaneousspeech there was a word I didn’t know, so Isaid something a bit more general, trying to

sound as confident as possible. I thoughtI’d messed it up, but they called me back,and I later learnt that the jury are just asinterested in seeing how you cope withdifficulties.

I also remember hearing an adjective Iwas unsure about in the first consecutivetest and putting a big asterisk in my notes: by the time I got there I’d been ableto think of something that fitted thecontext. The most challenging thing aboutthe test is staying calm under pressure, andbeing able to work even when you arenervous. I also found the Europeanquestions section challenging.

In my case, the best preparation for thetest was working as an interpreter. It helpedme to put my nerves to one side and geton with the job. Plus it reminds you that youare there for your listeners, who need aclear and coherent interpretation. Practisingconsecutive with colleagues from otherbooths was also useful and much moreeffective than working alone.’

TEST CASE: EU INTERPRETER FELICITY RAIKES

If you suffer from stress you might want to look at stress-relief techniques, such as thebreathing techniques taught in yoga classes.They do help, as does getting a good night’s sleep the night before – no staying uplate learning EU policies! Bear in mind, too,that quite a few of our interpreters didn’tpass first time but learned from theexperience and were successful the secondtime around.

After the testYou will be given the result of the test as soonas it is over. If you’ve failed, you can inform usby email that you would like to sit the testagain and you will then be re-considered bythe next screening committee. If you’vepassed, you will be put on the list ofaccredited freelance interpreters withimmediate effect and may be offered contractsby any of the three participating institutions,but bear in mind that to be sure of getting areasonable amount of work it is best to putyour professional domicile in Brussels.

Finally, I would advise you to spend sometime looking at our website. There’s a mass ofuseful information there about what it’s like towork for the EU institutions, as well as links toother relevant sites (see http://bit.ly/q64qcN).

And that’s all, really, except to wish you thevery best of luck!


FEATURES

As a member of Council from 1987 to 1990, Iwas fascinated to revisit the 1982-1991 periodthrough the pages of The Linguist. There weremajor changes to the magazine itself. Long-standing editor John Sykes was replaced in1986 by Jay Kettle-Williams; The IncorporatedLinguist became simply The Linguist in 1987;there were cover photographs from 1988;and, in 1989, publication moved from four tosix issues a year.

Subtler shifts were evident in the content:regular items, including membership news,book and article reviews, and a very livelyletters section, featured throughout thedecade, but the emphasis in articles shiftedfrom academic discussion, aspects of specificlanguages and language learning issues, to asharper focus on translation and on languagesfor business, as the launch of the EuropeanSingle Market in 1992 approached. Justcompare the cover contents for TIL22,3, whichincluded ‘The Encyclopaedists on the Originof Language: An idiosyncratic synthesis’ and ‘AMedieval German Poet in Translation’, withthose for TL30,6: ‘Selling in a ForeignLanguage’, ‘Translation’ and ‘Processing theWord’. Indeed, in TL27,4, we were told that ‘Ifthe United Kingdom is to benefit to the fullfrom a Europe free of trade barriers, we mustlearn the techniques that will be necessary tosell… and the most elementary of these is theart of effective communication. Members ofthe Institute of Linguists, through theirlinguistic ability, have an effective tool at theirdisposal.’ The writer? One Margaret Thatcher.

In the early and mid-1980s, however, theSingle Market was a distant aspiration, and themagazine had more pressing concerns. Othermajor themes running through the decadeincluded technological development, the

organisation of the Institute itself, and anoverhaul of its examinations.

The 1980s saw the first ‘microcomputers’becoming available, and issues in 1985 and1986 included an ad for ‘MicroCAT’, the firstcomputer-aided translation system developedfor these new machines. Most of us had barelyheard of email: the 1988 AGM of the newEducation Division was cancelled becausethere was a postal strike and the papers couldnot be sent out!

A brief news item in TL28,2 highlights therise of RSI (repetitive strain injury) as a result ofwider use of keyboards, and as late as 1991,the journal carried an article entitled ‘AnIntroduction to Word Processing’, published‘in response to readers’ requests’ (TL30,6).

1984 saw the first simmerings ofdiscontent over the status of the Translators’Guild, which had come to a vigorous boil by1986. When the antagonism died down,Council established the divisions (TIL25,3).Initially including a General Division, theselater covered Industry and Commerce,Interpreting, Translating, and Education.Meanwhile, there was a radical overhaul ofthe Institute’s examination system. The old

exams were replaced by the ELIC syllabus in1990; the Diploma in Translation ran for thefirst time in 1989 (TL28,4); and there wasprogress in what was to become the Diplomain Public Service Interpreting (the‘Community Interpreter project’, TL27,1).

The small ads are as fascinating a snapshotof the time as the main articles. Wheresalaries are given in job ads, they indicate atypical in-house translator salary of around£10,000 a year (£25,000 in today’s terms),although in 1985, Tek Translation advertisedin-house posts for translators into Germanand Arabic at almost twice that (TIL24,1). Andin the early 1980s, you could buy an Institutetie, but there was no equivalent accessory forthe female linguist. Indeed, membersdisagreed over job titles, with onecorrespondent (TIL23,4) lamenting the use of‘Vice-Chairman’ for a female incumbent butanother (TL27,4) deploring the use of‘Chairperson’ as an ‘abominable non-word’.

Membership throughout the 1980s wasvirtually what it is now, peaking at around5,800. In TL26,4, outgoing General SecretaryTony Bell lamented, ‘There is – there alwayshas been – a large body of languageprofessionals and semi-professionals who arecompletely untouched by the Institute, itsaims and even its existence.’ 25 years later,the challenge of broadening our membershipand persuading the world of the importanceof languages is as pressing as ever.

‘Members of theInstitute… have aneffective tool at theirdisposal.’ The writer?One Margaret Thatcher

Janet Fraser looks back at the 1980s withan overview of The Linguist’s third decade

50 years in print

Janet Fraser has been ajournalist, a Senior Lecturer in

Translation and a translator. She is amember of the TL Editorial Board.

TL


FEATURES

Will higher fees hit language degrees? Jim Coleman,UCML Chair, looks at the challenges facing universitiesAs all teenagers and their families will know,university tuition fees are rising to a maximumof £9,000 a year for students starting at anEnglish university in October 2012. But howwill this impact on recruitment to languagedegrees, given the concerns about fallingnumbers that led to modern languages beingdesignated a Strategically Important andVulnerable Subject (SIVS) in 2005?The good news is that, after a decade of

sharp decline in student numbers, which sawdepartments closing and student choicebecoming more restricted, modern languageshave been enjoying a modest return to favour.Since 2004, the numbers starting anundergraduate language degree have beenrising a little each year, although provision hastended to be concentrated in fewer but largerdepartments, especially those located in moreprestigious universities. But this year, withoverall applications down by 7.7 percent (asat May 2012), surely languages will be hit,especially since nearly all language degreesmean four years of study?First, we need to break down the headline

figures. The maximum £9,000 fee will be paidby European and England-based studentsonly, and by students domiciled in Scotlandor Northern Ireland but studying elsewhere.Students from the EU and beyond now makeup a high proportion of students at UKuniversities. Thanks to the global reputationof British academic research in domains asdiverse as French cinema, Latin Americancultures and German literature, many non-British students choose the UK forundergraduate and postgraduate study.Across the board, applications frominternational students are up by 10 percent.The number of 17- and 18-year-old

A degree dearer

applicants is virtually unchanged. The bigdrops are in England (down 10 percent) andfor older students (down 11 percent). We must also remember that all we can, as

we go to press, are figures for applications. Asthe summer progresses, applications becomeoffers, acceptances and finally admissions.Modern languages have a strong record ofconverting applications into admissionsbecause applicants tend to commit at anearly stage and stick to their intentions.

Nonetheless, the available figures, whilenot as critical as in the 1990s, are a cause forconcern. Applications to non-Europeanlanguage degrees are down by 20.8 percentand to European languages by 11.6 percent;within this German fell 24.7 percent, French14.6 percent and Spanish 12 percent. Chineseshows only a 5.6 percent fall, while the dropin Japanese of 34.5 percent, which accountsfor the overall downturn in non-Europeanlanguages, can be explained by the tsunamiand subsequent nuclear alarms: it is thereforelikely to be a temporary problem.Even these figures are misleading, since the

data supplied by the Higher EducationStatistics Agency separate out single honours.

Apart from the satisfaction of the degreeitself, of acquiring new linguistic andintercultural skills, and getting to know, indepth, some of the world’s cultures, theissue of employability is crucial. All theresearch evidence shows that a languagedegree – or a degree which includes one ormore languages – opens the door to anunparallelled range of careers, most ofthem with an international dimension.There is overwhelming evidence that

graduates with language skills are highlyemployable and enhance the UK’seconomy. Two reports published in Juneconfirm this picture. An IPPR (Institute forPublic Policy Research) report shows that,even with loans to repay, investing in alanguages degree is worthwhile for boththe individual and the Treasury (www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=6123); while theCBI’s Learning to Grow report affirms that‘communication means business’(www.cbi.org.uk/media/1514978/cbi_education_and_skills_survey_2012.pdf). Nearly three quarters of businesses say

they value language skills among theiremployees, particularly in helping to buildrelations with customers, suppliers andclients. One in five firms is concerned thatweaknesses in foreign language proficiencyare – or may be – losing them business. Despite the impact of higher fees and

the uncertain economic climate, I remainconvinced that a degree involvinglanguages remains an excellent investment,and that future generations of students arewise enough to recognise that.

Why study languages?

Modern languageshave a strong record ofconverting applicationsto admissions. Peopletend to commit early on


FEATURES

VALUABLE EXPERIENCEManchester University studentson a Year Abroad in Barcelona

The numbers applying for combinations oflanguages are much greater than for all theindividual languages put together, butapplications there are down 8.9 percent. The pattern of converting applications to

acceptances also seems to be different thisyear, with more people deciding either earlieror later than usual. The rise in fees seems tohave concentrated the minds of applicantsand their families. Some knew exactly whatthey wanted and could sign up at once.Others wanted to wait until everything wasclear – especially the fees for the year abroad.

Year abroadThe year abroad is a key feature of languagedegrees, but the additional cost of travel andaccommodation is a potential disincentive forstudents already expecting to build up asubstantial debt. This was especially true aslong as the funding arrangements for 2012entrants were unknown.For current students, the financial facts are

transparent but very complex. Students on anErasmus study or work placement – includinga British Council assistantship – pay no fees tothe home or host university, while the homeuniversity receives substantial Governmentcompensation. For work and studyplacements outside Erasmus, fees are cappedat 50 percent of the maximum, and homeuniversities receive less compensation. TheGovernment repeatedly delayed a decisionon funding for 2012 entrants, but made itclear that it would no longer compensateuniversities for students going abroad.The University Council of Modern

Languages (UCML), which is the over-archingbody representing virtually all departmentsand professional associations in languages,

linguistics and area studies, lobbied from earlyin 2011 for the Government and the HigherEducation Funding Council for England(Hefce) to show their support for outgoingstudent mobility in a concrete way. We hadmany allies, not least Baroness Coussins, anindefatigable champion for language causesin the House of Lords. The Department forBusiness, Innovation and Skills (BIS) set up aworking party, chaired by Colin Riordan, EssexVice-Chancellor, to consider the issue.The campaign reached a climax with the

joint British Academy-UCML positionstatement, Valuing the Year Abroad (see‘Academy Award’, TL 51,3). UCML was lookingto minimise disincentives to the year abroadthrough a fee cap or waiver for students;compensation to universities; access to feeand maintenance loans; and public backingfrom Government, universities, employers andgraduates, supported by quantitative andqualitative evidence. This last was providedthanks to the power of online socialnetworking, harnessed by Third Year Abroad,which gathered graduate testimonies thatshowed that the skills students acquire through

a year abroad give them a lifelong competitiveadvantage in the career stakes (seewww.thirdyearabroad.com/graduates). UCML also wanted to level the playing-

field between Erasmus and other work orstudy abroad, and to remove the incentivefor individuals and universities to play safe,opting for an Erasmus exchange rather than amore distant and perhaps more challengingand rewarding placement in Russia, LatinAmerica, the Middle East or China.The BIS report in May 2012 met nearly all

of UCML’s ambitions. For students starting acourse in 2012, year abroad fees are cappedat 15 percent of the maximum (£1,350), whileHefce will provide an additional 25 percent incompensation for universities. Students areentitled to both maintenance and fee loans.The rules apply to students anywhere in theworld. And Universities Minister DavidWilletts has said he is ‘very pro studentmobility. I’m keen to encourage those whowish it to do some of their study overseas. Ifthere are barriers, I want to remove them.’Announcing the decision on fees, he

added, ‘Study abroad offers a huge range ofbenefits for students taking part, and also forour universities and the wider UK economy.Students improve their employability,institutions develop their international links,and businesses value the wider experience ofthose who’ve spent time abroad. It’s a win-win for all.’So virtually all of UCML’s year abroad

objectives have been achieved. It remains toget the new funding arrangements to applyto work placements outside Erasmus, but ifstudents on work placement also register atthe local university, they may be entitled tothe more favourable fees regime.

© ISTOCKPHOTO

FLOUTING CONVENTION: Fansubbersinclude a lot of information on-screen


CREATIVE TRANSLATION

Adriana Tortoriello asks whether professionalsubtitlers have anything to learn from fansubbing

Until recently, the world was divided intosubtitling and dubbing countries. With theNineties DVD revolution, however, thedividing line between these two blocks wasblurred. Suddenly, even audiences intraditionally dubbing countries could accessaudiovisual products in subtitled versions, tothe joy of many a film buff. More than a decade later, things have

moved on again, and new ways of producingand relating to subtitles have emerged. Theindustry demands increasingly faster andcheaper turnarounds, and in this context,professional subtitlers often struggle tosurvive, or choose to leave the field.But aside from the worrying decline in

rates, there are two aspects of subtitlingpractice today that are likely to have aconsiderable impact on the subtitling process itself: developments in professionalsubtitling technology and the relatively new – and mushrooming – phenomenonknown as fansubbing. Technological advances are leading to two

very interesting modalities of production:automatic timing and respeaking (ie, livesubtitling through speech recognition). Whilethe latter is primarily related to subtitling forthe deaf and hard of hearing, which isbeyond the scope of this article, the formershows great promise in the context ofinterlingual subtitling as well.Automatic Subtitle Timing is one of the

main features developed by SysMedia (now part of Screen Subtitling Systems) fortheir state-of-the-art subtitling software,WinCAPS, one of the most broadly used inprofessional subtitling. The auto-timingfunction enables subtitles to be timed directlyto the audio of the programme, as long as

The right way to sub?

the soundtrack is clear enough. This allowsthe user to obtain a timed and spottedsubtitle file more quickly than with anyconventional timing method, and that file canthen be used as a template for translation. This represents the sort of technological

advance that can support the subtitler, andthe subtitling process, in order to meet thedemand for faster turnaround at lower rates.While we are far from a fully automatedprocess, we are getting closer to a situationin which technology supports a faster way ofsubtitling. Far from impinging on quality, thismight be the key to devoting less time to thetechnical side of subtitling, and more time onthe quality of translation.

One-stop-shopWhen I started subtitling, in the late Nineties,I worked for one of the major internationalsubtitling companies at the time, the now-defunct Visiontext. In those days we workedwith VHS, watched on a TV set, and arudimentary subtitling software whose namehas long been lost in the mists of time. Thetranslated programme would then behanded to a number of other players, whowould take it to the final stages ofproduction. Subtitling a film from start tofinish would take up to two weeks. Nowadays, subtitling has become a one-

stop-shop, performed by one person on onePC. The profile of the subtitler has changedgreatly – linguistic abilities alone are nolonger enough, one needs to betechnologically savvy and able to becomeconversant with the relevant technology veryquickly. Keeping up-to-speed withtechnological advances is now an importantelement of a profession subtitler’s work.

Qualifications: A background in translationis an advantage, but specific training inaudiovisual translation (AVT) and subtitling– on both the linguistic and the technicalside – is usually required. Increasingly,universities offer AVT at Master’s level,either as the main focus (eg, atRoehampton University) or as optionalmodules (as at Imperial College London).Some, including Imperial, offer one-dayintensive courses. Experience:Many companies offerstudent placements. They are usuallybadly paid but provide free training andhands-on experience that can proveinvaluable.Finding a job: Competition is fierce andrates are fairly low. Don’t look only tocompanies that do subtitling anddubbing; consider games localisation,transcreation and website localisation.

WAYS INTO SUBTITLING



range from glosses to explain obscurecultural references to ‘prologues’ at thebeginning of the programme to outline thetranslation choices and acknowledge thename (or nickname) of the subtitler –something that very often does not appearon commercial DVDs.The main problem is that the reading

speed becomes extremely high, and takingin all this information can be very hard. This is partly because freeware programs are farless sophisticated than professional ones and most lack a feature indicating the

reading speed. On the plus side, however,this sort of subtitling is much more innovativeand creative. Considering the number of years

commercial subtitling has been around,innovations are conspicuous by their absence and, increasingly, a number ofvoices are highlighting the possibleadvantages that could come from somesynergy between the professional andamateur worlds. Fansubbing might become‘a rich source of inspiration for professionallycreated audiovisual translations,’ says AlinaSecară.1 ‘Conventional subtitles are boring’,

states Jorge Díaz Cintas, adding thatfansubbers’ creativity could bring fresh air to‘the sobriety of traditional subtitling’.2

Traditionally, subtitles were meant, likeVictorian children, to be discreet. Fansubbersare bold and happy to do away with theinvisibility of subtitles and subtitlers alike.Although they exist in a legally grey area –often their position has been challenged andsome websites have been closed down –they flaunt their identity. They place subtitles all over the screen and

use a variety of orthotypographic means toconvey additional features. Capitalisation andphonetic spelling, for instance, allow them toincorporate paralinguistic features in theirtranslations. And last but, in my view,definitely not least, their use of glosses toexplain cultural references allows them toproduce subtitles that are more foreignisingthan traditional ones, giving greater access tothe culture of the original programme.The two aspects discussed in this article –

technological advances on the one hand,and the world of fansubbing on the other –might well be seen as unrelated. However, Ibelieve that the innovations brought aboutboth by technology and by fansubbing mightcome together in contributing to the creationof a new subtitling modality, one thatincorporates the needs and expectations of21st-century industry and audiences alike.

Notes

1 Secară, A, 2011, ‘R U Ready 4 New Subtitles?Investigating the potential of social translationpractices and creative spellings’ in LinguisticaAntverpiensia 10, 153-1742 Díaz Cintas, J, JosTrans 17, January 2012,www.jostrans.org/issue17/int_cintas.php

There is, however, another side to thestory. While the advantages of the latesttechnological developments are apparent,state-of-the-art subtitling software can beexpensive and therefore inaccessible. But the internet era has yielded anotherpossibility: the world of freeware – freesoftware, accessible to all and easilydownloadable. And while subtitling freewareis far from ideal for professional subtitlers, ithas not escaped the attention of amateursubtitlers or ‘fansubbers’. Although its earliest manifestations date

back to the 1980s, fansubbing has onlyrecently become established as a widespreadphenomenon that looks set to stay. There aretwo main reasons for its exponential growth:the dwindling quality of commercial subtitleson DVDs and the desire to offer a subtitledalternative to programmes that, in somecountries, are only dubbed. Fansubs differ from traditional subtitles in a

number of ways – most, if not all, resultingfrom the fact that, not being constrained bythe demands of the industry, fansubbers arefreer to experiment with content and format.While traditional subtitles tend to stick to onefont, one colour and a maximum number ofcharacters and lines per subtitle, fansubsdisplay a variety of fonts, sizes, colours andlines of text, they sometimes usecapitalisation and emoticons for emphasis,and at times resort to phonetic spelling. Moreover, they flout another basic

convention of subtitling: no additionalinformation or footnotes are allowed in asubtitled programme; subtitles translate onlywhat is said in the dialogue and/or displayedon the screen. Fansubs, on the other hand,tend to add a number of elements, which

Fansubbers are bold,and happy to do awaywith the invisibility ofsubtitles. They flaunttheir identity

Essential skills: Creativity and adaptability,the ability to deal with technical issues,familiarity with gaming terminology and thedifferences between platforms. Gamestranslators must play games. Qualifications: MA in Translation, preferablyon a course that includes audiovisualtranslation and games localisation.Professional experience: An in-house jobwithin a games company is preferred.Companies such as Blizzard and NCsofthave in-house translation teams; most havelocalisation testing departments. Useful websites: For in-house work trywww.aswift.com and www.datascope.co.uk.Games companies’ websites often publicisevacancies, and there are LinkedIn groupsdedicated to jobs in the games industry.Essential reading: The Game LocalizationHandbook by Heather Maxwell Chandler.

OUT OF CONTEXT: Blizzard’s fantasy role-play game Diablo III (above). In Tales ofMonkey Island (right) the word ‘Save’ wasgiven in Spanish as Salvar, not Guardar



Silvia Ferrero on the challenges for localisers, as gamingexpands into diverse markets and on to new platformsGames localisation, despite being a fairlyyoung industry, is acquiring more popularityrecently, perhaps because the games industryis growing faster than any other entertainmentsector. This is a positive change and it meansthat there is more information than everavailable for those interested in the profession.So what makes games localisation differentfrom other disciplines, and what specialisedskills are needed on the part of the translator?The first thing that needs to be considered

is the huge variety that exists in the gamesindustry. In a few years, games have evolvedvery quickly and the stereotype of young malegamers no longer applies. Companies areconstantly branching into new markets andreleasing products that defy the traditionaldefinition of a videogame. There are gamesyou can sing along to, games that help you tokeep fit and even ones that teach you how tocook. And then there is the social gamingboom, which is popular with women, who nowmake up nearly 50 percent of gamers.This variety requires a lot of adaptability on

the part of localisers. Some games, includingflight and driving simulators, contain verytechnical vocabulary, which can be extremelyhard to translate. Other games, such as fantasy

The rules of the game

role-playing games (RPGs), require a lot ofcreativity, as translators encounter the strangeforms of speech of orcs, elves and pirates. Andthere are also extreme cases – pop culturequizzes, for example, with questions about TVshows, songs and celebrities – in which thewhole game has to be transcreated so that thecontent reflects the local culture.For these reasons, localisers have more

freedom in the games industry than in anyother field. They can adapt character names tosuit the local culture, convert an accent into atarget equivalent, or make a character speak ina particular way for characterisation purposes.After all, games localisation is not abouttranslating words, but translating experiences.

Games companies areextremely protective.The translator oftenhas to work withoutseeing the product

GETTING STARTED



coin’ or ‘You have won a bronze coin’. Yet thissyntax is not going to work in manylanguages. For instance, in Spanish Hasganado una oro moneda is incorrect; oroshould appear at the end and be preceded bya preposition: Has ganado una moneda deoro. Since the syntax has been programmedinto the game and cannot be altered, in a caselike this it would be useful to translate the firststring as Has ganado una moneda de andleave the last cell empty, or just with a fullstop. However, this is only a very basicexample and challenges of this type can bemuch more difficult to solve.To make matters worse, concatenation can

be combined with variables to create everytranslator’s nightmare: _#T1 _#T2 _#T3, where_#T1 is an adjective, _#T2 a weapon nameand _#T3 a type of ammo. This might result in‘Infallible lacerator bullets’. Here, the translatoris dealing with both gender issues and syntax.In order to avoid many of these issues, there

is a case for games localisation companies toget involved in the process earlier and assistdevelopers with internationalisation, ie,creating a product as culturally neutral aspossible. Early involvement can help flag uppotential issues sooner, give translators moretime to put their questions to developers, andassist in sim-ship (simultaneous shipping of thegame across territories). But it is not without its drawbacks: early

involvement means that the game code hasnot been finalised and therefore that thesource language is likely to undergo manychanges. Those constant updates can bedraining and time-consuming for the translator,even with the use of an online system thatflags up changes and allows for translations tobe updated in the cloud.

Testing timesOnce a game has been fully localised, it goesthrough a quality assurance process known aslinguistic testing, or localisation testing.Testers should check the game thoroughlyand see all the text in it, before reportingmistakes such as typos, missing accents, textthat overflows its allocated space etc. Theyshould also check that the translators haveused the platform-specific terminology, asmost of the hardware components arecopyrighted and have approved translationsthat have to be followed to the letter. For thatreason, it is important to use professionaltesters with a keen eye for detail, who knowexactly how to look for mistakes in the game.

For players to engage in the action, theoriginal feeling of gameplay must bemaintained, but this can suffer as a result oftight translation deadlines. It is not uncommonfor games to be split between three or fourtranslators per language, especially when theycontain tens of thousands of words. Even ifthere is an editor to oversee the whole project,it is quite easy for the game to lose some of itsstrength and flavour as there isn’t usually timeto unify differing translation styles.

Secrets and embargoesGames companies are extremely protective oftheir products, and the translator often has towork without having seen the product at all,despite signing all the necessary confidentialityagreements. Some clients go so far as toprovide only the game title and the platform itwill be played on. Fortunately other clientsprovide a bit of background information and,if the translator is lucky, the design documents.This lack of information becomes an acute

problem when attempting to translate stringsof words. When faced with a single word, withno context at all, it may be impossible todetermine gender and number, whether theword (eg ‘pause’) is a verb or a noun, or evenwhat the word means. ‘Bat’ in a hidden-objectgame could refer to an animal or a baseballbat, for instance. Similarly, it can be hard tomake the right choice in a dialogue if thetranslator is unsure who the character is talkingto (formal/informal, singular/plural, feminine/masculine). The translator may not even knowwhether the game will be dubbed or subtitled.Another common problem is the lack of

space on screen. Languages such as Spanish,French and German tend to be 20-30 percentmore verbose than English, so it can be hardto stick to the character restrictions, whichoften only take into account the length of thesource language version. This is especially trueif the game is developed in Japanese.On mobile phones even less text can be

accommodated, yet these games havebecome very popular. Somehow the translatorhas to find a way of conveying the meaningof the original without using indecipherableabbreviations – abbreviating ‘Sound options’to ‘Sound’ rather than, say, ‘S. op’, wherethere is space for just five characters.

Endless variablesVariables are used often in games and canpose endless problems. These are codes thatwill be replaced by terms or values, for

It may be impossibleto determine gender,whether the word is averb or a noun, oreven what it means

instance ‘You have won a %d’. In manylanguages, this simple sentence has to betranslated differently depending on thegender of the object that replaces ‘%d’. Inthe case of a car the translation in Spanishwould be Has ganado un (coche); for a coin,it would be Has ganado una (moneda). Acommon strategy is to use a colon: ‘You havewon: %d’. It can be trickier if the variable isreplaced by a name – for example ‘Welcome%d’ (Bienvenido/a %d). In this case, thesentence could be rewritten in a neutral wayto avoid gender issues: ‘Hello %d’ (Hola %d). Fortunately, some developers are starting to

introduce code that allows the translators tocater for gender and number variations.Otherwise, a little creativity is better than usingbrackets to cover the different alternatives (asin Bienvenido(a) %d).Concatenation can be even more

complicated. In the games localisationindustry, this means combining severalseparate strings to form a sentence. Thetranslator might find themselves having totranslate the following table:English SpanishYou have won a Has ganado una gold orosilver platabronze broncecoin. moneda.When combined, the results will be ‘You

have won a gold coin’, ‘You have won a silver

TAKE TWO An advert from BMW’s ‘Joy is’campaign in English and German



Bill Maslen offers an insideaccount of advertising transcreation Creative translation – sometimes referred toas ‘transcreation’ – is hard. It’s hard for all thereasons you know, and for a lot of othersbesides. First, there’s the work itself. Itdemands intellectual application, an ability tothink laterally, a good sense of rhythm andeuphony, and a penchant for getting excitedabout stuff. Even when the stuff isn’t veryexciting. Second, there are the clients. Theydemand speed, flexibility, a willingness topull rabbits out of hats at the very lastminute – and consistently top-quality work.Creative translation is not for everyone. I

know many experienced technical translatorswho recognise this and systematically avoidit. Why is the work so different? Surely themain criteria are the same? Like a technicaltranslator, a creative translator should be awareof three things before starting a project: itsobjectives (aims, intentions); target readership(audience); and target medium (usually media).The differences lie in the specifics. Is the textpromoting a product or service, or the brandas a whole? Is it adhering to the client’s brandvalues or deliberately breaking with them andtaking an edgier approach? How does thisaffect the choice of language and tone?Some of these questions are cleared up

once you know whether the campaign is B2B(addressing businesses) or B2C (addressingconsumers). As a creative translator you shouldknow exactly who the client is attempting towoo, and exactly how. The ‘how’ may not bewhat you were expecting. As David Bellosremarks in his thought-provoking book Is Thata Fish in Your Ear?:1 ‘Translation always takesthe register and level of naturally written proseup a notch or two… translators are instinctivelyaverse to the risk of being taken for less thanfully cultivated writers of their target tongue.’ This tendency can be a problem. The client

may want rough and tough, and many verycapable translators find this kind of stylisticelasticity difficult to achieve. Good creativetranslators must be willing – must actively

Making it ad up

desire – to experiment with language, playwith unfamiliar constructions and idioms, andraise, lower or contrast registers. And aboveall, they must be willing to focus a sensitive,attuned ear on the language used by a client’starget audience. Thus research is just asimportant for a creative translator as it is for atechnical specialist – more so, in fact, becauseit should cover a vast range of intangibles,such as tone of voice, idiomatic idiosyncrasiesand regional/dialectal variations.Many of the most gifted creative translators

I know are ‘family’ people – they try out theirgrasp of idiom on their nearest and dearest,or on friends and neighbours. They readwidely, and rake carefully through the web forthe latest, greatest terms or phrases thatcharacterise a particular market segment.They are also consummate researchers whowill go to any lengths to track down obscurereferences, to make sure not only that they getthe translation right, but that the copywriterwho wrote the source text also got it right.

The consummate professionalTypically, a source text arrives with no brief, noexplanation and no context. This is an endlesssource of moans and drones at translationconferences. But this negative responseoverlooks a positive opportunity: this is yourchance to look like the consummateprofessional – by asking the right questions.Many translators, and even translation

firms, will do almost anything to avoid askingquestions of clients, perhaps because theyare anxious not to lose the client’sconfidence. The reality is utterly different.Whether the client is a corporate marketingdepartment or a communications agency, thefirst point of contact is likely to be a juniormember of the team, often a freelanceproject manager who knows little about thecreative underpinnings of the project.But that’s ok. There’s always one person for

whom the creative aspect is critical: the

Creative Director. To work your way up thechain of command, ask intelligent questionsof your junior contact (about intention, targetaudience, target media, etc). They won’t havethe answers, and you will soon be transferedto the Creative Director or to the copywriterwho wrote the original text. At first, the Creative Director may be

impatient and irritable, but this is where yourprofessionalism has a chance to shine. Neverjust ask a question (eg, ‘this passage is veryunclear, can you explain?’); always suggest anintelligent solution as well.

What you’re looking for is a brief. Thereare three kinds: 1 A campaign brief, covering the overallgoals of the campaign (your project usuallyforms part of a greater whole)

2 A creative brief – a more detailed documentthat focuses on the concepts and messagesthat will be used to attain these goals

3 A copy brief, specifying what this particulartext is intended to achieve and how.In the old days, agencies rarely embarked

on a campaign without some kind of formalbrief. Such is the speed of moderncommunications that nowadays briefs areoften neglected completely, or exist in apurely oral form that can be tweaked andrefined as the campaign takes shape. Today’s creative directors are confronted by

a vast, increasingly fragmented range ofmedia through which they can (indeed must)communicate their messages. Decidingwhere to focus their creative energies – and



issue: a client with strong views on whatconstitutes business English.Dealing with these issues is an exercise in

diplomacy. The client had a good standard ofEnglish, but it wasn’t their first language. Myusual gambit (‘How well you know yourmarket! What wonderful ideas you have! May Ijust suggest – in order to optimise your ideas –a couple of tweaks?’) didn’t work. ‘So what?’you might ask; the client is entitled to havewhat they want. But this is BMW, with well-established brand values. The agency was onmy side: they wanted to get it right but didn’twant to fight. So I introduced a number oflow-key tweaks. The client was happy andapproved the final copy. A compromise, yes,but a face-saving, pragmatic one that meantthe final result was written in proper English. Tempting as it is to be precious about one’s

creative work – especially after spending hoursstruggling with ideas – it is much better to bepragmatic. Since then, I have done a numberof jobs for the same client. Predictably, theyno longer make changes to my copybecause they have learned to trust me.

A little while ago, I translated a brochure onmergers and acquisitions for Ernst & Young(E&Y) Deutschland. This was a good exampleof ‘trickle-briefing’. First I was sent the bodycopy for the brochure, which was reasonablystraightforward – clear intention, clearmessaging, clear target audience. No explicitbrief was included or, apparently, required.Then came the headlines (chapter headings).These were somewhat trickier, with someodd turns of phrase. What was going on? I returned my translation with several

proposals for each headline and anauthoritative commentary suggesting that,with more context, I could pinpoint the idealheadline in each case. There was a pause.Then they sent me the visuals and all wasrevealed. The images were humorous,

involving chickens and eggs in various statesof distress (a theme only obliquely reflectedin the copy). After a discussion with theagency, I was able to produce amendedheadlines that played on this humour.

Corporate speakEvery large corporation tends to develop astrong corporate culture – a kind of group-think based on the company’s priorities andgoals, often expressed in a specific corporateshorthand (‘idiolect’, pace Bellos).2 When thisstarts to infect corporate communicationsthey have a problem. Effectively, their writersstart to assume that not only existingcustomers but even prospective customersshare the company’s priorities and concerns –and even the language used to express them. Both assumptions are horribly flawed, and

result in concepts and copy that are bothdifficult to read and tangential to customers’real-world interests. As a trusted outsider, Ihave been able to remind corporatemarketing departments that they should beinterested in their customers’ preoccupations,not their own. Again, the extent to which theyhave been willing to listen has depended onthe professionalism with which I haveconveyed my very carefully expressed critique.Creative translators work for the

communications industry. We have to be goodcommunicators not only in our work, but alsoin the way we liaise with clients. This can betime-consuming, and this should be reflectedin our pricing, but without communication, youcan’t produce creative translation.I’ll admit I get things wrong too. I once lost

a Dutch client as a result of defending somecreative work too vigorously. I fell into a simplebut seductive trap: I had come up with what Ithought were some really good ideas, I wasupset when the client didn’t like them andunimpressed by their counter-suggestions. Iforgot all the lessons I had learnt over 25 yearsof working in the industry. I went in hard andsounded arrogant. We patched together asolution but we never worked together again.Much of the intellectual labour of creative

translation goes into communicating with yourclient. Do it well, and you’ll build long-lastingrelationships. Neglect it, or do it badly, andyou’ll lose them very quickly indeed.

Notes1 Bellos, D, 2011, Penguin, 1952 Ibid, 288

money – is difficult, time-consuming andfraught with risk. We’ve all read about viralcampaigns that have gone horribly wrong.

The diplomatAs a translator, I usually work out of German. Irecently worked on a newsletter for a clientwho decided to use the German conceptAnstand as the theme for the publication.Anstand can mean an enormous variety ofthings, including propriety, decorum, decency,respectability and good manners. There’s nosingle English word that encapsulates it.Rather than wrestle single-handedly with

the problem, I included the client in mydeliberations. We discussed the way Anstandis approached in each article; the mainmessages of the newsletter, which is aimedprimarily at managers; and the lessons thenewsletter is trying – often quite subtly – toteach. We even discussed whether to includea separate English explanation of the termfor interested readers. These interactions didnot damage the client’s respect for my work.In fact, the client was extremely appreciative,I learnt more about their specific concerns,and our relationship developed.Last year, a marketing firm asked me to

translate a variety of materials for a BMWcampaign, including a website and severalemailers. The campaign targeted businessbuyers; the language was serious butseductive. The client provided me with lots ofreference material and was responsive to myqueries. But then we ran into a fairly common

Creative directors areconfronted by a vastrange of media. Makingthe right choices isfraught with risk


FEATURES

Miranda Moore looks at the MA modules that takestudents from ab initio to translation level in just one year

In these difficult economic times, it is moreimportant than ever to stand out from thecompetition. Clients and employers will askthemselves why they should choose you oversomeone with similar experience andqualifications, and for translators the answermay well be an additional language. With thisin mind, some MA Translation courses offer abinitiomodules focused entirely on translation. It is an ambitious idea, aiming to get

students to a level at which they can translatenon-specialist texts written in a ‘new’language after just one year. It is hardlysurprising, therefore, that such modules areoffered at just two universities: Westminsterand Surrey.1 Daniel Tomozeiu, who teachesthe ab initio Romanian module atWestminster, explains the benefits forstudents: ‘Adding a particular language totheir portfolio – a niche language inparticular – makes them stand out and makestheir CV a lot more attractive.’This kind of ab initio module was

introduced at the university four years ago, aspart of a wider drive aimed at making surethat Westminster graduates would stand outfrom the crowd in the jobs market. ‘We havea lot of our students going to work for theEuropean institutions and it’s highlycompetitive,’ explains Dr Tomozeiu. Armingstudents with one of the smaller EUlanguages gives them a competitive edge. At Surrey, such modules have been running

for more than 20 years. Professor MargaretRogers, Director of its Centre for TranslationStudies, was involved in establishing anddesigning the courses. ‘One of the firstmotivations was to give a chance to becomeprofessional translators to people who onlyhad an A and a B language,’ she explains.

Starting from scratch

As at Westminster, which currently offersRomanian, Portuguese, Dutch and Italian, thefocus has been on niche languages, including,in the past, Dutch, Polish and Greek.Norwegian and Portuguese are available tothis year’s cohort. ‘We wanted to add a rarityvalue,’ says Rogers. This ties in with the aim ofthe National Network for Translation to boostthe number of English speakers translatingfrom less widely spoken languages.

Ab initio modules are available atuniversities up and down the country, but thedifference with these particular MA modulesis that the sole focus is on translation.Students do not practise speaking or

listening, and don’t even need to know howthe language sounds – although, in practice,both universities teach some communicationskills, mainly for ‘motivational reasons’. ‘The course focuses on comprehension –

that’s the main aim,’ says Tomozeiu. ‘We startby looking at very basic forms of grammar –nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs – and howthey are used in a text.’ Grammar rules arerepeated and applied to various texts untilthe students are able ‘to identify not only thegrammar we are learning but also the overallstructure of phrases’. Helene Grinsted took both the Romanian

and Portuguese options while studying for anMA in Technical and Specialised Translationat Westminster. ‘It’s amazing how quickly wewere able to derive translations,’ she says.‘We were dropped right in at the deep end.’They began translating from Portuguese inthe very first lesson.

A different approachThe courses are run on a slightly differentbasis at each university, with Westminsterlimiting the modules to native Englishspeakers and Surrey allowing an open choice.For Dr Tomozeiu, ‘learning the new languageis enough of a challenge without addinganything demanding on the target language.’In addition, Westminster students areencouraged to choose a language that iscognate with one they already speak. ‘Romanian was identified quite early on as

a potential candidate because of thesimilarities to other Romance languages andthe increased demand because of thecountry’s accession to the European Union,’he explains. Prof Rogers agrees that offeringmodules on a cognate language basis would

Students do notpractise speaking orlistening, and don’teven need to know howthe language sounds


FEATURES

teaching all four skills to the same level,’ saysProf Rogers. Students begin by working ongeneral texts and move on to semi-specialisttexts in the second semester. ‘It’s a very different way of teaching a

language than if you were going to speak itand write it,’ says Grinsted. ‘It was a lot aboutgrammatical structure so you can recognise averb, you know what the verb endings are andhow the sentence is constructed. It’s aboutteaching you how the language is constructedso that you can decode it.’ On top of a demanding Master’s course,

students have two contact hours a week onthe ab initio module and are expected to putin a further 5-6 hours of study. ‘It is ademanding course but it’s very rewarding –in particular the level they are able to reach,’says Tomozeiu. For Grinsted, Portuguese waschallenging because many of her classmatesspoke Spanish, which enabled very rapidprogression. Romanian proved difficultbecause of its complicated grammar, but agrounding in French, German and school-girlLatin and Russian stood her in good stead.‘The language evolved from vulgar Latin. It’sgot case structure similar to Latin, and also toGerman, so I wasn’t too phased by that. It’scognate with French to a degree,’ she says,and she had experience of diacritics fromRussian. Students with German tend to bestronger on Romanian grammar, confirmsTomozeiu. ‘In Romanian, just like German, thenouns have cases and it’s quite challenging forstudents who are not used to that.’

Grinsted had applied to Westminsterbecause the course was ‘very vocationallyorientated’. Coming from a marketingbackground, she was acutely aware that shewould need to highlight her unique sellingpoints when it came to looking for work.With that in mind, would she recommend anab initio module to fellow translators? ‘If it’s acourse aimed specifically at translators, yes. Ifyou just learn a language from scratch you’regoing to spend a lot of time doing thingsthat aren’t relevant to being a translator. Buta course like this that’s aimed specifically attranslators works very well I think.’

Notes

1 I have found no such modules at any other UKuniversity, although they were offered at theUniversity of Salford in the past.

be beneficial, but this has not been possibleat Surrey, largely due to the broad variety oflanguages covered by their MA students. Asa result, the expected end-of-course levelmay vary slightly, with Surrey aiming to givestudents ‘the basis for further development’.Even so, both universities have been verysuccessful in getting students to translationcompetence in just two semesters.‘I was amazed how we were able to get to

that level in only a year,’ says Grinsted. ‘Thatlevel’, as stated at the beginning of thecourse, is the ability to translate ’any textavailable in the print press’, rather thanspecialised or literary texts. ‘I think havingthat level of expectation helps the studentsto understand where they need to be at theend of the year, and we have been extremelysuccessful in bringing them to that level, yearafter year,’ says Tomozeiu. The Romanian module attracts 12-16

students a year, and many go on to translatefrom the language immediately aftergraduating. Grinsted, however, wanted a littlemore tuition and, along with two of herclassmates, took a further year of instructionwith Tomozeiu. ‘But maybe that’s just mebeing cautious,’ she says. Since then, she hashad a number of assignments from Romanian,which has been a great help: German is stillher main source of work, but it has been‘ages’ since she had any jobs from French.

Special materialsThe ab initio Romanian course was approvedat Westminster in 2008, but there followed ayear of preparation before it could be offeredto students. ‘A lot of materials weredeveloped in-house because there was verylittle that would facilitate teaching Romanianas an ancillary language for translators with agood understanding of other Romancelanguages,’ explains Tomozeiu.Rogers recalls looking to specialised

courses for inspiration – those designed forpeople, such as historians, who need to readmaterial in another language. ‘I picked upsome things from that kind of course. Butthere wasn’t any ready-made model for it,’she says. Courses for new languages are nowbased on that first module. The focus is onreading comprehension. ‘You can get furtherwith that than you could in a course that is

‘It’s amazing howquickly we were ableto derive translations.We were dropped rightin at the deep end’

COMPETITIVE EDGEMA Translation students at the universitiesof Westminster (below) and Surrey (left)

have sought to investigate in a range ofscenarios: interviews with translators, analysisof drafts and correspondence in literaryarchives, multiple translations by my MAstudents, and the analysis of the simultaneousinterpreting of sensitive political texts.

I pity the interpreters who were in theEuropean Parliament booths in February 2010for Nigel Farage’s attack on the President ofthe European Council, Herman Van Rompuy.Farage claimed: ‘I do not want to be rude…but, but… you know, really, you have the

charisma of a damp rag and the appearanceof a low-grade bank clerk.’4

Unsurprisingly, most of the interpretershesitated at this point, doubtless taken abackat the virulence and directness of the attack.The French interpreter gives vous avez lecharisme d’une serpillière (‘you have thecharisma of a floor-cloth’) and the German dasCharisma eines nassen Lappens (‘the charismaof a damp flannel’). Both omit any reference tothe bank clerk, while the Italian downplays thefirst part as Lei ha un carisma di una personaincapace (‘you have a charisma of anincompetent person’). This may be partly dueto time pressure and processing constraints,


FEATURES

Why do translators make certain, often controversial,decisions? Jeremy Munday investigatesTranslators and interpreters know thatsometimes a single word or expression maycause as many problems as the whole of therest of a text. My interest, as a translator,teacher and researcher, is to identify these‘critical’ points in a text – those that cause realprocessing problems to the translator andaffect the text’s reception, and whichsometimes carry an element of risk because ofthe subjective interpretation they require.

In some instances these may be individualnaming words that are an indication of theideological or political stance of the writer ortranslator: the choice, for instance, betweenCatholic Derry and Protestant Londonderry,between Anglophone Montreal andFrancophone Montréal, between colonialBombay and modern-day Mumbai.1

In religious texts the impact is magnified. In16th-century Peru, the Jesuits under José deAcosta imposed the Spanish word andconcept Dios on an indigenous tradition thatalready had its own monotheistic divinenames, Viracocha and Pachacamac.2 Yet thecontroversy caused by such sensitive terms isnot only of historical relevance. In 1986, thegovernment of Malaysia banned the use ofthe word Allah to refer to the god of religionsother than Islam. This issue resurfaced in 2009,when criticism of the translations of propernames in the Bahasa Indonesia Bible led tothe confiscation of more than 20,000 copies inMalaysia.3 For some Muslims, the translationcasts doubt on the Quranic concept of theoneness of Allah and, in the expression ‘Son ofGod’, may be regarded as blasphemous.

How do translators and interpreters come tomake these choices and at what stage in thetranslation process? How can we identify whatthe crucial choices are? These are questions I

A risky business

but also because of the severe face-threatening act and the interpreter’s desire toavoid exaggerating it. Since interpreters usethe first-person, they represent the speech actof Farage and incur the risk of the words beingtaken as their own subjective interpretations.

Intervention isn’t easyAlthough most translators and interpreterswork on less dramatic texts, this does notmean that their intervention is easy. Intechnical translation, subject-specificterminology plays a critical role but it is farfrom being the only issue. I conductedresearch with professionals working in avariety of languages and situations. The mostfrequent problems they noted were singlewords in the source language thatcorrespond to a range of possibilities in thetarget language.

An instance where this becomes a questionof interpretation is the German Aufwand,which can mean ‘time spent’, ‘cost incurred’,‘effort expended’, or any combination of thethree. The word Belastung causes headachesbecause it means ‘loading’, both in themechanical and in the electrical sense, butcan also mean ‘impact/stress/strain’. Some ofthese are quite far from the core meaning.

Several interviewees raised the question ofpolysemous words, where the equivalentdepends on context and collocation, afrequent problem in translation revision. Anexample is the German noun Leistung, whichcan mean ‘service’, ‘payment’, ‘performance’,‘power’, ‘benefit‘ ‘achievement’, ‘proficiency’,‘effort’, ‘output’, ‘efficiency’, ‘accomplishment’,‘rating’, ‘showing’, ‘feat’ and more.5

In some instances the translator’s choicesinvolve what I call ‘attitude-rich’ words

Most of the interpretershesitated, doubtlesstaken aback at thevirulence anddirectness of the attack


FEATURES

say pitch regulated upwind turbine with activeyaw in Romanian?’), some posed awkwardproblems that directly required the translator’sinterpretation. Take this example from aSpanish hotel catalogue:

El hotel Balneario X cuenta con… unlujoso spa que recoge la tradición delhistórico balneario fundado en 1898 y laproyecta hacia la vanguardia en un Spa dereferencia mundial.

‘The X Resort hotel has… a luxurious spawhich takes the tradition of the historic resortfounded in 1898 and projects it towards thevanguard in a world reference Spa.’

Respondents made three suggestions forthe highlighted phrase: ‘brings to the fore/forefront’; ‘brings completely into the 21stcentury’; and ‘makes them one of the mostinnovative (and technologically advanced)spas in the world’.8 These three possibilitiesrevolve around different interpretations ofvanguardia as ‘forefront’, ‘very modern’ and‘innovative’. Indeed, the proposer of this last solution offers the justification:‘Vanguardia implies one of the first to do new things and offer new methods andtechnologies in their field.’ Some overlapbetween the two is apparent from therespondent’s addition of the bracketed ‘(andtechnologically advanced)’.

Other examples where translatorinterpretation was paramount were newlycoined terms in the communication andbusiness worlds, such as ‘blue-sky explorationpotential’ and the ‘bleeding edge of webdesign’. Their coinage and evolution in Englishis worthy of a study in its own right, tracingtheir transfer from one collocation to another(eg, ‘blue-sky thinking’) and their acceptanceinto the mainstream. In translation, this type

of item causes problems irrespective oflanguage pair and often results in a moregeneral translation (eg, ‘optimistic promotionpotential’) or explicitation (‘positiveexpectations in relation to explorationpotential’). These are further examples of risk-reduction strategies. The problem is thatsometimes the result can be not only risk-freebut also rather insipid and an example of theoften lamented ‘translationese’.

Jeremy Munday’s Evaluation in Translation:Critical points of translator decision-making isout now through Routledge.

Notes

1 Baker, M, 2006, Translation and Conflict,Abingdon, Routledge, 123-5; Mossop, B, 2007,‘The Translator’s Intervention through VoiceSelection’, in Translation as Intervention, London,Continuum, 18-372 Kim, S, 2004, Strange Names of God, NewYork, Peter Lang3 Ahmed, S, 2009, ‘Bibles Seized as MalaysianMinorities Fear Fundamentalism’, CNN, 29/10/09http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/10/29/malaysia.bibles.seized/4 Speech viewable, with interpreting, atwww.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getVod.do?mode=chapter&language=EN&vodDateId=20100224-15:23:21-918, timing 16:14:10 to 16:16:475 www.linguee.com/english-german/search?sourceoverride=none&source=auto&query=Leistung 6 www.linguee.com/english-german/search?sourceoverride=none&source=auto&query=anspruchsvoll+7 www.proz.com/kudoz8 www.proz.com/kudoz/spanish_to_english/tourism_travel/4350977-proyecta_hacia_la_vanguardia.html

SIGN OF CONFLICTProtestant Londonderry is changed toCatholic Derry on this road sign.Translating names can prove difficult,and choices can be politically charged

because their value can shift and sodepends, at least in part, on the translator’sinterpretation. Take the German adjectiveanspruchsvoll. Equivalents are mainly positivebut not always so: ‘demanding’, ‘challenging’,‘sophisticated’, ‘ambitious’, ‘discriminating’,‘exacting’, ‘taxing’, ‘discerning’, ‘upmarket’,‘pretentious’ and so on.6 How is thetranslator to decide reliably?

Surprisingly, some of the clearest indicatorsof attitude are sometimes overlooked. Oneexperienced reviser said that German modalparticles (auch, doch, eben, einmal, ja, schon,etc) frequently require revision in the texts shecorrects, while English attitudinal adverbs, suchas ‘just’, ‘only’ and ‘even’ are often omitted.

Risk avoidanceIt is well-known that text type, genre andpurpose are crucial determiners of translationstrategy, but my research highlighted othersituational factors. For marketing texts, somein-house translators said they grant themselvesmore latitude than the freelancers with whomthey collaborate, since they are more familiarwith the image the company wishes to projectand have more opportunity to check possibletranslations with management.

When doubts arise, the tendency is to‘hedge your bets’ and opt for something that‘can’t be wrong’. This risk-avoidance strategyis one that will be familiar to many translators,but its actual implementation would benefitfrom more research and discussion. I decidedto trace it in a sample of online translatorfora, including KudozTM.7 These fora areuseful because the discussions reveal someof the reasons behind translation decisions.

While the vast majority of the queriesconcerned technical terms (eg, ‘how do you

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translate them and sing them in English – themusic and the words are so necessary toeach other. You’d never get the same feelingby singing in translation. The African songsare a good example. You get the “mba” and“nga” sounds, which we rarely use in English.It’s soft, percussive – the way you’re usingyour mouth changes.’For the choristers, many of whom are

beginners, this additional challenge quicklybecomes a pleasure. Motivated by the 2006BBC documentary The Choir, Dennis Spencer-Perkins – a bus driver from Dagenham –helped Eaton establish their local choir.‘Everyone who comes thinks it’s going to bereally hard singing in all these languages, butit makes us put more emotion in, somehow,’he says. ‘Sometimes a song’s really powerful

I was using songs in mylessons but I worried itmight not be helpful. Iwas surprised how littleresearch there was


FEATURES

Community choirs are increasingly popular, but canthey support language learning, asks Jessica Moore On Monday nights, between 8pm and 10pm,a beautiful sound flows from the Inter FaithCentre in Queen’s Park, Northwest London.It’s unfamiliar. Uplifting. Not at all what you’dexpect to overhear on a residential city street.‘Our community choirs sing in a range ofdifferent languages,’ explains CatherineDyson, Founder and Director of Vocality,which currently runs eight a cappella choirgroups at locations in London and Surrey.‘There’s a wealth of music out there – the littlebit of our rock and pop that most of us areused to hearing is just a drop in the ocean.World music is often perfect for singingunaccompanied, because a lot of it has beenpassed through the oral tradition, throughcommunities, from person to person.’ Songs in languages as diverse as Zulu,

Shona and Georgian are taught, using, saysDyson, ‘as little paper as possible’. The choirleaders sing their hearts out, teaching byexample. The choirs have an all-welcomeapproach and a fun-loving attitude that’sevident in the sounds they produce.It’s a risky strategy. ‘People are often

frightened of singing in different languages atfirst,’ admits Dyson. ‘We tell them what thesongs are about, but the words are unfamiliar.We rarely sing in French or Italian, or otherlanguages that people are more likely tohave some knowledge of. In many ways, thatactually makes it easier – because you don’thave to think about the words: you associatethe sounds with the rhythm of the music.’ ‘Singing in a range of languages can be a

greater challenge, but it makes for a moreinteresting programme,’ agrees CharlotteEaton. Having worked as a choir leader forVocality, Eaton recently established her ownmulti-language community choir inDagenham, East London. ‘The importantthing about the songs we choose is thatthey’re from other cultures. We would never

Tuning the mind

and you feel the energy coming through. It’slike at football: we all sing as one.’ It is a learning curve, however: ‘In English,

you use certain muscles, but in differentlanguages, you use different ones. You mighthave to roll your tongue, or pronounce a “j”like an “h”.’ An understanding of contexthelps. Spencer-Perkins adds: ‘If you knowwhat a song is about – whatever language it’sin – you understand when your voice mightgo up or down, a bit sad or lively, whatever itis. It’s story-telling.’The absence of a core language also has a

levelling effect. ‘You can have a choir withpeople from 20 different nations in it – so youmight have people who speak the languageof one of the songs,’ says Eaton. ‘I can askthem the best way to pronounce the words.’Dyson agrees: ‘We do get people saying “Ispeak Swedish and it’s not pronounced likethat”, or whichever language it is. Thatmeans the people in the choir can contributeand then it becomes a community project ina greater sense. Everyone can contribute.’

Far reaching benefitsThere could be other benefits of singing in adifferent language. Karen M Ludke, aPostdoctoral Research Fellow at the Universityof Edinburgh, has found strong benefits forsinging when learning a second language.Her postgraduate and doctoral theses soughtto evaluate whether listening to songs andsinging in a new language could help withlanguage learning, compared to moretraditional teaching methods. The results of her studies are remarkable.

In a classroom-based intervention in Frenchlessons at schools in Scotland, Ludke says:‘There were much stronger findings than Iexpected. Singing is fun and motivating, butthe results also showed positive effects ongrammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. We

taught one group through music and songsand another with visual arts and dramaduring their French lessons. After six weeks ofinstruction, the singing group’s performancehad improved more in the French tests thanthe control group. This is especially interestingbecause we didn’t test them on the specificwords of the songs or dialogues; it wasgeneral French skills, such as listening,speaking, pronunciation, reading and writing.’For her doctorate, Ludke set English-

speaking adults a series of strictly controlledtests. Three groups were taught 20 Hungarianphrases using a ‘listen-and-repeat’ method.One group learned spoken phrases, asecond learned rhythmically spoken phrasesand a third learned sung phrases. ‘Overall,the people who learned through singing didbetter in the five Hungarian tests, and therewas a significant difference between them andthe other groups’ performance for the twotests where they had to speak in Hungarian.’


FEATURES

school children, but the activities are reallyadaptable – you can use them for differentclassrooms and teaching environments,’ she says.The otolaryngologist Charles Limb, a self-

professed music addict, has conductedequally interesting research. In order toexplore the effects of musical improvisation onthe brain, he put jazz musicians with portablekeyboards into an fMRI scanner and recordedtheir brain function while ‘trading fours’ – amusical ‘conversation’ in which musicianstake turns to improvise a passage of music.The areas of the brain that engaged werethose used in language and communication.

New soundsWhile multi-language choirs don’t aspire toteach their members any of the languages inwhich they sing, they can offer an introductionto the types of sounds those languagescreate. ‘There has been a link between musicand languages for a long time,’ says ElizabethLake MCIL, an interpreter, teacher and trainer.‘If you’re using an entirely new language, it’seasier if it’s put to music, as you’ve gotsomething to pin it on and associate it with –and if you’re learning a tune at the sametime, you’re doing two things at once, whichinterests me because of my interest insimultaneous interpreting.’Eaton feels these choirs can also extend an

understanding of culture. ‘Teaching in arange of languages adds to my feel fordifferent types of people. A good example isthat this term my Dagenham choir is doing aShona funeral song, which is a celebration.That’s interesting culturally. It’s a South Africanlanguage, and they sing about sendingsomeone off to a really good place. It’s nothow we would generally view death.’Dyson adds that it also gives choristers

new confidence. ‘Being able to stand up andsing does a lot for people, and I think doingthat in different languages gives them evenmore confidence. It opens minds.’ But for allthe philosophising, what’s important, saysDyson, is the music. ‘We’re all about enjoyingyourself and enjoying sound,’ she concludes.

See www.vocalitysinging.co.uk for more onVocality; www.lifebulb.org for details of theDagenham and Barking choir; andwww.emportfolio.eu for information onEuropean Music Portfolio workshops,methods and downloadable resources.

SINGING LESSONS: The Vocalitysummer concert last year (above); and astudent in Ludke’s Hungarian study (left)

What makes Ludke’s research moreinspiring is the nature of the ‘eureka moment’that prompted it. ‘I was in Cantigas Women’sChoir in New York City, where we wouldoften sing in different languages,’ sheexplains. ‘I was also teaching English as anadditional language to adults, and when I waswalking home from choir one night, I had aflash of insight that I should research the linksbetween singing and language learning. I wasusing songs as a tool in my lessons, but then Igot worried that it might not be helpful: songssometimes have quite unusual grammar, andI wondered whether that might, potentially,hinder their language learning. I looked into itand I was surprised at how little research therewas. I couldn’t find any studies comparinggroups that had been taught material from anew language with singing and without.’ Her research, conducted at the University

of Edinburgh, informs the ‘European MusicPortfolio – A Creative Way into Languages’project, which runs workshops and providesdownloadable resources on teachinglanguages through singing and musicalactivities. ‘A lot of that is targeted at primary


FEATURES

The series continues with an overview of the publicservices interpreting situation in Sweden Is there a need for public serviceinterpreting (PSI) in Sweden? Yes. The most frequent combinations arebetween Swedish and Arabic, Persian, Polish,Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish,Somali and Sorani.

Are there best practice standardsthat require equality irrespectiveof language, and support thedevelopment of PSI? The Ordinance on Authorisation ofInterpreters and Translators containsprovisions governing public authorisation ofinterpreters. The authority responsible forauthorising interpreters and supervising theiractivities, Kammarkollegiet, has drawn upregulations for enforcement of the Ordinanceas part of its Regulations for AuthorisedInterpreters. Other laws contain provisionsrelevant to interpreters, including the Actconcerning confidentiality for interpreters andtranslators, the Administrative Procedure Actand the Public Access to Information andSecrecy Act.

Have working standards beensecured for PSIs in Sweden?There is a fixed tariff for assignments in publiccourts, police stations, the enforcementservice and the prosecution authority; all otherpublic sector assignments are paid accordingto a price list set by the agencies. Thesituation for PSIs is rather insecure today.

Are there national PSI standards?In order to be authorised as an interpreter inSweden you have to pass a proficiency examwith high professional qualification standards.The test is available in 40 languages and is

Global insights

arranged by Kammarkollegiet, which can takedisciplinary action if needed. There is a database of authorised

interpreters. Kammarkollegiet has a separatedatabase that includes trained interpreterswho are not tested according to theOrdinance and are not supervised byKammarkollegiet. There are also interpreterswho do not belong to either group. Publicsector service users are getting better atdistinguishing between these three groups.

Do public service personnelreceive training on how to workwith PSIs and across cultures?Interpreting service providers give sometraining to public service personnel.

Is there a code of conduct forPSIs working in Sweden?Kammarkollegiet has published a professionalcode of ethics for authorised interpreters andtranslators. ‘Good Interpreting Practice andGood Translation Practice’ is based on a seriesof principles and is intended primarily for

authorised interpreters and translators,although it is useful for anyone who acceptsinterpreting and translation assignments. Thepublication also provides service users withinformation about the interpreting task.

Are PSI qualifications from othercountries recognised?Kammarkollegiet authorises interpreterstrained in other EU member states accordingto the EU directives on the recognition ofprofessional qualifications. There is noconversion course for PSIs trained elsewhere.

What are the main obstacles toprogress? Public service personnel’s poor knowledge ofthe issues surrounding PSI. Many of thosewho apply for authorisation have poor orinsufficient skills (both language andinterpreting skills). Lack of qualified languageexperts in some languages makes it difficultto arrange proficiency tests. A greatercommitment from politicians in interpretingissues would be desirable.

What would you like to achieve inthe next five years?A sufficient number of qualified andauthorised interpreters, training programmesthat respond to needs, better knowledge ofthe business among users, a more securesituation for interpreters, better use of newtechnology, reduced travel time. To be ableto offer authorisation for more languages,which could be achieved partly through goodprocurement, but mainly by political decisions.

Klas Ericsson and Ivett Larsson,Kammarkollegiet

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SERVICE USERS: A police car outsideKarolinska Hospital in Stockholm


REVIEWS

capacity, advocated since the 1950s by theChomskian school, was definitively flawed. Everett, together with a growing number

of linguists and cognitive scientists, favoursthe idea that language is acquired throughthe normal mental processes wherebyhumans learn a range of different skills, ratherthan being the product of a specific‘language instinct’ (Steven Pinker’s term) or‘language organ’. For the author, language isa tool, devised and used by humans forpurposes of communication, just as we haveinvented other tools to fulfil other functions. In …The Cultural Tool Everett sets out to

explain his findings to a non-specialistaudience. His aim is twofold: to examine andreject the arguments for Universal Grammar,and to put forward his own theory of languageacquisition, which he sums up as: cognition +culture + communication = language. Alongthe way he provides numerous anecdotesand illustrations from his experiences amongpreliterate Amazonian communities, notablythe Pirahã tribe and their remarkable language.In his analysis of Universal Grammar, Everett

draws not only on his own work but on that of

many other linguists and social scientists. Theresult is a carefully reasoned description ofwhy Chomsky’s 50-year-old theory is strugglingto hold up in the face of more recent,technologically advanced linguistic andcognitive research. Particularly interesting isthe notion of ‘Construction Grammar’, inwhich language acquisition is regarded asbeing based not on the painstakingaggregation of individual nouns, verbs,adjectives, etc, via a complex generativegrammar, but rather on the perception andgrouping of units – or signs – which may be aword, phrase or sentence and in which noChomsky-style parsing is necessary.

Language: The Cultural Tool will beenjoyed by anyone wishing to find out howthings currently stand in the language instinctv. cognition+culture debate. But Everett’sbook is more than a linguistic treatise: it is animpassioned defence of cultural diversity, anda tribute to the extraordinary capacity of thehuman mind to adapt to its surroundings andcreate the cognitive tools that have enabledhumans to survive this far.Ross Smith MCIL

Language: Thecultural toolDaniel Everett

Profile Books,2012, 320 pp;ISBN 978-1846682674Paperback,£14.99

Daniel Everett is an American scholar whocombines a distinguished university career intheoretical linguistics with a lengthy trackrecord of field work among indigenouscommunities in Brazil. During decades ofresearch on little-known Amazonian languageshe came to the conclusion that the theory ofUniversal Grammar and innate linguistic

self-study aid, both for students on taughtprogrammes and for independent learners. It consists of 31 clearly-structured chapters,

in which all the basic points of Russiangrammar are discussed, including 12 chaptersdevoted to verbs and conjugation (withindividual chapters on participles, gerunds,verbs of motion and reflexive verbs) and ninechapters on nouns and declension (with acomprehensive and lucid description ofgrammatical case). All other parts of speechare covered, and practical information onspelling, punctuation and word order isintroduced. In addition, the authors providea concise glossary of linguistic terms inRussian, with their English equivalents andinformation on their use, as well as shortexercises at the end of each chapter. A key selling point is the highly accessible,

user-friendly and engaging style in which thebook is written. The authors assume noprevious knowledge of grammar orlinguistics, and they explain complex pointsof Russian grammar in a straightforward andnon-technical manner. Readers not only learnabout the formation and use of grammaticalforms but are also given definitions of words

and phrases, such as noun, clause andnominative case, which are not familiar to alllanguage learners. In this respect, Da! is moreeffective than many competing works aimedat the same target audience.The focus on aspects of Russian grammar

that pose particular problems to nativeEnglish speakers is very effective. Manycases, such as irregular plural forms ofmasculine and neuter nouns, ‘fleeting’vowels and negative pronouns, have beencarefully selected and an ‘eye’ icon identifiesthem as areas that merit special attention. The overview of spelling rules, descriptions

of verbal aspect and verbs of motion, andchapters on impersonal sentences and theessentials of Russian syntax are particularlyuseful. Other noteworthy features, includingpractical tips by Mr Smirnoff, ‘the friendly faceof Russian grammar’, and the categorisationof grammar points into three difficulty levels,add to the appeal. A comprehensive andengaging grammar manual, Da! is a welcomeaddition to the English-language literature onRussian grammar and should be an effectivereference work for students of all levels. James Wilson

Da! A PracticalGuide toRussianGrammarTatiana Filosofova & Marion Spöring

HodderEducationPublishers,2012, 288 pp;ISBN 978-1444148787Paperback,£21.99

Aimed at students at the beginner andintermediate level, Da! is appropriate for useas a supplement to grammar materials inRussian course books, at schools, colleges anduniversities, and is a useful reference work and


OPINION & COMMENT

Email [email protected] with your views

Ancient treasures by the bookIn all archaeological explorations wheresome apparent form of writing is involved,the linguist may well become the mostimportant person in the archaeological team.If it had not been for Dr Thomas Young inBritain and Jean-Francois Champollion inFrance, both working in the early 19thcentury, we might still be mystified as to themeaning of the almost limitless hieroglyphsthat have been found throughout ancientEgypt. It was linguists who found the key tothe detailed history of more than 4,000 yearsof Egyptian civilisation.And there are many more written

languages, already discovered, which are stillwaiting for talented linguists to decipher.Tuscany is covered with inscriptions from thepowerful Etruscan city-state civilisation thatpreceded the Romans in Italy, which no onehas been able to translate; there is somesuggestion that Etruscan developed fromancient Albanian or perhaps the reverse, butthere is insufficient proof for this. In Asia, theexcavations of what was the mighty IndusValley empire have revealed copiousexamples of writing, even huge writtenboards, but nobody has yet been able todiscover what the writing means.Prehistoric finds, often in caves, reveal

scratchings and paintings that apparently

were intended to convey meaning and werethus languages. Most of these are still amystery to us. I am interested in another form of

archaeology – investigating what is inside thecovers of ancient books. Throughout theages, bookbinders have used, for theirbinding materials, the pages from unwantedbooks or manuscripts, or whatever sparepaper was handy. At the time of use, thesematerials were of no interest, but today theymay be of vital importance. One of the mostfamous Anglo Saxon texts, the FinsburhFragment, was found in the binding of a17th-century book when the bindingdisintegrated.Many bindings may contain amazing

things, just waiting for translators,cryptographers and specialists in foreignlanguages and linguistics to reveal them. Thepotential of ancient book covers throughoutthe world, and even in the British Isles alone,is rather like having the whole of Egypt andthe Middle East, China and South Americabefore us, completely unexcavated andunexplored. It is time for the administratorsof large libraries and ancient collections tolook at what they have got. And we linguistswill be close by, ready to help!Maurice Varney FCIL

One and only?It is true that business needs the State to meetits responsibility to provide for languageseducation, but this does not mean thatglobalisation (in its current capitalist/free-market form) would not be facilitated if oneand the same language were spoken by ourplanet’s total populace. The fact that English isspoken so extensively, serving as an unofficialglobal language, is a natural outcome of theneed for a common linguistic platform forprofoundly economic reasons. Without acommon linguistic pivot (English, in our currentcase), companies would be practically unableto carry out their daily business actions; or thecost for such actions would not be viable.Globalisation is founded on the principles

of capitalism, which is optimally served by afree-market economy. This, in turn, strives andstruggles to facilitate mobility in all areas ofproduction. And I’m asking: Is there ANYfactor of production that would not befacilitated were they to be carried out over auniform (ie, single/global) linguistic platform?The fact that English has not gained ‘official’

status as the one and only world language isthe outcome of conscious efforts on behalf ofheads of state to impede this globalisationprocess by raising language barriers that‘protect’ their sovereign economies/fiscalpolicies against the global melting pot –ie, by controlling the flow of factors ofproduction (especially human capital) througha refusal to adopt a global linguistic platform.Dr Fotios Karamitroglou, Athens University of Economics & Business

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Clarification‘In the Radiation Zone’ (TL 51,3) drewsubstantially on an article first published inthe spring 2007 issue of Communicator(see www.istc.org.uk).

I am interested in attending an evening classin London that would prepare me for A-levelPortuguese but I have not been able to findone, nor even a school where I could sit forthe exam. I would be grateful for any advice.Maria Grazia Marino MCIL

A-levels: auxílio


INSTITUTE MATTERS

The first examinations of the Institute wereheld in 1910 to ‘test a practical knowledgeof the spoken language, the ability of thecandidate to read at sight and understandthe language offered, whether written orspoken, and to express himself or herselfboth orally and in writing’. The examinationswere, to begin with, membership qualifyingtests. This purpose has been retained but,over the years, the examinations havebroadened into professional qualifications intheir own right.

The first record of a trophy is the ThrelfordChallenge Cup, presented to the Institute in1934 by Sir Lacon Threlford, founder of theInstitute. It was awarded annually to theschool or college whose students performedbest in the examinations of the Institute.Described as ‘the world’s greatest trophy forfostering the study of languages’ and ‘ofmarvellous beauty’, it contains 280 oz ofsilver-gilt and stands over a metre high. The next addition to the trophies was the

Deakin Rose Bowl, presented in 1952.However, there is no record of anyonedeliberately starting a collection of prizes tobe awarded to candidates or centres whoperform well in the examinations. Rather,and this is part of its charm, the collectionhas grown organically and now comprisesdifferent trophies that include cups, shields,

bowls and a globe, all of which have theirown particular history.

Prizes have been donated in memory ofFellows, for example the Fred BrandeisTrophy (best Diploma in Translation, Englishto German candidate), and the SchlappsOliver Shield (best group DipTrans entry),presented in memory of Mr G SchlappsOliver, a generous donor to the Institute’slibrary. Organisations such as the NuffieldFoundation have given prizes (best Diplomain Public Service Interpreting (DPSI) groupentry), as have individuals: in 1965 the widowof Mikhail Youhotsky, one of the few top-leveltranslators in Russian in the late 1950s andearly 1960s, presented a Cup to the Institute(best Certificate in Bilingual Skills group entry).

In recent years, the IoL Educational Trusthas received three monetary gifts, which hasenabled it to offer annual CPD prizes. Therecipients are asked to use the award for

Nominations for the 2012 ThrelfordMemorial Cup for the person or institution who has done most to ‘fosterthe study of languages’ should be madeby 1 September 2012. For details ofhow to nominate see www.iol.org.uk.

NOMINATIONS

something to do with languages, such asdictionaries, software or travel. Receipts arenot requested, but an article for the Trust’snewsletter is.

Examinations come and go, so someprizes have been re-allocated, always, wherepossible, with the permission of the originaldonor. Since the ending of the ELICexamination, the Threlford Challenge Cup,now known as the Threlford Memorial Cup,has been awarded to an institution orindividual who has done the most to ‘fosterthe study of languages’. Recent winners haveincluded Annie Bannerman for her work withAston University’s Languages for Life project,the Mary Glasgow Trust, and ArnotCommunity Primary School. There is also aspecial commendation trophy in connectionwith this award, donated by Professor DavidCrystal, a Vice-President of the Institute.

The Trust continues to receive prizes. Lastyear, the Hong Kong Society created a prizenamed after its outgoing Chairman, Dr K C Li,for the best candidate taking DipTrans Englishinto Chinese in Hong Kong. Earlier this yearwe received a bequest from the royalties ofbooks written by Simeon Potter, the Threlfordlecturer in 1973, which will be awarded as aCPD prize for the first time this year.

Also in time for this year’s prizes, theTranslating Division is donating a trophy inmemory of Professor Peter Newmark whodied in July 2011. A leading light in the fieldof translation theory and practice, and a Vice-President of the Institute, Peter was involvedboth with the Trust, as a Board member, andwith the DipTrans examination itself, as amarker. After consultation with Peter’s family,it has been agreed that the prize will begiven to the candidate with the highest markin the DipTrans Literature option.

The prizes themselves are presented eachyear in Central London, sometimes by ourRoyal Patron, HRH Prince Michael of KentGCVO. The winners are photographed withthe prizes, but they are theirs for the eveningonly. A medal is given to each winner as amemento, together with a certificate.

It seems unlikely that anyone enters our examinations with the intention ofwinning one of the prizes, and indeed whenprizewinners are contacted with the news, itis often received with delighted disbelief. But the tradition of awarding prizes is well-received, and the nature and type of prizeswill continue to evolve. It is a positive way forus to be able to acknowledge and celebrateexcellence in the field of languages, asentiment with which the 12 or soprizewinners each year would surely agree.

Hilary Maxwell-Hyslop looks atthe Institute’s awards, old and new

Prize perfect

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A successful year

THE TRANSLATING DIVISION WELCOMES AREINVIGORATED PROGRAMME AT ITS AGM

DIVISIONS & SOCIETIES

At the Translating Division AGM on 19 May, membersof the TD Committee reported on their efforts, overthe last year, to reinvigorate its programme of activities,including the organisation of professional developmentsessions for translators, literary and cultural events, andsocial and professional networking occasions.

In November 2011, the Committee organised ahighly successful one-day professional developmentevent based on the factsheets contained in theTranslator’s Pack, including sessions on translation tools,business issues, continuing professional development(CPD), and internet search strategies. In January 2012,Professor Donald White gave a reading of histranslation of Albert Vigoleis Thelen’s book Die Inseldes zweiten Gesichts, followed by a wine reception.

In a new development, the Committee organised aseries of smaller-scale CPD events, ‘The Translators’Arms’, in different parts of the UK, including London,Durham and Manchester. A joint event on Clear Writingwith the ITI (Institute of Translation and Interpreting),and supported by the EU, was planned for July 2012.

TransNet, coordinated by Erika Baker, continued tobe a valuable benefit: the general group had some960 members over the year, generating many livelydiscussions on translation-related topics. A newChinese group had been set up.

Members attending the AGM elected the Committeefor 2012-13: Michael Cunningham, Karen Stokes, NigelGoffe, Keir Hartley, Ana Luiza Iaria and Heather Fulford.The AGM concluded with a lively discussion aboutdivision activities and translation-related matters. Therewas then time for networking over a sandwich lunch,served in the Garden Room of the Museum of London.

Member Kevin Lam has set up a Chinese languagegroup for TransNet. CIoLChineseNet is intended to‘form a strong professional forum which offers aplatform for translators of Chinese to share theirexperience and expertise, keep themselvesinformed of the latest developments in theindustry, and serve as a smart way of networking’.Postings are welcome in Chinese or English. Members of the Translating Division who wish

to join the group should contact Kevin Lam [email protected].

TRANSNET: CHINESE FORUM

About 20 Business, Professions andGovernment Division members visitedSutton’s Hospital in Charterhouse for amusical tour in May. As we made our wayacross Charterhouse Square, many of usrecognised Florin Court as the apartmentblock where Hercule Poirot lives in thepopular TV series starring David Suchet.

One enters the Charterhouse itself viaa small but impressive gatehouse, onthe other side of which is a very specialcomplex of buildings. We were receivedin the Old Library by the Master,Brigadier Charlie Hobson RM, andseveral of the Brothers. Following afinger buffet, there was a brief talkabout the origins of the Charterhouse.

It was completed in 1372, but fell ondark days at the Dissolution of theMonasteries under King Henry VIII: PriorJohn Houghton’s defiance of the Kingcost him his life. Early in the nextcentury, an almshouse for 80 elderlymen (known as Brothers) and a schoolfor 40 foundation scholars or ‘gown-boys’ were established. The latterbecame known as Charterhouse School,which moved to its present site inGodalming in 1872. That part of theCharterhouse site is now the MedicalSchool of St Bartholomew’s Hospital.

After the talk, we were guided via theNorfolk Cloister, Chapel Court andChapel Cloister into the Chapel. Ateach stop we were entertained by theThomas Sutton Singers, who sang sacredmusic from the 14th-18th centuries.Graham Matthews, the organist, playedto us in the Chapel itself.

We then moved to the splendidGreat Hall, where the Brothers take theirmeals. Here, the singers regaled us witha song composed by King Henry VIII,no less. Entitled Pastime with GoodCompany, it seemed very apt for oursmall group. We continued via theQueen’s Walk and the impressive GreatChamber back to our starting point inthe Old Library. At each point theSutton Singers performed songs,finishing with Linden Lea, composed byVaughan Williams, a former pupil ofCharterhouse School.

This was a thoroughly memorable visit,which allowed for plenty of networking. Itwas good to see Peter Melville-Smith, aformer CIOL Chair of Council. All thanksgo to Lucy Eratt for organising the trip,to the Masters, Brothers and staff of theCharterhouse for their warm welcome,and last, but not least, to the ThomasSutton Singers for their lovely singing.

Musical history tour

JAMES FARMER JOINS THE BPG DIVISION AS THEY ARESERENADED ON A TOUR OF THE CHARTERHOUSE IN LONDON

SEPTEMBER

‘LANGUAGE ANDECOLOGY’Saturday 22September Holiday Inn Express,Edinburgh, 2.15 pmProfessor M K Verma onlanguage extinction anddeforestation.Holiday Inn Express, 16-22 Picardy Place,Edinburgh EH1 3JT.

OCTOBER

STUDY WEEKEND5-7 October Brixen/Bressanone(South Tyrol)Learn about the languageand culture of the Ladinpeoples. For details, emailGuglielmo Fittante [email protected].

TRANSLATORS’WORKSHOP Saturday 27 October Frankfurt am MainFor details, email Gabriele Matthey [email protected].

NOVEMBER

AGM & ‘SCOTSLANGUAGE’Saturday 17NovemberQueens Hotel, Perth,1.45pmDr Caroline Macafee willtalk on aspects of Scots. Best Western QueensHotel, Leonard Street,Perth PH2 8HB.

NETWORKINGLUNCH Saturday 24NovemberWig & Mitre, Lincoln,midday-4pm To attend, call CandiaHillier on 01522 526695by 17 November.Steep Hill Room, Wigand Mitre, Steep Hill,Lincoln LN2 1TL.

CONTACT DETAILSJudith Ridgway,

[email protected].

[email protected] Fulford,

[email protected]

Leslie Ray,[email protected]

Gabriele Matthey,[email protected]

Francis Lee,[email protected],

Candia Hillier,[email protected]

Rannheid Sharma,[email protected]

Katrin Hiietam,[email protected]

Anne Withers,[email protected]

Martin Caine,[email protected]

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INSTITUTE MATTERS

KEYDIVISIONSBusiness, Professions & Government: Education: Interpreting:Translating: SOCIETIESCambridge: German: Hong Kong: Lincolnshire: London: North West: Scottish: Spanish:

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Basque in Glasgow

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LANGUAGEAND CULTURE FOR THE SCOTTISH SOCIETY

On 8 June, members of the LondonSociety were given a guided tour of theHouses of Parliament, passing throughWestminster Hall, where The Queenhad attended a Diamond Jubilee luncha few days earlier. The 11th-century Hallhas a magnificent hammer-beam roofand is the oldest part of the building.Rebuilt after the fire of 1834, the

Palace of Westminster has a number ofhighly decorated rooms with some very

ornate ceilings. We followed the routetaken by The Queen during the StateOpening of Parliament. Our guideprovided fascinating historical andprocedural details throughout the tourof both houses.

We then went across the road to theJewel Tower, which survived the fire.The winding staircase is a challenge, butworth the effort to really get a feel ofthe place.

Seat of power

THE LONDON SOCIETY VISITS THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT

At their meeting in Glasgow on 12 May, members of theScottish Society were treated to an informative andrichly illustrated presentation on Basque (or Euskarian).Dr Bernar Morote, a native Spanish speaker brought upin the Basque homeland, discussed the origins, identity,language and culture of the Basques and touched onissues of conflict with the Spanish and French authorities.To illustrate his talk he used films depicting the historyof his home region and aspects of daily life, especiallysport, music and food. The audience was impressed bythe beauty of the area and the vitality of his countrymen.

The Basque homeland today consists of three Frenchdépartements and four Spanish provincias. Palaeolithicinhabitants included the Vascones, who were mentionedby both Strabo and Pliny. During the Roman occupationmost tribes became linguistically assimilated, but theBasques retained their own language.

The origins of Basque remain a mystery because ithas not yet been linked to another language, but theBasques have their own legends to explain its history,variously involving the Tower of Babel, Noah’s grandsonand even the devil. There are many dialects of Basque,all with a rich oral tradition. Euskara Batua acts as alingua franca throughout the region and enjoys officiallanguage status in Spain. An Euskaldun is a person,regardless of race or residence, who speaks Basque.The lecture was both enjoyable and interesting.

The Spanish Society celebrated its 25th anniversaryon Saturday 12 May, with a meeting and lunch. JackSellen, CIOL Professional Development andMembership Services Officer, travelled from SaxonHouse to join a group of 27 members in Madrid.

The event started with a talk by Andrea Manfrinatoon the European pensions crisis. Using a videopresentation, he argued that the falling birth rate andhigher life expectancy in Europe necessitate raisingthe retirement age, and that the cost of treating theinfirm in the last ten years of their lives is bankruptinghealth services. A lively discussion followed.

The group then enjoyed lunch at a nearbyrestaurant, where Spanish Society President, BillRobinson, made a speech welcoming our guest andremembering past members.

Jonathan Beattie MCIL

A SILVER JUBILEE


INSTITUTE MATTERS

CONTRIBUTORS

Jim ColemanDr Jim Coleman FCIL is Chair of theUniversity Council of Modern Languages(UCML), Professor of Language Learningand Teaching at the Open University, and a former member of Council of the CIOL. See p.14

Silvia FerreroFreelance translator Silvia Ferrerospecialises in games localisation and is aDirector of MediaLoc (www.medialoc.net).She also works as a quality assurancespecialist and editor, and is Chair of the North-WestTranslators’ Network. See p.18

Bill MaslenTranslator and copywriter Bill Maslen isManaging Director of the Word Gym, asmall but well-known craft firmspecialising in transcreation, which heestablished in 1990. See p.20

Jessica MooreFreelance journalist and editor JessicaMoore is a former Acting Editor of TheLinguist. She has worked for nationalnewspapers, including The Guardian andThe Independent, and for various magazines. See p.26

Jeremy MundayA member of The Linguist Editorial Board,Jeremy Munday MCIL is Professor at theCentre for Translation Studies, Universityof Leeds, where he teaches on the MA inApplied Translation Studies. See p.24

David SmithThe Head of DG Interpretation’s EnglishUnit, David Smith has worked for theEuropean Commission in Brussels since1977, when he was recruited as aninterpreter. He first learnt languages atsecondary school in Bedford. See p.10

Adriana TortorielloTranslator, subtitler and lecturer AdrianaTortoriello is a lecturer in AudiovisualTranslation at Imperial College London. Her main research interests relate tosemiotic cohesion in subtitling. See p.16

From theChair of Council

The meeting of Council on 31 March was the firstfollowing the AGM. This meeting traditionallyelects the officers of Council and agrees on themembership of the various committees andboards that do so much important work on behalfof the Institute.

I was re-elected as Chair of Council, andChristine Pocock was elected Vice-Chair, as thisrole had become vacant. Christine is very wellknown to members of the Institute as Chair of the

Interpreting Division and an active member of the Translating Division Committeefor many years; more recently she played a key part in the Rates and SalariesSurvey carried out jointly with the ITI (Institute of Interpreting and Translation).

Tony Bell, my predecessor as Chair of Council, was elected Honorary Treasurer,an important role given the challenging financial circumstances we find ourselvesin. Council thanked Paul Shipman, the outgoing Treasurer, for his hard work in thisrole over several years. I look forward to working with Christine and Tony; they willbring a wealth of experience to their respective roles.

Other committees whose membership we agreed included the Finance and Executive Committee (which combines two important but previouslyseparate committees, and brings together the executive and non-executiveofficers of the Institute and the Educational Trust), the Editorial Board of TheLinguist, the Applications Committee, the Chartered Linguist AdmissionsCommittee, the Equality and Diversity Committee, and various disciplinary and appeal committees. I would like to place on record Council’s appreciationof the voluntary and unpaid work done by the members of these variousbodies. We plan to put further details of membership of these bodies on thewebsite in the near future.

Council devoted time to a wide-ranging discussion about priorities for thecoming year. We agreed to carry out a formal review of the Chartered Linguistscheme, a review that is to be carried out by a small working party includingrepresentatives from the ITI and AIIC (the international association forconference interpreters). Other important areas we discussed were theestablishment of closer working relationships with other relevant professionalbodies, innovative ways of involving our members more in the affairs of theInstitute, the development of new examinations and qualifications, governance,the need to put our finances on a more robust footing, and the futureaccommodation requirements of the Institute.Council had a detailed discussion of recent developments following the

Ministry of Justice’s outsourcing of interpreting services for the criminal justicesystem and the role of the Institute in representing its public service interpretermembers. Both Tony Bell and I have written to ministers and officials outliningour position. In June, I again wrote to the relevant Justice Minister requesting ameeting to discuss the situation and expressing our concerns relating topossible miscarriages of justice, the incurring of unnecessary costs, and adecline in the quality of interpreting in the courts. An important development inthis area, since the last meeting of Council, is the news that the National AuditOffice is considering conducting an investigation into the MoJ LanguageServices Contract.

Finally, we are looking forward to the relaunch of our website, including a newmembers-only area.

Keith Moffitt MCIL

the linguist 51-4

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