12 TheLinguistAUGUST/SEPTEMBERwww.iol.org.ukFEATURES. At the same time, and this is the reallyhard part, keep up your mother tongue.Somehow you have to strike that balancebetween all your languages, so that whenyou're interpreting into English you're notusing franglais or having to search for words.We tend to take our mother tongue forgranted but it too needs cultivating.. During your studies you will (one hopes)have become accustomed to publicspeaking, but this is another skill that you cantry to improve by, for example, joining adrama club or a debating society, or gettinga job as a tour guide.. And last but decidedly not least, improveyour general knowledge. Here too, theinternet is invaluable, as are radio andtelevision. However, probably the mosteffective way to acquire the broad awarenessyou will need is to read a newspaper everyday and a magazine such as The Economist(as long as you read all the sections, not justthe ones you find interesting). Familiarity with the topics discussed makes it mucheasier to interpret speeches (as long as youdon't allow your own knowledge tocontaminate the original). You may not knowthe names of all the world's capitals or oftheir presidents by heart, but if you've heardthem before you're more likely to recognisethem when mentioned.That's on the substance. For the mechanicsof the test you could look at the extract fromour video 'Testing Times', which gives aninsight into how tests are run. You can find itat.After all that you're probably wondering ifit's possible to pass our test at all. I can assureyou that candidates do pass (if they didn'twe'd have no interpreters), and accordinglymy next piece of advice comes from TheHitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: 'Don'tpanic!' It's easy to say, I know, but rememberthat the jury members are there to find newinterpreters, not to eliminate them, so theyapproach tests in a very positive spirit.IN THE BOOTHA candidate during an assessment in BrusselsEU interpreter FelicityRaikes passed theaccreditation test inFrench and Italian onthe second attempt.She has since passed inPolish and now worksfrom all three languages into English.'I first applied for an accreditation test freshout of interpreting school (Bath), but I wason the waiting list for a few months beforegetting my invitation. I don't rememberhow many people were on the jury, but theoverall impression was encouraging, ratherthan intimidating. The test is structured sothat you start by interpreting two speechesin a row -one simultaneous and oneconsecutive -from two different languages.The order is up to you. I remember notknowing that amidonwas potato starch andfinding the consecutive hard. I waited outside for what seemed likeforever before hearing that I'd beenunsuccessful. However, the panel did givesome very useful feedback: you havepotential, go and get some experience,work on your vocabulary and come backwhen you're ready. Fast forward a couple of years and Idecided to apply again. I'd been workingfreelance and also doing some volunteerinterpreting for NGOs. Working for freemight not sound like much fun, but it is agreat way to travel, make friends and buildup a network of potential colleagues. It alsoprepares you for absolutely anything -fromthe French accents of Kinshasa andQuebec, to consecutive interpreting for twohours on stage. Learning to cope with stressthis way has been invaluable, not only in thetest but ever since.Again, I found the jury friendly and thespeeches interesting. Only one was on anEU topic: of the other three, two were onrecent news stories. In the first simultaneousspeech there was a word I didn't know, so Isaid something a bit more general, trying tosound as confident as possible. I thoughtI'd messed it up, but they called me back,and I later learnt that the jury are just asinterested in seeing how you cope withdifficulties. I also remember hearing an adjective Iwas unsure about in the first consecutivetest and putting a big asterisk in my notes: by the time I got there I'd been ableto think of something that fitted thecontext. The most challenging thing aboutthe test is staying calm under pressure, andbeing able to work even when you arenervous. I also found the Europeanquestions section challenging.In my case, the best preparation for thetest was working as an interpreter. It helpedme to put my nerves to one side and geton with the job. Plus it reminds you that youare there for your listeners, who need aclear and coherent interpretation. Practisingconsecutive with colleagues from otherbooths was also useful and much moreeffective than working alone.'TEST CASE: EU INTERPRETER FELICITY RAIKESIf you suffer from stress you might want to look at stress-relief techniques, such as thebreathing techniques taught in yoga classes.They do help, as does getting a good night's sleep the night before - no staying uplate learning EU policies! Bear in mind, too,that quite a few of our interpreters didn'tpass first time but learned from theexperience and were successful the secondtime around.After the testYou will be given the result of the test as soonas it is over. If you've failed, you can inform usby email that you would like to sit the testagain and you will then be re-considered bythe next screening committee. If you'vepassed, you will be put on the list ofaccredited freelance interpreters withimmediate effect and may be offered contractsby any of the three participating institutions,but bear in mind that to be sure of getting areasonable amount of work it is best to putyour professional domicile in Brussels.Finally, I would advise you to spend sometime looking at our website. There's a mass ofuseful information there about what it's like towork for the EU institutions, as well as links toother relevant sites (see http://bit.ly/q64qcN).And that's all, really, except to wish you thevery best of luck!

Vol/51 No/4 2012AUGUST/SEPTEMBERTheLinguist13FEATURESAs a member of Council from 1987 to 1990, Iwas fascinated to revisit the 1982-1991 periodthrough the pages of The Linguist. There weremajor changes to the magazine itself. Long-standing editor John Sykes was replaced in1986 by Jay Kettle-Williams; The IncorporatedLinguistbecame simply The Linguistin 1987;there were cover photographs from 1988;and, in 1989, publication moved from four tosix issues a year. Subtler shifts were evident in the content:regular items, including membership news,book and article reviews, and a very livelyletters section, featured throughout thedecade, but the emphasis in articles shiftedfrom academic discussion, aspects of specificlanguages and language learning issues, to asharper focus on translation and on languagesfor business, as the launch of the EuropeanSingle Market in 1992 approached. Justcompare the cover contents for TIL22,3, whichincluded 'The Encyclopaedists on the Originof Language: An idiosyncratic synthesis' and 'AMedieval German Poet in Translation', withthose for TL30,6: 'Selling in a ForeignLanguage', 'Translation' and 'Processing theWord'. Indeed, in TL27,4, we were told that 'Ifthe United Kingdom is to benefit to the fullfrom a Europe free of trade barriers, we mustlearn the techniques that will be necessary tosell. and the most elementary of these is theart of effective communication. Members ofthe Institute of Linguists, through theirlinguistic ability, have an effective tool at theirdisposal.' The writer? One Margaret Thatcher.In the early and mid-1980s, however, theSingle Market was a distant aspiration, and themagazine had more pressing concerns. Othermajor themes running through the decadeincluded technological development, theorganisation of the Institute itself, and anoverhaul of its examinations. The 1980s saw the first 'microcomputers'becoming available, and issues in 1985 and1986 included an ad for 'MicroCAT', the firstcomputer-aided translation system developedfor these new machines. Most of us had barelyheard of email: the 1988 AGM of the newEducation Division was cancelled becausethere was a postal strike and the papers couldnot be sent out! A brief news item in TL28,2 highlights therise of RSI (repetitive strain injury) as a result ofwider use of keyboards, and as late as 1991,the journal carried an article entitled 'AnIntroduction to Word Processing', published'in response to readers' requests' (TL30,6). 1984 saw the first simmerings ofdiscontent over the status of the Translators'Guild, which had come to a vigorous boil by1986. When the antagonism died down,Council established the divisions (TIL25,3).Initially including a General Division, theselater covered Industry and Commerce,Interpreting, Translating, and Education.Meanwhile, there was a radical overhaul ofthe Institute's examination system. The oldexams were replaced by the ELIC syllabus in1990; the Diploma in Translation ran for thefirst time in 1989 (TL28,4); and there wasprogress in what was to become the Diplomain Public Service Interpreting (the'Community Interpreter project', TL27,1).The small ads are as fascinating a snapshotof the time as the main articles. Wheresalaries are given in job ads, they indicate atypical in-house translator salary of around£10,000 a year (£25,000 in today's terms),although in 1985, Tek Translation advertisedin-house posts for translators into Germanand Arabic at almost twice that (TIL24,1). Andin the early 1980s, you could buy an Institutetie, but there was no equivalent accessory forthe female linguist. Indeed, membersdisagreed over job titles, with onecorrespondent (TIL23,4) lamenting the use of'Vice-Chairman' for a female incumbent butanother (TL27,4) deploring the use of'Chairperson' as an 'abominable non-word'.Membership throughout the 1980s wasvirtually what it is now, peaking at around5,800. In TL26,4, outgoing General SecretaryTony Bell lamented, 'There is - there alwayshas been - a large body of languageprofessionals and semi-professionals who arecompletely untouched by the Institute, itsaims and even its existence.' 25 years later,the challenge of broadening our membershipand persuading the world of the importanceof languages is as pressing as ever.'Members of theInstitute. have aneffective tool at theirdisposal.' The writer?One Margaret ThatcherJanet Fraserlooks back at the 1980s withan overview of The Linguist's third decade50 years in printJanet Fraser has been ajournalist, a Senior Lecturer inTranslation and a translator. She is amember of the TLEditorial Board.TL