Language professions at the United Nations

A two-hour session to showcase different aspects of the work of language professionals at the UN and the challenges and opportunities that it entails. The UN is one of the world’s largest employers of language professionals, with several hundred such staff working in different locations around the world. UN language staff come from all over the globe and make up a uniquely diverse and multilingual community. At the UN, the term “language professional” includes a wide range of specialists, such as interpreters, translators, editors, verbatim reporters, terminologists, reference assistants and copy preparers/proofreaders/production editors. Their work covers the Organization’s six official languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) and deals with a wide variety of subjects, often politically sensitive.