The SDGs and the role of language and the language sector: who is interested?

Sustainable Development Goals 2030Language and what?

The SDGs, or the Sustainable Development Goals, are the Sustainable Development Goals action plan approved by all United Nations countries in 2015. The ambition is that they will be reached by 2030.

There are 17 goals, divided into 5 themes: people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership.

The SDGs are in fact combining a universal future agenda: sustainable development for the entire planet and all people both economically, socially and ecologically. Read more about the SDGs on the United Nationswebsite.

Can we ask you a dozen tough questions?

How do you think the language sector can play a role in strengthening sustainable development?

What do you think is the main responsibility of the language sector for greater sustainability?

Is the language sector part of the problem or part of the solution?

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The economic meaning of language and the language sector in the Dutch language area: report

Final report Economic Outlook language sectorThe Dutch language Union, the Dutch-Flemish policy organization for the Dutch language, in 2018 a study about the economic meaning of language and the language sector in the Dutch language area. There were more than 500 language industries and language professionals queried and all publicly available statistics were analyzed. The final report "on the economic meaning of language-an exploration of The Language Sector in the Dutch language area" is officially presented and published on the website of the language Union.

This report brings the language Union in the Dutch language in the language sector map from an economic perspective: Who deserves all with language? What is the economic significance of the language sector? How extensive is this sector anyway? And is there future in?

The report with all search results from the Economic Outlook to the language sector is available free of charge in the Dutch. Beginning 2019 is a shortened English version published.

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New Top 100 Format for 2017 Language Industry Awards

2017 Language Industry AwardsThe Language Sector has introduced a new Top 100 format for its Ghent-based Language Industry Awards (LIAs). The newly reshaped LIAs were streamed live on Facebook for the first time and the Top 10 were broadcast in English simultaneously via remote interpreters online.

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Ghent to host 4th Language Industry Awards ceremony

LIAs Top 100 Live Countdown Show

The Language Industry Awards Ceremony 2017 is returning to the city of Ghent in Belgium, where the LIAs made their debut in 2014.

Last year, the original gala ceremony was reshaped as a fresh and novel pop-up show, staged during The Language Market at The Value of Language, a major industry event on purchasing language solutions and comprising a conference and trade fair held at the Faculty of Arts on the KU Leuven Campus in Brussels.

This year, The Language Industry Awards programme launches the LIAs Top 100 Live, a live countdown show to be held in Ghent and on Facebook Live on 8-12 May 2017, every weekday from 12.00 am to 2.00 pm.

“We look forward to celebrating the best of the language sector during the LIAs Top 100 Live Show. Voting for longlisted nominees will be open on 26-27 April, with the full list of nominees available on the official Language Industry Awards website,' LIAs Event Manager, Shauni Bollaert, explains.

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An internship at The Language Sector?

Internship opportunities at The Language SectorWe currently have space for different interns.

Would you like to get a taste of The Language Sector and are you motivated, creative and entrepreneurial? Then an internship at The Language Sector might be something for you.



What can you expect from an internship with The Language Sector?

  • A challenging placement with responsibilities
  • The possibility to carry out your own project
  • Good guidance during your traineeship
  • Space for initiatives in a growing business
  • A cosy and informal working atmosphere
  • An internship in the centre of Ghent


Do we have your attention? Then please send us an original motivational letter with your resume as soon as possible atinfo@thelanguagesector.eu.

 

Below are some testimonials and experiences of creative and entrepreneurial student interns, who completed projects that were valuable for their cv and at the same time for The Language Sector (The Language Sector / De Taalsector / Language Industry Awards / The Value of Language / ...).

 

"I have greatly enjoyed my internship at The Language Sector. All I have learned during my interpreting education, I was able to put to the test with real interpreters from different cultures. I got the chance to speak Dutch, French and English and was allowed to determine, to a large extent, what direction I wanted to go in with my project. If I had questions or if I was stuck, I always got excellent advice and was accompanied well by my internship supervisor. I got the opportunity to develop myself in a pleasant working environment." (Rebecca, Master Interpreting 2016)

 

"The internship has made me realise how extensive our field of activity is as a linguist. At the same time, I also realised that language and language work are strongly undervalued in our society. During my internship I tried to give the public more opportunities to get to know our industry. I did so with the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. I wrote and expanded on about thirty articles on language, language professions and language work. I had to look up a lot of information about each entry. The internship was optimal in order to improve my writing skills in Dutch and get acquainted with the challenges of the language professional in 2016." (Joris, Master Multilingual Communication, 2016)

 

"I am very happy that I got the chance to do an internship at The Language Sector. The internship was very informative and I'm glad my work has contributed to the language sector. It gave me satisfaction to be able to apply my knowledge from University in a professional environment. And from day one I learned a great deal about translation, revision, writing, personal skills, etc. I see my internship as a valuable contribution to the transition from University to the work field. Finally, I would like to mention that The Language Sector was the ideal internship for me. The work atmosphere is relaxed and collegial, which made me feel at ease immediately. The guidance could also hardly be better, because there is a lot of time spent on personal contact and giving feedback and positive comments. I can recommend an internship at The Language Sector to anyone!" (Nathalie, Master Translation 2016)

 

"During my internship I was responsible for the communication and organisation of the LIAs, a very pleasant experience! Although this was already the third edition, I got a lot of freedom and Dries was always open to suggestions and improvements on my part. The incoming votes, the posts of the nominees and the gratitude of the winners also gave me a lot of satisfaction. In short, an internship that I could recommend to everyone! " (Amelie, Master Business Communication 2016)

 

"During my internship at The Language Sector, I worked on the development of a mobile application. It was instructive to see this project develop from scratch. I was involved in the consultations and got sufficient information to perform a functional analysis for the app. While writing the code, I learned how to apply the theory from the classroom in practice. Throughout my internship I was well supported and I also got the opportunity to participate in other activities within the language sector. My internship was the most instructive experience of my school career. " (Bert, Applied Informatics 2016)

 

"An internship at The Language Sector means challenging yourself, your limits and thinking out of the box. As a translation student I was not only able to hone and practice my language skills, but I also had the opportunity to use my creative talent. My internship was not only a first work experience in the sector, but also offered the opportunity to get to know the language sector from the inside. I got the opportunity to broaden my knowledge and develop myself on a personal level. Furthermore, I was able to publish an article in three languages and I worked with different editors for the translation, making me feel more at home in the professional translation world. Thanks to the very personal guidance and a learning-while-doing mentality, my internship was one of a kind. " (Lore, Master Translation 2016)

 

"My internship at the language sector was a very enriching experience. I learned new insights in theoretical and practical knowledge during my training in PR. It feels good to contribute to the development of a new sector such as the language sector. It’s different from other internships where most of what you do is use the photocopy machine. Here you have real responsibilities that you establish with your supervisor. As a French-speaking Belgian, this was also a good opportunity to practise both my English and my Dutch. This internship was the opportunity for me to practice my Dutch." (Pietro, Public Relations)

 

 

The Language Sector in imageHow do you present the language sector in a visually appealing way in an image? You can philosophise about this for hours, but Lore picked up a sheet of paper and produced this powerful image from her pencil. She also wrote this article about it: the language sector visually appealing in image

Joris, we got to know as a seasoned Wikipedian. During his internship, he set up the language professions on Wikipedia and he led an acclaimed workshop 'Wikipedia for language professionals in good jobs': Wikipedia for language professionals (workshop)

 

The Language Sector AppBert poured all his enthusiasm and perseverance into the development of a mobile app for The Language Sector. A battery of translation macines for a multilingual newsfeed on the European with a post-editing tool and a 'who's who in The Language Sector'! An enthusiastic IT-person with an affinity for languages can come finish the app ... and launch it.

 

Rebecca explored during her internship how interpreters network. She also wrote a very appreciated article: On an adventure in the network of the interpreter

 

If The Language Sector is more professional in its communication in the period ahead, that's thanks to Priska: her stakeholder analysis was a real eye opener and her communication plan is a practical guide for our communication.

 

The terminology of the language sectorLanguage industry, language, language, language professional job work. During her internship, Liesbet tried to find out how to say 'language professional' in French. Or language industry in English. She collected the terminology of the language sector and went looking for a place to share its terms and discuss them with the "community of interest". This is the report of her adventure: What about the terminology of the language sector?

 

2015

Christo came with a plan one day to look at what crowdfunding could mean for the language sector. This is what he produced from his pen: He explored the potential of crowdfunding in his article: “Is the time ripe for crowdfunding in the language sector?” You can bet that his internship is on his resume. And rightly so!

 

Giorgio launched the English version of The Language Sector. Sofía did the same with the Spanish version: thelanguagesector.eu/en, thelanguagesector.eu/es

 

The Language MarketKervyn put his broad shoulders under the second edition of The Value of Language: De Taalconferentie (language conference) and De Taalmarkt (the language market) which we organised together with the Catholic University of Leuven in Brussels: http://www.thevalueoflanguage.eu

 

Sarah, with her sales talent, brought the campus subscription to The Language Sector.

 

2014

Also in 2014, the interns were really great!

In 2014, Céline worked on a “Who’s Who in the language sector?” project and wrote a popular interview with the three men behind GentVertaalt, Read her interview here: "Together, we know more": interview with GentVertaalt. GentVertaalt managed to get a LIA (Language Industry Award) for ' best learning and networking event in the language sector 2013 ' a month later.

 

Language Industry AwardsGaëlle was responsible for the first LIAs and made the event very visible within and outside the language sector: She took on the responsability for all the communication around the LIAs: http://www.languageindustryawards.eu

 

"There's music in the language sector' was the motto of the LIAs 2013 and a subject that lay close to Diane's heart. During her internship she conducted a survey to better understand the relationship between talent for music and interpreting skills. Her article about that hit clearly struck a chord with many language professionals ... it touched a sensitive nerve by the looks of it, because the response was great: Is there a connection between interpreter skills and talent for music? (survey)

 

O right, Sophie designed, between all the language work, the striking poster for the very first Language Industry Awards. Judge for yourself: http://www.languageindustryawards.eu/affiche.jpg

 

The summer hit of 2014 on the website of The Language Sector came from the pen of Timothy: And the best free online translation machine is ... In no time, the general public found its way to her well documented and informed article.

 

Eric was our first seven-language speaking intern, but when asked which was his mother tongue, he had no answer. His story is remarkable and he wrote an article about it: Is there someone without a mother tongue in the room?

 

2013

To practise her Italian, Hanne (Master Interpreting) got in touch with Italian social interpreters, with whom she had fascinating talks about the neutrality of the interpreter, the research theme to which she also devoted her master thesis. She also wrote an article: 'An interpreter can always remain neutral'.

 

Making a career with GermanTo get a better overview of the possibilities with her degree in German, during her internship, Kelly (Master Interpreting) talked extensively with people who work with German on a daily basis in very different jobs. Six calls, six jobs, six possibilities: My degree in German is in sight… and now what?

 

The winners of the 2015 LIAs (Language Industry Awards) have now been announced

The winners of the 2015 LIAs (Language Industry Awards) have now been announced Brussels, 17 March 2016 – Yesterday evening the annual LIA ceremony (Language Industry Awards) was held in Brussels.

Remarkable winners of this third edition with its strong and particularly international array of participants were the Plain Language campaign 'HeerlijkHelder' from the Flemish Radio 1 programme Hautekiet, EXPOLINGUA Berlin and the app duolingo. The most surprising and striking winner was De mier en het ijsje (The ant and the ice cream) , an ingenious bilingual book for reading out loud combining Sign Language and Dutch.

The Language Industry Awards (LIAs) were presented at The Value of Language, an international conference on buying language products and services, which took place at the KU Leuven Faculty of Arts campus in Brussels.
Together 40 nominees for the 8 LIAs gathered over 21000 votes. This represented a good 7000 more than last year. Again this year around 100 national and international nominations were submitted for the longlist coming from all corners of the language sector, 40 of which ended up on the shortlist and were able to campaign for a LIA. With their enthusiastic campaigns, nominees demonstrated a particularly diverse and dynamic language industry this year.

 

These are the 8 LIA winners per category:

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Looking for language solutions? Come to The Value of Language (16 March 2016, Brussels)

Purchasing language solutions, TVOL 16 March 2016-Brussels

How to buy good language services, language products and language expertise in? And above all: How do you buy value for money?

This is the second edition of The Value of Language on Wednesday 16 March 2016 on the Brussels Arts campus of KU Leuven (in Brussels). The event brings together buyers, users and suppliers together. There is a market place (the language market) and a conference area (the language Conference). This event was first planned for 26 november 2015, but had to be postponed because of the threat of terrorism

in Brussels. The language Conference provides answers to questions that many buyers and users of language services. A few of the Conference

programme: how hard can I negotiate about the price without having to be in the danger zone? How
do I buy with peace of mind translation work in languages I don't speak itself? How
hard should I run away (or not?) as my translator dirty words such as machine translation begins to use?
How one can quickly the language needs and analyze language levels of a large number of employees? Online or face-to-face and one-to-one? What are
all the language testing and language certificates that put the candidates on their cv actually worth?
How do I get much more out of the relationship with a language partner by itself what to invest more in-and how do I do it then?
What extra services can I get in legal translations? What
is a junior language professional worth? What can I expect-and what is not?
What does the future of the translation industry look like?
The world is better of translation
technology? My international company is plenty in the digital transformation; What voice and translation technologies can for my company of strategic importance? Every
morning my media company now brings all EU news in 12 languages and we still have big ambitions. What solutions has the language sector to offer me?

For the answer to these and many other questions is there a lot of beautiful people the Language Conference of The Value of Language. Thanks to Gold Sponsor Presence is there all day, and simultaneous interpretation in FR and NL. You can now view Language Conference program on the website of the event: www.thevalueoflanguage.eu

 

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Visualising The Language Sector

How can we successfully visualise The Language Sector?Ghent, Lore Van den Bossche - How can we successfully visualise The Language Sector and capture it in images? Indeed, this is the very question that I tried to answer during my internship at The Language Sector.


During my internship, I tried, then, to capture The Language Sector in all its diversity in a beautiful, comprehensive and versatile image in order to initiate a debate: a challenging project, it seemed.

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Sign up to receive The Value of Language. All about the purchase of language on the language and the language market Conference

The Value of Language, 25 november 2015 Brussels

Best language professional, best language supplier,

how to buy good language services, language products and language expertise in? And above all: How do you buy value for money?

This is the second edition of The Value of Language on Thursday 26 november 2015 on the Brussels Arts campus of KU Leuven. The event brings together buyers, users and suppliers together. There is a market place (the language market) and a conference area (the

language Conference). The language Conference provides answers to questions that many buyers and users of language services. A few of the Conference

programme: how hard can I negotiate about the price without having to be in the danger zone? How
do I buy with peace of mind translation work in languages I don't speak itself? How
hard should I run away (or not?) as my translator dirty words such as machine translation begins to use?
How one can quickly the language needs and analyze language levels of a large number of employees? Online or face-to-face and one-to-one? What are
all the language testing and language certificates that put the candidates on their cv actually worth?
How do I get much more out of the relationship with a language partner by itself what to invest more in-and how do I do it then?
What extra services can I get in legal translations? What
is a junior language professional worth? What can I expect-and what is not?
What does the future of the translation industry look like?
The world is better of translation
technology? My international company is plenty in the digital transformation; What voice and translation technologies can for my company of strategic importance?

For the answer to these and many other questions is there a lot of beautiful people the Language Conference of The Value of Language. Thanks to Gold Sponsor Presence is there all day, and simultaneous interpretation in FR and NL. You can now view Language Conference program on the website of the event: www.thevalueoflanguage.eu

 

Read more...

The Value of Language: all about the purchase of language - Brussels 26 November 2015 -

The Value of Language II, 26 November 2015 Brussels

#TVOL - buying a translation, a training in languages or another language service is a bit like buying a used car: how to be sure it is worth your money?

How to buy serenely a language product, service or expertise in a language that is completely unknown to you?

You can find answers to these questions, and more, at the language market and at the conference of the second edition of The Value of Language which will be held in Brussels on 26 November 2015.

The Value of Language brings together language professionals and buyers around the issue of 'the purchase of the language': How to buy the best language product and service? And most importantly, how to be sure that it is worth your money? In addition to a classic conference area (the conference), there will be a market space (the language market).

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The Value of Language II (26 Nov 2015, Brussels): Final Call for Contributions

The Value of LanguageGhent (Belgium), Giorgio Vassallo - When buying a language product or service, a good price and a short delivery time is important, but buying the best language product or language service is a different matter. How can you get the best value for your money?

The second edition of the Value of Language (TVOLII) will be a platform for business, government and private buyers to meet with vendors of language products and services around a central theme:
How to get the best value for money when buying language products and services.

The Value of Language II will be held on Thursday 26 November 2015 in Brussels, Belgium. The event will be organised by De Taalsector (The Language Sector) in collaboration with The Brussels Campus of the University of Leuven. This collaboration will ensure that the programme will present perspectives from both the industry and from academia.

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The Value of Language II (26 Nov 2015, Brussels): 2nd Call for Contributions

The Value of LanguageGhent (Belgium), Giorgio Vassallo - When buying a language product or service, a good price and a short delivery time is important, but buying the best language product or language service is a different matter. How can you get the best value for your money?

The second edition of the Value of Language (TVOLII) will be a platform for business, government and private buyers to meet with vendors of language products and services around a central theme:
How to get the best value for money when buying language products and services.

The Value of Language II will be held on Thursday 26 November 2015 in Brussels, Belgium. The event will be organised by De Taalsector (The Language Sector) in collaboration with The Brussels Campus of the University of Leuven. This collaboration will ensure that the programme will present perspectives from both the industry and from academia.

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Round Table on the status of language professions in Europe

Round Table on the status of language professions in EuropeGhent (Belgium), Giorgio Vassallo - If you want to make a career with languages,  there are plenty of opportunities in The Language Sector waiting to be exploited and the entry barriers are low.

Having low entry barriers, however, means that almost anyone can sell anything, even bad quality language products/services. Thus, many customers have bad experiences with low-quality language work, and as a result, the image of The Language Sector suffers. What can be done to improve the image of the industry and the status of the language professions?

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Open Door Service

Open Door ServiceOur Open Door Service is a drop-in advice service for our members, with no appointments necessary.

Are you new to The Language Sector, seeking opportunities for growth and cooperation or simply in need of an inspiring exchange of views or a sounding board?

We offer advice on most areas related to The Language Sector.

Please note that we work on a 'first come, first served' basis.

When? Every first Thursday of the month (except July and August), 12 to 2pm (see Events Calendar)

Where? The Language Sector offices, Molenaarsstraat 111 - 46, Gent (Belgium)

 

Crowdfunding in the language sector in Belgium and Netherlands: time for action?

Crowdfunding in the language sector. An analysis. Ghent (Belgium), Christo Mercelis - It is already established in the technology sector, while other sectors experiment with it: crowdfunding, a way of financing where many small contributions make for one large fund. What is it? How does it work? Who has experience with it? Is it something for the language professional? What can the language sector do with it? Time for an analysis.

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