Translation as a Profession (Benjamins Translation Library)

268 Translation as a ProfessionTranslators are also quite good at ‘colonizing’ specialist forums, wheredomain specialists discuss their own matters. These can in effect be a sourceof specialist information, and, in some cases, a way of finding the informerneeded to answer a specific query. Unfortunately many such forums arepassword-protected.As regards terminology resources, the Web has led to major changes, in that:– translators can access them directly via their work stations;– available resources grow exponentially;– the number of publicly accessible Web sites that list and index known terminologyresources is also growing exponentially;– a growing number of increasingly efficient search engines are available to finduseful information – with a special mention for Google, which has given riseto a whole range of ‘googlisms’, e.g. ‘to google’, ‘to re-google’, ‘to ‘back-google’or ‘to cross-google’, meaning to look up a term on the Web, to do a secondsearch,todoareversesearch,andtocheckoutaguess.At the same time, one can regret that there is no longer any guarantee that theavailable terminology resources are reliable, as most of them - with the notableexception of monolingual glossaries created by professional organisations –are no longer vetted by scientific or editorial committees.Translator forums and mailing lists have also been developing over the past fewyears.Mailing lists are a simple way of organising electronic mail so that all thesubscribers to the list receive any questions from, and answers to, any othermember of the list. All subscribers are free to leave or (re)join the list at anytime. Such lists can be an extraordinarily useful tool for translators who needan immediate answer to an urgent question. Experience shows that questionsaddressed to professional mailing lists never go unanswered. The list becomes akind of virtual professional ‘club’, making freelance translators feel less isolated andgaining a life of its own, according to the ebb and flow of questions and answers.The issues discussed go far beyond simple questions of terminology, even thoughthelatteraccountforalargepartoftheonlineexchanges.Theeffectoftheselistsissuch nowadays that we could speak about S.A.T. or ‘subscriber-assisted translation’.Mailing lists definitely deserve to be included among ‘aids to translation’ under thename of ‘Mutual assistance tools’.Generally, subscribers to discussion lists:– provide permanent assistance in solving terminology problems (a kind ofterminological help line that translators call routinely when they do notunderstand a text segment or cannot find the name for something or are notquitesureabouttheirtranslation);– occasionally engage in in-depth analyses of terminological or linguistic issues;