Coffee and CPD with the ITI

Today I attended my first ever coffee morning, a virtual one organised by the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI). I was asked by Ann Brooks, the ITI’s Professional Development Officer, if, as a new ITI Board member, I’d join the panel for the event. I accepted the invitation, not realising that this would pose …

Words for a pandemic

Don’t worry, I don’t plan to write many posts about the COVID-19 crisis, but I thought I’d take a look at the words we’re using to discuss it. By the end of 2020 we’ll no doubt find coronavirus-related words topping dictionaries‘ ”word of the year“ lists. Words and phrases like unprecedented, lockdown, co-morbidity, underlying conditions, …

Hello again (and I still think we’d be better off in Europe)

I had a nice surprise the other day, but a surprise that made me feel a bit sheepish. I discovered that Luke Spear had included my blog in his list of “75+ of the best translation, language and linguistics blogs to follow” – even though my last post dates from 26 June 2016. Oh dear. …

EU referendum: why I want to remain

First of all, apologies for posting something political, especially after an absence of more than a year (which I’ll explain in a later post). But I very much want the UK to stay in Europe, and have only recently realised just how bereft I’d feel if we left. I can’t get out on the streets to campaign in …

In Vogue: shades of grey, parenting and fitness for busy people

I was looking through Vogue magazine last night, the British version, and a couple of articles caught my eye: one on “over-programmed” children whose days are packed with so many activities that they’re “over-stimulated, over-pressured, stressed right out”; one on personalised fitness for busy people showing a drawing of a man using a cycling machine while working …

The Internet. The end of English as we know it? (2)

Did you watch the “English 3.0” video examining the question: is the Internet having a detrimental effect on English and on “standards”? Here are my thoughts on the question. Social media = online conversation Much of the “bad writing” we see online is really just a form of conversation. People writing on Facebook, Twitter and other social sites are …

Polish: the world’s most loved – and Scotland’s first “other” – language

The French translators’ organisation (the Société française des traducteurs, or SFT) recently asked me to write an article about the Scots language, the inspiration being Scotland’s independence referendum on 18 September 2014. The article – beautifully translated by Géraldine Chantegrel – will be published in the December 2014 issue of Traduire, the SFT journal. See below for details of …

Casting a clear light on good writing: the TORCH rule

  Italian journalist and author Beppe Severgnini has come up with a rule for good writing. It’s the PORCO rule: Pensa, Organizza, Rigurgita, Correggi, Ometti (Ponder, Organise, Regurgitate, Correct, Omit). I’m not mad about the PORCO rule because: a) “Porco” is Italian for pig. Not the cute kind of pig you see in a film like Babe (for which the …

The Internet. The end of English as we know it?

“English 3.0”, a 20-minute video by documentary film-maker Joe Gilbert, “explores how the internet has influenced the way we communicate today and whether the changes witnessed have had a positive effect on the language”. It features interviews with Tom Chatfield (author and cultural commentator), David Crystal (author and linguist), Robert McCrum (associate editor of The Observer), …

Future-proofing the translation profession: watch the videos, take the survey

Back in July, the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL), the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) and the European Commission’s Directorate General for Translation (DGT) organised a joint event entitled “Future-proofing the profession: Equipping the next generation of translators“. The event posed the following questions: Are translators being trained to meet the future expectations of …