Another week, another trip to London for a translation event ... this time, I attended Language Show Live. The Language Show is an annual exhibition at the Olympia conference centre in London dedicated to the languages industry, with representatives from fields such as translating and foreign language teaching.
It was my first time attending the Language Show. It was certainly on a much bigger scale than previous translation events that I have attended (I believe it claims to be Europe's largest languages event). At least on the day I attended (Sunday) there seemed to be a lot of students and recent graduates, and there was a nice buzz of enthusiasm around all things languages-related. Most of the stands were probably more relevant for people interested in either learning or teaching languages (in which case, you were spoiled for choice in terms of the latest language-learning apps and textbooks) but I did stop by at the stand of the Institute of Translation & Interpreting (of which I am already a member) and its rival/sister (delete as applicable, depending who you ask) organisation the Chartered Institute of Linguists. I hadn't previously been in touch with the latter so was curious to hear whether there is any benefit to being a member of both. I'm not sure that I discovered the answer to that question, but I did have a fascinating conversation with a translator who explained some of the history of ITI and CIOL (which, apparently, dates back to the time when translation was moving off typewriters and onto computers).
Aside from the general ambience of positivity about languages, the main tangible benefit from my perspective was the chance to meet up with some fellow translators and attend some of the seminar programme (in this case, a talk by Jaqui Guardamagna on the need for patience and discipline as a freelance translator: slides available online here). Once again, this was a great opportunity to share ideas and perspectives with other people in the same boat (as I've said before, being a freelance translator can be quite isolated, so this is important from time to time).
I'm not convinced it will necessarily be a must-attend event for me in future years, especially given the wealth of other translation events happening at this time of year, but I'm glad I went, and certainly enjoyed talking to a wide range of people while I was there. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who is (considering) starting out in translation, or interested in other aspects of languages (especially learning and teaching).
Aside from the general ambience of positivity about languages, the main tangible benefit from my perspective was the chance to meet up with some fellow translators and attend some of the seminar programme (in this case, a talk by Jaqui Guardamagna on the need for patience and discipline as a freelance translator: slides available online here). Once again, this was a great opportunity to share ideas and perspectives with other people in the same boat (as I've said before, being a freelance translator can be quite isolated, so this is important from time to time).
I'm not convinced it will necessarily be a must-attend event for me in future years, especially given the wealth of other translation events happening at this time of year, but I'm glad I went, and certainly enjoyed talking to a wide range of people while I was there. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who is (considering) starting out in translation, or interested in other aspects of languages (especially learning and teaching).
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