Language cuts: more gloomy news

More gloomy language news. First, from the BBC: Three of the BBC language services are going off air later, as a result of cuts to the World Service budget. The BBC Serbian and Latin American services end more than 70 years of broadcasting on radio, but the Latin American service continues online. The Portuguese for Africa …

Funding Cuts and Language continued: Help Save Modern Languages at the University of Glasgow

Staff at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Glasgow have organised a petition to Help Save Modern Languages at the University of Glasgow, which are under threat from proposed spending cuts. If you care about languages and their importance for our economy, our culture and our young people, please sign the petition. As well …

Funding cuts and language (2): help save Modern Languages at the University of Glasgow

Glasgow University’s senior management group has drawn up plans to scrap or merge a raft of courses as part of moves to save £20 million over the next three years. The proposals, which will be put out to consultation, include drastic cuts to Modern Languages and — disgracefully — to evening and weekend classes, which …

Funding cuts and language (1): Itchy Coo Press closing down

Itchy Coo Press, the Scots language publisher specialising in children’s books, has announced that it’s closing down. Creative Scotland, “into which the Scottish Arts Council was merged last year”, has decided to withdraw their subsidy. There’s a full report in today’s Scotland on Sunday (20 February 2011). Matthew Fitt and James Robertson, who run Itchy …

The book salon

At the hairdresser’s today, for a much-needed cut by the wonderful Carol, we got to talking about books. I don’t usually go to the hairdresser’s expecting literary chat (more fool me). However, I came away with some great recommendations, including the advice to stop off at the Oxfam bookshop nearby, which Carol said is really well-stocked. …

Fees: to raise or not to raise? Take our poll

Here in the UK inflation is still rising and the recent 2.5% increase in Value Added Tax will add to the upwards pressure on prices. Not to mention the mutterings about interest rate rises further down the line. If you’re self-employed and want to maintain your spending power your options are: Work smarter — make …

Spreading the language love (3) by Tess Whitty: our first guest post!

One of the New Year’s Resolutions I recently suggested for small-business owners was to get involved in educational outreach. Tess Whitty has done just that and has written a marvellous guest post (our first ever!) describing her experience. Here it is. School Outreach – spreading the love of languages and translation I grew up in a bilingual …

Resolutions for clients

Do our clients make New Year Resolutions? Or, given that as business owners we too are clients (to our accountants, designers, marketing advisers, lawyers, printers…), do we ever make resolutions wearing our client hats, rather than our “own business” hats? Here are some resolution suggestions for anyone wanting to be a better client. Resolution 1 …

Resolutions for small-business owners

If you haven’t got round to making any business resolutions yet for 2011, or are stuck or ideas, here are some belated suggestions. Resolution 1 Raise your fees, if you haven’t already, especially if you live in the UK. See my own Resolution no. 1. If you’re a translator, check out Kevin Lossner’s post on the …

New Year’s Resolutions. Better late, or not at all?

Twitter sent me a “Happy New Year” message the other day. In it they described their New Year’s resolution, which is to help me (and all the other 200 million — and rising — accounts) get the most of out of Twitter in 2011. So I reckon if Twitter can be late with their New Year’s …