As for many other professionals, the Internet has become an amazing and invaluable tool for a practising translator, one that you use every day and for many different reasons. Some of the resources available are not yet known to everyone and it is one of the responsibilities of teachers of translation to try and pass on this type of information to their students who intend to become professional translators. The aim of this article is to call attention to some of these resources, with a particular focus on both the English and the Portuguese languages.

Dictionaries

These are undoubtedly one of the main tools for any translator. One of the most important free-access dictionaries that you can find on the Internet is EuroDicAutom, a multilingual term bank created by the European Commission, the interface for which has undergone some changes over the years. It was first set up in 1973 and was originally intended to meet the needs of in-house translators. Today it is available for translators, interpreters, terminologists and other linguists worldwide at www.eu.int/eurodicautom, and it records an average of 120.000 daily enquiries. It features all the EU languages (plus Latin which can come in handy in many instances) in several language combinations. It covers a broad range of subject areas, concentrating in technical and specialised terminology related to EU policy. EuroDicAutom is continuously updated by a team of terminologists and it currently contains about five and a half million entries.

The site www.yourdictionary.com features access to a myriad of language resources including dictionaries in almost any language you can think of. For instance, you can find there dictionaries in Marathi, Konkani, Xhosa and Esperanto, among many others. For Portuguese you will find links to several Portuguese and Brazilian dictionaries, plus access to a few specialised dictionaries and glossaries such as the "Dicionário de Siglas e Abreviaturas Relativas ao Ministério da Defesa e às Forças Armadas", "Glossário de Termos Médicos", "Glossário do Petróleo", "Dicionário de Flores", to quote but a few.

Merriam-Webster's English Language Dictionary and Thesaurus is available from the Encyclopaedia Britannica's site at www.britannica.com. Again a complete and updated dictionary, but not one that provides translation or extensive information on contexts or collocations. This same dictionary is also available from www.yourdicionary.com.

Another major site is www.dictionary.com, a portal that provides access to many language features, a few of them being: an English language dictionary that provides a good amount of information on the word you look up, such as its different uses within different contexts, its etymology, pronunciation key, synonyms, and even, in some cases, its translation into a couple of languages; a couple of bilingual dictionaries; Roget's Thesaurus, the most widely known English synonym dictionary; guides to style, grammar, punctuation, etc.

As for Portuguese dictionaries, both Porto Editora and Texto Editora allow full consultation of their Portuguese language ones, at www.portoeditora.pt and www.textoeditora.pt. As for other Porto Editora dictionaries, such as the Portuguese-English and English-Portuguese ones, you can search them once you subscribe (free of charge at the moment) to their services. At Texto Editora's site you can find a Portuguese language dictionary which includes an extremely useful Portuguese verb conjugation dictionary. This site also provides Portuguese grammar information including chapters on Phonetics and Phonology, Orthography, Morphology, and Syntax.

Encyclopaedias

The full contents of Encyclopaedia Britannica were, not so long ago, available free on the Internet. Currently, however, even though you can search the whole Encyclopaedia for a specific term, you are only allowed to view a reduced amount of information and we get a note that says that "Complete articles are available to premium service members", meaning that the full content is now available to fee-paying subscribers only. You can opt for a 14-day trial period to check if it is then worth paying the fee.

The Sixth Edition of The Columbia Encyclopaedia, edited by Columbia University Press, is available for online search at www.bartleby.com. It contains 51,000 entries and contrary to what happens with Britannica you are allowed access to the full text for each entry. It is one of the most up-to-date encyclopaedias available and as such an extremely useful tool for any translator.

Discussion Lists

Discussion lists (groups or forums as some call them) are of enormous benefit to translators. By tradition translators are seen as people working alone at home, professionals that cannot easily communicate between each other. Internet discussion lists are a way around this situation and their success has proven its worth for the translators all over the world.

How do they work? That largely depends on the objectives of each list, and there are many, believe me, from the more general ones, where you can discuss virtually anything related to Translation, or one on Literary Translation alone, to the more specific ones, such as one where you discuss Payment Practices only, or one where the sole object of discussion is Translation Companies and other employers.

There are also, as you may well imagine, lists for translators in given languages, for instance Interlang for French translators or LANGIT for Italian. For one tiny example of what these lists can do for you, take, for instance, what happened to me not so long ago. In a text that I was asked to translate, there was a particular term which I could not find in any dictionary that I searched, electronic or otherwise, not even in Encyclopaedia Britannica. The next step for me was to ask several English-language native speakers, and in these I included English, Welsh, Scottish and Canadian people. No one knew the word and no one had a clue whatsoever of what it could possibly mean.

My last resource was one of the most famous and successful discussion lists on the Internet - LANTRA–L. I posted a message and, guess what, within a couple of hours my problem was solved. I got five replies to my query, coming from all over the world. "LANTRA-L is a forum for all aspects of translation and interpretation of natural languages. Including, but not restricted to, computer aids for translation and interpretation." Some of the topics that can be discussed there are: translation theory and practice, translation tools, terminology, lexicography, different types of interpreting such as court community, court or conference interpreting, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, professional ethics for interpreters and translators, education and training of both translators and interpreters, among many other subjects. More information on LANTRA-L can be found at www.geocities.com/Athens/7110/lantra.htm.

One difficulty you will encounter in being a member of these discussion lists is that hundreds of messages are exchanged in a single day and if you are not careful your e-mail will get all clogged up with messages that are not always of interest to your work.

One more such list that I would like to mention can be found at a translation web page developed by the British Council called "The Art of Translation" and which is available from www.literarytranslation.com/index2.html. It features an e-mail discussion group for literary translators which is pretty active and lively.

On-line journals and other publications

Edited by the Representation in Portugal of the European Commission's Translation Service, A Folha is an online translation journal meant for Portuguese-language translators, and one which provides some useful information such as a list of translation courses available in Portugal, a list of online resources available from EU sources, glossaries, term banks, and information on job openings for translators. The main problem with this publication is that it has not been updated recently. The latest version available is dated 9.07.1999, a long while ago, even though most of the information is still useful and the links are still live.

Another useful journal is the Translation Journal, a monthly publication "for Translators by Translators about Translators and Translation". It includes regular articles on Literary Translation, Machine Translation, Translator Education, Translator Profiles, as well as practical information for translation professionals, information on translation tools and translation events taking place all over the world.

Translator Associations

The Associação Portuguesa de Tradutores (Portuguese Translators Association), APT, have their own web page at www.apt.pt. Useful features are a directory of members which works both ways: it is useful for an employer looking for a translator for a particular language combination or in a particular subject area; it is equally useful for APT members who find this is yet another way to find jobs.

The Institute of Linguists is the "UK's largest membership organisation for professional translators, interpreters, language educationalists and those using languages in industry and commerce". The IoL is also "an examining body, offering assessments and certification in an unrivalled range of languages to suit candidates at higher levels (degree and post-graduate) seeking a professional qualification." Their site, which is found at www.iol.ac.uk features some information for translators, an online database of linguists, information on their translation qualifications, as well as occasional job opportunities.

Another useful web page is the one from ITI - the Institute of Translation & Interpreting. Founded in 1986, the Institute of Translation & Interpreting is "the only independent professional association of practising translators and interpreters in the United Kingdom. It is now one of the primary sources of information on these services to government, industry, the media and the general public. ITI offers guidance to those entering the profession and advice not only to those who offer language services but also to their customers."

In their site, you will be able to find useful information such as how to get started in the profession or, for those intending to study in the UK, a list of translation and interpreting courses currently available in the UK. Information notes available free from ITI include:

• Self-certification pack order form
• F.A.Q. about ITI & translation/interpreting
• ITI Mentoring Scheme
• Getting into interpreting?
• Getting into translation?
• How to make money working freelance for translation agencies
• Resources
• ITI regional groups and networks
• Presenting yourself to work providers
• The essential translator's office
• The 39 Steps - translation specification checklist
• Translation & Interpreting courses (UK)
• Professional indemnity insurance
• Beginner's Guide to the Internet
• ITI examinations guide for translators
• Recommended model general terms of business for commissioned translation work
• Code of professional conduct (individual members)
• Code of professional conduct (corporate members)
• ITI fellowship guide

It is overall an extremely interesting site providing plenty of useful practical information for both those entering a translation profession and those already established in one.

The European Society for Translation Studies also features a site on the Internet. Particularly valuable for researchers in the field, the EST intentions are to provide:

• "a network for stimulating and coordinating research in translation and interpreting
• a forum for the exchange and dissemination of new ideas and insights in Translation Studies
• a centre for information and know-how on issues of quality and training in translation and interpreting
• a platform for the promotion of Translation Studies as an academic discipline."

EST publishes a newsletter which is available online and which is published twice a year, in May and November. "It is basically a vehicle for communication between EST Members and a catalyst for action rather than a traditional Translation journal. It provides information on EST activities (see also the EST website: http://est.utu.fi) and on research events and presents queries and suggestions on EST matters and on T&I research issues."

The International Federation of Translators' site is also worth a visit - www.fit-ift.org. There you will be able to find, for instance, a standard form of translation contract, and a list of links of interest to translators.

Other useful web sites

Priberam offers the possibility of using their online orthographical correction tool at www.flip.pt | flip online, a useful tool when you are not absolutely sure how to spell a particular word.

The Internet is useful for translation in many ways other than the ones mentioned above. A practising translator will know this better than anyone. As for so many other professionals, translators can use the Internet as a major resource for specific terminology, trying to find texts where this terminology appears, and using them as an aid for their translation work, in what is called corpus-based translation. The Internet can be seen as a huge database where you can find almost anything you look for. In a way it is up to translation teachers to make their students realise this and so explore its seemingly unending potential.

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