Language And Cultural Expert For International Relations
Function in a professional context:
A language and cultural expert for international relations may find openings in various professions connected with international relations, collaborating with top-level managers or technical professionals in the field of communications between languages and between cultures.
Main functions:
- Coordinating international communications at a senior level, managing the inter-linguistic side of economic and cultural relations and the need for specialist communications in a foreign language;
- Planning and running international events;
- Top-level coordination of cases where communication/relation patterns between cultures are studied and interpreted;
- Helping to design and manage socio-cultural projects to implement European language policies and protect the languages of immigrants;
Competencies associated to the function:
- Excellent command of at least two of the folloing foreign languages (English, French, Russian, Spanish and German), communicating n written and oral form in a range of differing multicultural situations.
- Very strong command of English and Italian as lingua francas.
- Interdisciplinary expertise in international economics/politics and business management/law, as well as familiarity with cultural sociology, communications, the history and geography of the chosen language areas, and an ability to apply this know-how to the furthering of communications;
- Practical and theoretical language skills (both in in Italian and in the chosen languages) facilitating the writing and interpretation of wide-ranging specialist texts for international communications;
- Ability to analyse an argument and weigh the points at issue, produce effective business and sales communications, and facilitate problem-solving processes with international interlocutors;
- ICT skills, especially in inter-linguistic and inter-cultural relations;
- Ability to analyse and make judgements when tackling complex issues in the field of linguistic communication;
- Ability to distinguish among registers in the chosen languages and adopt them appropriately in various real-life scenarios;
- Active listening skills: language and cultural experts for international relations are fully attentive to their interlocutor's needs, and can question and probe to the heart of an issue;
- Use of intercultural know-how to interpret information, weigh various viewpoints and arrive to a shared conclusion;
- Ability to choose the right oral/written language strategies suited to the assigned task.
Career opportunities:
Administration, organization and public relations in private enterprises (e.g. companies specialised in the organisation of national and international events, the publishing and communications world, advertising), public and service sector institutions, as well as international organisations including NGOs (e.g. the field of international cooperation, development aid, social and cultural integration policy).
Editor And Sub-Editor in multiple languages
Function in a professional context:
An editor and sub-editor of texts in different languages will find various professional openings above all in international relations and the world of multi-language/multimedia communications. His/her language and meta-linguistic skills will be of valuable assistance to the technicians or managers of editing and textual revision.
Main functions:
- to revise texts in either the two chosen foreign languages and in Italian (technical/scientific, essays, literary criticism, journalism) ensuring an appropriate choice of terminology and faithfulness to the textual genre in question. This expertise extends to specialist fields;
- to produce texts in either the two chosen foreign languages and Italian (technical/scientific, essays, journalism), ensuring an appropriate choice of terminology and faithfulness to the textual genre in question. This expertise extends to specialist fields;
- to write up notes or tape scripts (e.g. from meetings) in English and in the chosen foreign languages, polishing the text so that it flows as a connected piece of writing;
- to liaise with other specialist professional figures in lexical, terminological and website research to transpose one language to another.
Competencies associated to the function:
- Excellent command of two of the following foreign languages (English, French, Russian, Spanish and German);
- Very strong command of English and Italian as lingua francas;
- Interdisciplinary expertise in international economics/politics and business management/law, as well as familiarity with cultural sociology, communications, the history and geography of the chosen language areas, and an ability to apply this know-how to the texts to editing, revising and producing texts;
- Practical and theoretical language skills (both in English and in the chosen languages) facilitating the writing and interpretation of wide-ranging specialist texts;
- Ability to analyse an argument and weigh the main features and differences between spoken idiom and written idiom (both in Italian and in the two foreign languages), to analyse and interpret communicative elements and transcribe texts;
- Ability to translate texts of various styles from and into the foreign language (L2), considering the linguistic features and function of the source texts, the purpose of translatng them and the linguistic/cultural implications in the L2 language;
- ICT skills, also applied to the word search needed for translation/collocation of texts of various kinds;
- Specific skills in writing for the Web (in the two foreign languages and in Italian), in handling web contents and dynamics, as well as in business, association and institution settings;
- ICT and technical skills of use in searching for, checking and recasting sources, and in producing original content suited to the target audience;
- Ability to adjust the linguistic style and register of oral, written and digital communication; ability to handle direct contact with the target audience on the social networks and other web platforms;
- Ability to analyse and judge for oneself when tackling complex issues in the field of linguistic communication;
- Ability to distinguish between registers in the chosen languages and adopt them appropriately in various real-life scenarios;
- Ability to choose the right language and textual strategy to perform the assigned task.
Career opportunities:
Administration, organization and public relations in private enterprises (e.g. companies specialised in the organisation of national and international trade fairs, the publishing and communications world, advertising), public and service sector institutions, as well as international organisations including NGOs (e.g. the field of international cooperation, development aid, social and cultural integration policy).
