The final post sharing our experience of running LingComm21 online is all about planning communication access and is available on the Research Whisperer. This is a piece that I wrote with Gabrielle Hodge, who attended the conference. We talk about communication access, interpreting, live captions and auto captions. I appreciate that Gab shared her experience as a participant at LingComm as well.
From the post:
Communication access is about ensuring people can bring their best to
the event and for everyone to engage in all directions. We want our
academic communities to reflect the same variation in lived experience
and expertise as the rest of our lives. Planning for communication
access should be the same as planning physical access or catering: you
don’t wait until people turn up and tell you they’re hungry to plan
catering for an event. Communication access should be built into every
event, much like making sure accessible toilets are available, that
everyone can get into the building and use facilities with ease and that
there’s a range of food, not just egg sandwiches. Here are some common
and easy-to-implement communication access options for you to engage
with your deaf and hard of hearing colleagues.
Looking for podcasts about language and linguistics? Here’s a comprehensive list with descriptions! I’ve also mentioned if shows have transcripts. If there are any I missed, let me know!
Linguistics
Lingthusiasm A podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics by Gretchen McCulloch
and Lauren Gawne (that’s me!). Main episodes every third
Thursday of every month, with a second bonus episode on Patreon. (Transcripts for main episodes)
Talk the Talk Every
week Daniel, Ben, and Kylie cover the news in linguistics and tackle a
particular topic.
The Vocal Fries Every
episode Carrie Gillon & Megan Figueroa tackle linguistic
discrimination in relation to a particular group. (Transcripts for some episodes)
Grammar Girl Episodes
are rarely longer than 15 minutes, but they’re full of tips about
English grammar and style for professional writing, and more! (Transcripts for all episodes).
The World in Words From PRI, The World in Words has been delivering wonderful interview-drive stories about language and life since 2008.
Conlangery Particularly for those with an interest in constructed
languages, they also have episodes that focus on specific natural
languages, or linguistic phenomena.
Subtext a podcast about the linguistics of online dating.
Canguro English a podcast about language for people learning languages.
Lexicon Valley Hosted by John McWhorter, with a focus on English.
That’s What They Say Every
week linguist Anne Curzan joins Rebecca Kruth on Michigan public radio
for a five minute piece on a quirk of English language.
A Way With Words A
talk-back format show on the history of English words, cryptic
crosswords and slang.
Dictionaries
Word For Word From Macquarie
dictionary, with a focus on
Australian English.
Fiat Lex A podcast about making dictionaries from Kory Stamper & Steve Kleinedler.
Words/etymology
Words for Granted In
each episode Ray Belli explores the history of a common English word in
around fifteen minutes.
Very Bad Words A
podcast about swearing and our cultural relationship to it.
Lexitecture Ryan, a Canadian, and Amy, a Scot share their chosen word each episode.
Animology Vegan blogger Colleen Patrick Goudreau uses her love of animals as a starting point for exploring animal-related etymologies.
The Endless Knot is not strictly a language podcast, but they often include word histories, fans of the Lingthusiasm colour episode may find their colour series particularly interesting
Queer Linguistics has a couple of episodes, with a bit of classroom vibe
This is a completely revised listing from June 2018. The March 2017 list kept growing (yay!) so I’ve now completely restructured it based on themes. I’m always excited to be able to add more podcasts to the list, so if
you know of any linguistics/language podcasts not here, please let me
know! (I usually wait until a show has at least 3 episodes before I add
it to the list)
I’ve done a full refresh and update of the Languages and Linguistics podcast list!
Ania is the first linguist I ever met. While I lived in Poland for a while after finishing high school Ania was completing her Masters in Linguistics. As a fledgling Polish speaker I was in awe of her ability to flit between Polish, German and English, and was still have very interesting discussions about the nuances of English words. These days Ania uses her linguistics skills and language abilities in her job as a freelance translator and interpreter, and is also editor for Polish News Bulletin.
What did you study at university?
Applied Linguistics – specialising in translation and interpreting in two
foreign languages, German and English. That’s actually also the degree
title, in a nutshell. I also studied European Studies.
What is your job?
Basically: no fancy title, just freelance translation jobs, mostly in
business and law, occasionally also scientific papers. I also regularly
co-edit a Polish news digest.
How does your linguistics training help you in your job?
The language training helps tremendously, plus I learned a lot about
the work background. I landed my first translation and
interpretation gigs during my studies. Though lots of the theoretical
stuff I learned got lost in translation. I still remember some (it’s
hard to forget Chomsky and Sapir-Whorf, which comes in handy when you
watch films like Arrival).
Do you have any advice do you wish someone had given to you about linguistics/careers/university?
Advice: Be flexible, but don’t compromise on pay. It backfires on you quickly. Also: know your limits, so you can deliver.
Career thoughts: What’s the age limit to start a career at uni?
Any other thoughts or comments?
I
love all language-related things and I love my job, although it’s got
its highs and lows. But this is not something I would recommend to
people who thrive in teamwork. It’s quite a solitary
profession.
After threatening that this series would just be me interviewing friends, I am pleased to say that today’s interview is with someone I don’t know! Monika got in touch with me after seeing earlier posts in our series (See: Interview with a journalist, interview with a data analyst).
Monika has done interpreting work for the US military, so in their terminology this is a “Linguistics jobs - Interview with a Linguist!” Monika also does editing work, check out her Tumblr at Horizon Editing. You can also visit her travel/adventure/photo Tumblr The Internationelle.
What did you study at university?
I have a BA in Linguistics from the University of Washington (with an emphasis
on historical linguistics and sociolinguistics), as well as a BA in Political
Science. During my time at university, I was able to conduct field research in
Latvian, comparing the phonology and grammar of Latvian refugees who came to
the United States after World War II with that of modern-day Latvians in Latvia. The research involved recording and comparing the use
of tones (level, falling, broken) by those who emigrated to the US from Latvia after WWII, and
those who have grown up in Latvia. I found found that those
who left in the 1940s and 1950s seem to have lost their tones, while those in
modern Latvia have retained them.
What
is your job?
I have the privilege of working in the area of applied linguistics as a Linguist
(Latvian) deployed to Latvia with the U.S. Army for Operation Atlantic Resolve.
My day-to-day routine is constantly varied, but generally includes simultaneous
interpretation during meetings, written translation, and providing a heavy
amount of historical and cultural information, as well as analysis. My job was created to help keep the region
secure and stable, and to keep deployed U.S. forces safe and informed.
How
does your linguistics training help you in your job?
Because of the diverse nature of the job, doing anything from translating ancient
naughty poems to working with interrogators, different subfields of linguistics
come into play. Quickly analyzing the semantics and meaning behind a comment is
necessary for the collection of information, as opposed to a word-for-word
translation.
Studying semiotics also helps greatly, as symbols, signs, and gestures can be
interpreted differently in other cultures and languages. Having this
information allows for avoiding uncomfortable situations or having
conversations halted due to a misinterpretation of signs.
Syntax training and, I hate to say it, drawing syntax trees, prepared me to be
able to instantly translate from SVO languages (English) to a language with
relatively free word order (Latvian), to be able to mentally break apart a
phrase, switch it around, and have a coherent translated phrase come out.
Do you have any advice you wish someone
had given to you about linguistics/careers/university?
I wish that it had been emphasized just how versatile and broadly applicable a
degree in Linguistics can be, and not just as a stepping stone for academia or
an MA program. Being able to work as a journalist, teacher,
translator/interpreter, editor, writer, or even in public relations or the
field of intelligence, is something I don’t think ever gets discussed in the
classroom in terms of linguistic jobs in the ‘real world’.
Any other thoughts or comments?
I would
also say that the study of linguistics helps train
students not to be afraid of breaking things apart, and teaches one to be nearly instantly adaptable – an expert putter-together
of puzzles. Whether traveling and having to piece together new information and
language, or figuring out what cryptic messages are being sent, linguistics has
helped in every area of my life.
I’ve had a few people send me links to this great Rap Battle on Jimmy Kimmel Live in the USA. Three ASL interpreters take turns to simultaneously interpret Wiz Khalifa singing Black and Yellow.
My favourite part is at the end, when all three join in simultaneously to sign the final chorus. Here you can really see the personal spin that each interpreter puts on the lyrics, switching signing hands and generally conveying the flow and rhythm of the song.
It’s a pity that at the same time Kimmel declares this the first Sign Rap Battle on the show, he also says it’ll probably be the last - it’s be great to see more of this, and more sign language in the media space more generally.
We heard word of this day-long event listed in RMIT University’s offerings, and thought it might be of interest. It’s happening on April 4, 2014 in Melbourne:
“Join Australian and international authors, experts, academics, researchers and practitioners in a symposium that explores security issues in multilingual environments and highlights Language, Diversity and Global Security as a significant area of specialisation and research.”
This picture’s been doing the rounds for a few days - and now Adam Schembri has a great piece about it over at Fully (Sic).
On the relationship between Auslan signs and ‘flipping the bird’ Schembri writes:
As it happens, a small set of Auslan signs use the same hand configuration (i.e., the middle finger extended from the fist) as the one in the flipping the bird gesture. This handshape is combined with a range of movement types, for signs meaning variously ‘spare’, ‘vacant’ or ‘available’, ‘holiday’, ‘lazy’, and ‘stubborn’. None of these signs appear in any way to be related to the obscene gesture, and are commonly used by signers in the Auslan community today without any offensive connotation.
Check out the rest of the article, it’s a great weekend read!
