A Year and a Bit of Blogging About Research

On 1st October this year, LifeinLINCS celebrated a year since its launch. Since then we have covered a whole range of topics from subtitling to court interpreting and from getting a career in translation and interpreting to minority language rights and why people would put careers on hold to go and do research. It has […]


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The Interpreters of the Future

… will either be mobile aps or underpaid, under qualified temps. That’s the impression people could easily get from the last month’s worth of news headlines. We already covered the attempt by NTT Docomo to create an interpreting ap and now, wonder of wonders, Microsoft are at it too. Sure, the results are “comical” in […]


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Is it all over for Interpreting?

If you believe the hype, the interpreting profession is on its last legs. NTT Docomo, the biggest mobile phone network has at last managed to provide a service that allows anyone with a smartphone to instantly have their words interpreted. According to this article from the BBC, other companies are working on the same technology. […]


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Why Bother Doing Research? Part II

It must seem very odd. Just occasionally, trained, experienced professionals choose to return to the academic arena from whence they came to study a PhD. Despite the fact that, as we revealed a few weeks ago, research is highly necessary for the Translation and Interpreting industries, it still might seem puzzling why people would voluntarily […]


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Help us improve BSL recognition in Scotland

In previous posts, we have talked about our interest in minority languages. We are also very proud to have become the first Scottish university to offer a four year undergraduate degree in British Sign Language and Translation or Interpreting. Now, we would like you to help the D/deaf and signing communities in Scotland to go […]


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Your Training, Your Way?

In a recent post, we started thinking about the usefulness of translation and interpreting degrees. It was very encouraging to see the response from LifeinLINCS readers. Now, it’s time for your views to take centre stage. A few people here at LINCS would like to run online courses, centred on what you want to learn. […]


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Why Bother Doing Research?

As you will find out throughout this year, a lot of the PhD students here in LINCS are actually practicing interpreters or translators. So most of us are researching the very work we do on a regular basis. This leads to a first question: why would practicing interpreters and translators give up or at least […]


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Back to School Part 3

What I Wish I had Done During my Degree About 7 years ago (yes, I am THAT old) I was a total newbie. Two short months after getting married, I found myself two floors down from where I am writing this. I was stood in the entrance hall of the Henry Prais building waiting for […]


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Public Service Interpreting: How hard can it be?

In the following guest post, Pierre Fuentes, Convenor of ITI Scotland and Heriot-Watt graduate, lets us know about an exciting event taking place here at Heriot-Watt. The Scottish Network of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting will hold its autumn workshop at Heriot-Watt University on Saturday morning, 29 September 2012. ITI Scottish Network is the […]


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Back to school – making the most of your university training pt 2

Views from the other side of the desk – 2/2 Having reiterated the obvious, let’s get down to the not-so-obvious. What about self-study? Very simple: do it. But do it cleverly. In other words, set yourself goals and specific tasks, and review your own work afterwards. For instance, if you want to work on economic […]


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