Inès Hinojo-Moulin

There is no justice without quality translation. ⚠️ If your audience can’t clearly understand your message (due to translation errors, awkward grammar, or unnatural phrasing) they can’t take meaningful action. ⚠️ If your message sounds off or clumsy, your audience may lose trust in you, making it harder to truly connect or serve them. And in my view, there is no justice without inclusive translation either. ⚠️ If your French uses only traditional, masculine forms, non-binary people won’t feel seen, and may assume they’re not part of your vision. ⚠️ Studies show that job descriptions written in the masculine get 30% fewer women applicants. ⚠️ And if you don’t pay…

At the beginning of June, I was attending a training by Jennifer Willey when she said “you are not the hero of this story, your client is”. And honestly, she’s right. My clients are heroes. They’re individuals and organisations working every day to make the world better: 💪 They secure funding 💪 They design and deliver impactful programs 💪 They create innovative solutions 💪 They train and empower communities 💪 They bring essential resources where they’re needed most 💪 They advocate for systemic change But here’s the thing: most of their work happens in English. And a large part of the people they serve speak French. That means: 💔 If…

Are you careful about the words you use to talk about social justice? No way you use problematic expressions like “third world” or “master bedroom”? You also try to not use “beneficiaries” and “global North/South”? You prefer “underserved communities” over “underprivileged communities”? Then congrats, you already use inclusive language in English. 🥳 That’s it. That’s the post this week. Feel free to share your favourite inclusive expressions though. Maybe we could create a glossary. 👀

Vouloir utiliser le langage inclusif, c’est super, mais attention aux pièges dans lesquels peuvent tomber les débutant·es. 1.     Quand on ne connait pas encore toutes les techniques, on a tendance à choisir une technique et à vouloir l’utiliser partout. Et souvent, on choisit les doublets. Sauf que ça devient vite lourd. Exemple : « On pouvait retrouver parmi elles et eux des voleurs et des voleuses, des arnaqueurs et des arnaqueuses et des pyromanes. Tous et toutes étaient des criminels et des criminelles. » 😵‍💫 Allez, respirez. On peut trouver mieux : « On retrouvait dans ce groupe toutes sortes de spécialistes du crime : vols, arnaques, pyromanie, tout y passait.…

🔎 Here is my take on the 3 most important things to know about translation. 1.     We don’t translate words, we translate meaning It can seem obvious, but it’s really important. It means that a lot of expressions, jokes and sayings have to be adapted to the target culture. Because if I tell you “Oh, it’s raining ropes today!”, you might think I’m trying to sound depressing, when in reality it’s just a literal translation of the expression that means “It’s raining cats and dogs” in English. So if you like to use specific references or play with words in your content, your best bet is to work with a professional…

J’ai travaillé comme prof d’anglais pendant quatre ans et chaque année, en décembre, un détail me faisait tiquer : l’école se transformait en un festival de rouge, de blanc et de sapins, et on était censé·es dire « Merry Christmas » à tou·tes les élèves le dernier jour avant les vacances. Pour moi, c’était non. Souhaiter un « Joyeux Noël », ce n’est pas inclusif. J’ai toujours vécu dans des pays avec un héritage culturel chrétien, mais il est essentiel de se rappeler que : – Noël est une fête chrétienne. Tout le monde ne la célèbre pas parce que tout le monde n’est pas chrétien·ne. – Toustes les chrétien·nes ne célèbrent…

I’ve always found it hard to “market” myself. Showing my face on social media? Even harder. That’s why, when I reached 1000 followers here on LinkedIn, I made myself a promise: every time I hit a new thousand, I’d write a new introduction post. So… here we are, third one already. 🎉 This time, I want to talk about collaboration. Over the past few months, I’ve been reflecting a lot on what it is I truly bring to the people and organisations I work with. And I realised: I help them to collaborate better with the people they serve. ✊ Working with someone who knows the vocabulary and context of…

I talked to you about the Feminist Translation Network before. It’s a network of researchers and translators committed to bringing a feminist approach to translation practices. Beyond organising incredible events, they also run a blog, and they invited me to write a post exploring the link between gender-inclusive language and feminist translation. If you are interested in the topic, I invite you to go read the post here: https://feministtranslation.bham.ac.uk/2025/03/gender-inclusive-french-translation-as-a-feminist-practice/ And don’t hesitate to let me know what you think about it!

Je parle (enfin) d’espagnol. L’espagnol n’est pas ma langue maternelle, mais après avoir vécu plus de quatre ans en Espagne et pratiqué le langage non binaire au quotidien, c’est un sujet qui me tient à cœur. En début d’année, j’ai lu Pensamiento monógamo, terror poliamoroso de Brigitte Vasallo. Ce qui m’a particulièrement marqué·e dans le livre, c’est la manière dont l’autrice utilise le langage : ♀️ Le féminin générique, qu’elle qualifie d’« honorifique » ou « de rébellion ». Un genre générique, c’est un genre qui, quand il est utilisé, renvoie à une diversité de genre, exactement comme on utilise pour l’instant le masculin en français non inclusif. On est…

My mom is a teacher. She works with kids who struggle to keep up with the rhythm of the traditional education system. My mom is 61. She is a white, heterosexual, cis woman. She doesn’t fully understand what it means to be trans. But she tries. She offers her students a variety of pronouns to choose from (and then calls me to ask about non-binary grammar). If my mom tries, and if young kids are curious and willing to learn, then maybe it’s time we stop making excuses and actively work toward a more inclusive language. Gender-inclusive language is becoming more common in advocacy and political literature in France. Isn’t…