On Europe's desperate need for interpreters with English as a mother tongue. And French.

Here's a video on the EU's need for interpreters with English as a mother tongue:



According to the video, first to become an interpreter you need a degree in anything. Same as the primary qualification to be an English teacher in Korea or Japan.

Another article here also states the opposite case: there is also a great need for French interpreters, which it says are in short supply. In a document called "le français, langue rare", the Multilingual Commissioner (Roumais Leonard Orban) said that he's worried about disappearing francophone interpreters, and the lack of growth in the number of qualified graduates. According to him, the EU could lose half of their conference interpreters within ten years due to the present group beginning to retire, namely those hired during the 1970s and 1980s. This shortage is not limited to the EU alone, but also other institutions using French such as the UN.

The Commission estimates that it will need 200 francophone interpreters in the next 10 years. For those that work with French the most needed languages are German, a combination of German and a Romance language or languages of the most recent enlargement countries (Romanian, Bulgarian, Polish, Estonian etc. I assume).

The total cost for interpretation in the EU is now 46 cents per citizen per year, and this will increase to 50 cents (250 million euros) by 2012. Adding to this the price of translating documents this becomes 2 euros per citizen.