A blog about translation, writing and language in all its glorious aspects
A guest post today, from someone starting out in their translation career. Kathleen Clegg is just completing her Masters at Glasgow University, and kindly agreed to write a post describing her experience over the last year and her feelings as she embarks on her translation career. So read on, for a fresh perspective on the …
Continue reading “Translation Studies MSc: a student’s perspective”
Gary Muddyman of Conversis has written an interesting blog post – Is Britain becoming a nation of monoglots? – on the decline in language learning in UK schools. The post includes links for further reading (and viewing) on this worrying subject. Is there anything we, as people who love language and languages, can do to encourage …
Continue reading “Language learning in decline? Spread the language love!”
Primary-school pupils in England have been sitting a new grammar, spelling and punctuation test (check out the specimen questions) as part of their final year assessment. Teachers have criticised the test, saying that there are better ways of assessing pupils’ English-language skills: Grammar is vital but you test someone’s writing skills by examining their writing. Just …
A recent article in The Vancouver Sun entitled What are the jobs of the future? examines the skills and careers likely to be most in demand as the 21st century progresses. The article cites a study by Sharon D. Crozier, of the University of Calgary’s Counselling Centre, on “Waves of the Future and High Demand Careers” …
Continue reading “The jobs of the future… include translating”
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has published a survey calling for more training in foreign languages to help boost British exports. The BCC calls for: the National Curriculum to be revised so that studying a foreign language is compulsory until AS level additional financial incentives such as tax credits for small and medium-sized businesses …
Continue reading “Language learning matters. Word of the British Chambers of Commerce.”
In my last post I mentioned Glasgow University’s School of Modern Languages and Culture’s success in fending off most of the course cuts threatened in 2011. Sadly, the Slavonic Studies Department isn’t out of the woods yet. The following is a message from Jan Culik, asking for support in the Department’s petition to the Scottish …
On 28 February the Guardian newspaper published a list of Modern languages and linguistics postgraduate and master’s courses available in the UK in 2012. For some reason, the list doesn’t include the post-grad courses available at Glasgow University from academic year 2012-13. Glasgow’s School of Modern Languages and Cultures will be offering an MSc in …
Continue reading “Modern Languages at the University of Glasgow (1): great new post-grad courses”
The British Foreign Minister, William Hague, has just made a statement to Parliament on Britain’s future diplomatic network (11 May 2011). It describes some of the spending cuts, rationalisation and refocusing of the UK’s diplomatic network that will be taking place throughout the current Parliament. Mr Hague adds that: This development of our network should be seen alongside …
Continue reading “The linguistic expertise of British diplomacy”
As you’ll know if you’ve visited this blog in the last month or so, the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Glasgow University is threatened by drastic funding cuts. There’s been a temporary reprieve, in that the decision has been postponed until after the Scottish elections. Michael Russel, the Scottish Education Minister, called for a moratorium on …
Continue reading “Saving Modern Languages at the University of Glasgow”
The Institute of Translation and Interpreting, in association with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation (DGT), is hosting a full day’s conference in early April for both freelance translators and translation companies interested in bidding for DGT translation contracts. The aim is to demystify the tendering process (which seems daunting but is by no means the …
Continue reading “Linguists for the EU: the market ain’t working”