Foreign neighbours

Climate, language, and the future

Abstract

Translation is predicated on a knowledge of other languages, and the knowledge of foreign languages distinguishes translators from other language professionals, such as copy editors or copywriters. Yet, little attention is generally paid to the consequences of language acquisition for the world view of translators. In this article, it is argued that altered notions of time and attention follow on from im­mersion in other languages and that these changing perceptions are crucial to moving towards a more sustainable engagement with our planetary condition. If debates around artificial intelligence have dwelt overwhelmingly on the translation product – how the human translator fares in competition with the machine – much less has been written about translation process, about the lifelong acquisi­tion of languages by translators which informs their stance towards societies and cultures. Using two minority-language accounts from the Western seaboard of Europe, the article explores the elements of language contact that counter dominant short-term and extractivist visions of what constitutes cul­tural contact and political value. It is argued that the value of foreign language knowledge goes beyond a technical or instrumental facilitation of the translator’s task, and provides a crucial justification for multilingual translator education in a period of highly endangered biocultural diversity in Europe.