Time for a poll, I think, what with David Cameron throwing the gatto among the piccioni with his planned referendum on membership of the European Union.
For some of us, EU membership is a business/market access issue, for some it’s all about annoying rules and regulations, and for others it’s emotional — we feel European.
A couple of business issues that would affect translators (and other UK business owners) if Britain left the EU:
would we be able to bid in public-sector tenders in EU countries?
would we be able to register a country-level domain name in EU countries? (in Italy, the answer is “no”)
would English continue to be the (unofficial) working language of the EU, and would we see a decline in the amount of EU-related documents being translated into English? Ireland and Malta have English as one of their official languages, but they’re relatively small. Maybe France would (re)claim linguistic sovereignty.
So have your say here first (and feel free to comment!).
With thanks, for the question on English as an EU language, to the students at the MSc in Translation Studies at the University of Glasgow, where I taught a Master Class last week.
Marian is a translator and editor (specialising in web content) currently based in Glasgow, Scotland. Marian previously lived in Italy for over 20 years, working as a language teacher, translator and policy analyst with the British Embassy in Rome. A qualified member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) and its Italian-language and ITI Scotnet networks, she is currently Scotnet's Convenor and Deputy Webmaster.
From 2003 to 2006 Marian taught translation skills at the Italian Department of Glasgow University and now gives Master Classes as part of the new Masters in Translation Studies course. She also conducts web-writing and usability workshops to help people improve their websites and communicate more effectively with their readers, users and customers. In September 2014 Marian obtained User Experience Certification, with specialisation in Web Design, from the Nielsen Norman Group.
She loves language, especially English, and is convinced that learning languages opens up people’s minds and horizons (and increases their brainpower!). To share her enthusiasm, she advises schools and educational authorities on language skills and enterprise. She gives talks to pupils on how to combine language studies with other subjects and so enhance their potential and increase their career options.
Marian is an active member of organisations such as: Scottish Council Development and Industry (SCDI); Association of Scottish Businesswomen; Dunbartonshire Chamber of Commerce and the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Scotland.
She also loves architecture, design, fashion (British Vogue!), cities and chocolate. She’s a great fan of Twitter and you can also find her on Linkedin.
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Hi Marion,
Glad to see you raise this after our chat at the masterclass! It’s definitely an issue that could affect my not too distant future as a new translator!
It’ll be interesting to see the results!
Katy
Hi Marion,
Glad to see you raise this after our chat at the masterclass! It’s definitely an issue that could affect my not too distant future as a new translator!
It’ll be interesting to see the results!
Katy