Where do translators hang out online?

January 3, 2009 7:02 PM

A question for translators: Where do you hang out online with other translators, or find translation jobs?

I'm looking for translator communities like Proz.com or Translatorscafe.com. What other communities exist that are big and well subscribed? Any social networking sites?

posted by Zinger to Human Relations (8 answers total)

The LANTRA-L mailing list was hugely busy when I was looking into getting into freelance translation.
posted by mkb at 7:16 PM on January 3, 2009

The Honyaku listserve is one such community, but caters mainly (that is 99.9% of the time) to Japanese <> English translators. However, there are a lot of generic questions about rates, project management, work processes, etc on the site. As well, some of the "top" names in J-E translation, such as Fred Ulemon and Wayne Lammers contribute to the list, so you can really learn a lot about the craft.

However, it is best to lurk for a while before posting. Translators can be strange and snarky, and are not always inclined to assist with networking.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:22 PM on January 3, 2009

Response by poster: I should perhaps be a bit clearer... I'm looking for places to advertise to translators. :) Sorry about that.
posted by Zinger at 8:40 PM on January 3, 2009

All the productive hanging out I do with other translators is physically out and about around town here, and you do get work off friends and acquaintances who have too much on to do it themselves etc (and reciprocate obviously) but despite having signed up to a few online communities never really found one I stuck at. At best you'd hang around in the forums showing off a bit if you could help with a tricky translation problem, but never got any work through one that I can recall, and also had to field a few approaches from shysters and time-wasters. Would not claim to have made a very thorough attempt though.
posted by Abiezer at 1:20 AM on January 4, 2009

There are usually professional associations for various language pairs. For instance, JAT (Japan Association of Translators) for Japanese and English. What pair of languages do you want translated between? If you can find such an association, they often have places where you can look for qualified members, advertise jobs, etc.
posted by zachawry at 5:09 AM on January 4, 2009

My favorite online gathering place for translators is ProZ. It has a European emphasis, but there are plenty of North Americans who hang out there, particularly if they work in European languages.
posted by Plinissima at 8:50 PM on January 4, 2009

You named the two biggest communities, and both accept advertising. It'd be interesting to hear what your plans are - are you selling a product, or do you want to find a translator to do some work for you?

I hang out in both the places you named, and also in my professional associations here in the UK - the ITI (Institute of Translation and Interpreting) and the IoL (Institute of Linguists). I have more real-life interaction with people from the national associations.

I was invited to join a professional networking group on Facebook but I prefer to keep FB for my private life. LinkedIn is somewhat useful.
posted by altolinguistic at 6:12 AM on January 6, 2009

Response by poster: We're looking to advertise our English proofreading service, the idea being that the service will allow translators who translate into English to focus on what they do best - translation - and let us look after the final file tidy up.
posted by Zinger at 11:31 AM on January 21, 2009