Hey there. Not sure what you fellow translators are in to, but I signed up for Proz. The jury's still out on whether it's worth paying membership fees to this sort of jobs website, but as part of their free membership, you get to take part in their fora (or 'forums', if you must).
Yes, yes, this is anoraky, but it will also soon be my new profession, so it's good to know that there are many others out there, wadding up paper and chewing on pen lids over the correct translation of every possible sticky term in every speciality and every language pair you can think of. If you sign up to their 'Kudoz' system whereby you get points towards a better rating on the site for helping your fellow translators, you get emails whenever a query pops up in an area you're supposed to be good at. So this morning, I got a Dante query. When I had accidentally ticked the 'architecture' box, I got a very unanswerable question about air shafts.You get the idea.
It's a great tool to keep you sharp and keep you thinking. You needn't only sign up for things you know a great deal about - guesses are allowed, so long as you tag them as such, so if you're a foodie, or you build model trains, or you're a champion shi-tzu breeder, sign up for having an 'interest' in them, and guess away.
The best part, though, is having a daily connection to a whole world of translators, and their speedy help, when the time comes.
No, I'm not being paid for this little plug - it's just the first good site I've found. Any other recommendations, please let me know!
