Japanese stream MAIT

The National Network for Interpreting has developed an interactive skills map to help interpreters focus on improving their key skills. It can be found at Skills MAP.

I believe that this map provides a useful and informative guide for interpreters who wish to clearly identify their strengths and weaknesses and will assist them in coming up with clear strategies for improvement as well as to provide them with a guide to help them to choose suitable CPD programmes to attend.

Two Japanese stream graduates based in the UK now work as Japanese langauge reporters on the NHK programme, EL Mundo. The two graduates from the University of Bath, Bethan Jones, seen on the front page of the EL Mundo website riding a Boris Bike, and Stuart Adams are both based in London. They act as local reporters in live links from the UK to Japan.

They are reporting on issues such as the introduction of the new Boris Bikes in London as well as the latest trends and fashions across the UK. We are very proud that our alumni are able to work in the Japanese media at such a high level. It is clear that we have a highly talented pool of non-native Japanese speaking graduates that are making their way in the tough and competitive world of international media.

Each year the University of Bath’s International office distributes funds to overseas students. The scholarships, valued at £3,000 are given to 75 International students. Each year Japanese MA Interpreting and Translation students receive awards. This year due to the high-calibre intake we are very pleased that three students from the Japanese stream were awarded scholarships this month. Pictured above are Yasuhiro, Masumi and Amanda at Bath’s Historic Roman Baths with their certificates following the presentation ceremony attended by the Mayor of Bath.

Interested to read an article in the Linguist (CIOL) relating to the use of informality at IKEA. This was from Catrin Norrby and John Hajek’s new book, Uniformity and Diversity in Language Policy (Multilingual Matters, 2011).

This informal use of language to address co-workers was apparently put in place by IKEA’s founder, Ingvar Kamprad. The concept is an essential element of the overall IKEA vision.

It seems that many EU countries are quite happy to be addressed in an informal (Tu) manner. However in Germany and Austria this form of address is not being well received by the communities that IKEA serve. The authors point out that it is awkward to balance a corporate language policy on global branding with local concerns.

IKEA are clearly not alone in this. H & M have also tried to impose a global language policy.

It seems that governments are not alone in struggling to impose language norms on society.

I am delighted to have been appointed as Joint Chair of ITI’s Education and Training with Sarah Griffin-Mason. We look forward to working with a dynamic new team to provide a great deal of interesting and innovative training experiences to the ITI membership in the coming years.

See: http://www.thelanguageshow.co.uk

See this website for a weekend of sessions on careers in Languages.

This week our students start their translation assignments. There are eight assignments per semester: 4, J to E and 4 E to J . Each assignment is marked and this mark contributes to students’ overall mark in the translation module. Translation is only compulsory in Semester one but many students choose to continue with this module when it is offered as an optional module in Semester two.

Translation assignments are always from real materials that lecturers have either had to translate themselves, or which they have found to be interesting material to work with.

Students have just 72 hours in which to produce the best translation work that they can. Guidance is provided as to writing style, background support and useful web-resources.

The sun has been shining all day today. Here’s to an active and productive weekend of work for all the Japanese stream. I hope that everyone gets to grips with note-taking and glossary production in the next weeks. All of this will really help with more complex interpreting practice later on.

Our new intake of students on the Japanese Stream of the MA Interpreting and Translating have just completed their first 2-weeks of teaching. We have twenty students this year, 16 Japanese nationals and 4 non-native Japanese. ,

The new intake has settled into life at Bath university with apparent ease. There is certainly a lot for them to take in, from navigating their way around the campus to learning how to operate our state of the art digital interpreting suites.

Teaching on this programme is diverse with lectures on European Institutions, Globalization and Elements of Law as well as practical classes on Translation and Interpreting.

With a wealth of contemporary materials to study from, our students learn to develop detailed background information on a variety of subjects whilst developing the core skills that interpreters need. It is important that interpreters learn to think outside the box- the above-mentioned blue sky thinking is essential to become a successful linguist.