Looking out for linguists (14th July, 2010)

The EU institutions have begun a major recruitment campaign for translators and interpreters into eight languages including English, in a bid to address serious shortages of language staff in Brussels.

From mid-July, posts are being advertised for translators into English, Danish, German, French and Slovenian. Interpreter jobs, which require a higher level of experience, are also being sought for English, Slovenian, Dutch, Bulgarian and Romanian.

Between 40 and 50 staff will be hired for each of the languages, in the first year of what will become a regular annual recruitment drive for linguists. The European Commission’s Interpretation Department says they will use Facebook and Twitter to communicate job opportunities and reach out to younger candidates.

“We’re facing a wave of retirements and need to replace an entire generation – we will lose up to half our staff in the next ten years,” said department head Marco Benedetti. He added that surprisingly, it was proving especially difficult to find English linguists.

“English is a particular problem. In all English-speaking countries, many people think that just speaking English is enough, but you can’t make translators or interpreters out of those people,” he said.

Advertisement