English translators in short supply
According to recent reports from the EU, the standard of British translators who apply for European Union translating positions is generally so poor that they have been forced to look elsewhere; notably to linguists from Greece and Spain in order to combat the dearth of home grown talent.
European Union rules lay down that in order to become an EU linguist, an English translator must have English as his/her mother tongue, however, the drastic shortage of suitable applicants has forced the EU to take drastic emergency measures which include:
• Remedial language coaching for potential applicants.
• The permanent dispatch of an EU official to the UK in order to search for suitably proficient linguists and also to visit schools in order to encourage schoolchildren to take up languages.
• The posting of recruitment advertisements on YouTube.
• Making up the shortfall by utilising translators from Greece, Spain and soon, Poland as well as other EU countries.
Here are some indications as to the true scale of the problem:
• An upcoming recruitment competition intended to secure some 70 English translators is now likely to yield approximately 18.
• Often as few as 20% of potential translators from the UK taking EU translation tests pass…compared with almost 100% from other EU countries.
The underlying problem seems to stem, however, from a general lack of interest amongst Britons to learn foreign languages and a general apathy amongst British schoolchildren in particular, to take up foreign languages as a final GCSE exam option. This is a great shame, as learning a foreign language is a life changing skill which bestows manifold benefits…but then, as linguists, we know that all too well!