A while ago I was approached by the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL) asking if I’d like to by interviewed for their journal, The Linguist. They were looking for linguists and others involved with languages who have set up language-related businesses.
This sounded like a good thing to do, and I was interviewed over the phone. Some months latter I was sent a copy of their magazine with the interview in it. I didn’t mention at the time as I was waiting for it to be available online. It is now available in the Februrary/March edition (page 7).
I talk about Omniglot – what it is, how it came to be, how I make a living from it, and my own language background.
I’ve been wondering whether to join the CIOL – I would qualify for membership, I think. Are any of you members or this, or other professional organisations for linguists? Is it worth joining?
In other news, this week I was interviewed, in French, for a podcast by Céline Guerreiro. I’ll let you know when that is online. We talked about language learning, mainly.
Congrats, Simon. I’m not sure how fluent you are in French, but I believe it’s not your native tongue and I would love to read a post about being interviewed in a foreign language. Did you brush up on your vocabulary? Did you have to break into English? etc.
Thanks. English is my native language, and French is one my fluent foreign languages. My French isn’t perfect, but I can usually find ways to say whatever I want, even if I don’t know all the vocabulary, without switching to English or another language.
I managed the whole interview in French, and didn’t prepare. I do, however, go to a French conversation group every week (currently online), which helps keep my French ticking over.