Translator networking

While I was at the ATA Conference in Denver last October, I got to know several people from my local translators' association and promptly became a member. Tonight was the first of their quarterly networking events and of course I had to go. We met at a bakery/cafe in Durham where many of us had dinner (I had a wasabi salmon wrap, which was very reminiscent of a jumbo sushi roll) and got to know each other better. I was pleased to see such a large turnout with multiple languages represented. There were three other German to English translators, all of whom also do other languages into English, particularly Dutch, Russian, and other Slavic languages. The other languages pairs were Spanish <> English, English > Chinese, and Portuguese > English. Overall there were about 15 of us in attendance. It was great hearing about other people's experiences - especially stories about the days of translation before the Internet (and even fax!) when source texts made a long journey around the world by postal mail and translations were hammered out on manual typewriters. Believe it or not - that was only about 30 years ago! How exponentially things change! I am so fortunate to live in such a multicultural area where it is possible to get together with other people in my line of work. In a profession that can, at times, be rather isolated with communication being done almost completely online, it is so important to get together with other translators (where possible) and share our experiences more frequently than just once a year at the annual conference. I had a great time and am already looking forward to the next get-together! For now it's time to call it a night. Gute Nacht!