We are wordsmiths: Colin Rae

In this issue: Colin Rae, Key Account Manager

 

• What is your goal for 2021?

I’m keen to continue with what I began last year, which I would describe as tying up loose ends. In other words, I’m using this “enforced solitude” to chase up things I’ve been trying to get to for years: read that book, watch that film, cook that dish, start that hobby. Many of the activities continue to be quite mundane, but I find the process of ticking things off my mental list to be immensely satisfying.

 

• Over the course of your career, have you noticed specific changes in language usage?

I often feel like the rope in a linguistic game of tug-of-war between traditionalists and progressives. Sometimes it seems like I have to use all my strength to maintain “proper” usage, while also feeling the pull towards the new. One thing I’ve noticed over the years is how German has become littered with English verbs bent by the vice of German conjugation (managen, canceln, downgeloadet, geordert) when there are already perfectly good German terms. Perhaps I’m particularly sensitive to this because it seems like many of the Scottish words that populated my childhood are slowly disappearing – some my favourites being dreich (an adjective for the weather meaning bleak, dismal), muckle (large, unwieldy) and glaikit (a blank, foolish facial expression).

 

• What animal are you tempted to translate literally?

The Faultier (literally “lazy animal”) or sloth is very close to my heart, but I’m also fond of the Gürteltier (belt animal) or armadillo because the German word makes me think of the Belted Galloway cows that peppered the countryside where I grew up.

 

• Is the glass half full or half empty?

I suppose I’ve always been a pessimist, but I have every hope this will change.

 

• Working from home: yes or no?

Even though I’ve always had the option to work from home, I generally preferred to go into the office and enjoyed having that separation between work and home life. But during the pandemic I’ve found to my great surprise that I really like working from home – so yes.

 

• Lake or ocean?

I’ve always felt somewhat guilty about not being drawn to the water in the way others seem to be. Although I’ve been all around the British coastline, seen the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Sea of Japan, swum in the Mediterranean, and visited all manner of Bavarian lakes and Scottish lochs, I wouldn’t say I need to be near water at all.