A Testing Ground for Aspiring Translators: A Case Study of PTT’s Translator Board

• Main Authors: Chen, Po-yu, 陳柏宇
• Other Authors: Chen, Tze-wei
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/f3fu32

碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 跨文化研究所翻譯學碩士班 === 103 === The Translator Board of the PTT Bulletin Board System—the largest terminal-based bulletin board system (BBS) in Taiwan—was established in 2004. The board serves as a market for translators and clients as well as a platform for discussion on translation-related subjects. As a place for translators and clients, the board has gained much popularity as it is a free platform for all users. Yet the downside of such a mechanism is that some work is conducted without any form of legal protection, such as a contract or agreement, putting both translators and clients at risk as the board has no power over how each job is carried out. This may explain why sometimes work disputes have occurred on the platform since its inception. Nevertheless, the board remains a widely utilized tool for both translators and clients and continues to prosper as it enters its 10th anniversary, which proves that such a platform does occupy a certain place in the larger translation industry in Taiwan. In addition to serving as a translation market, the board also sees many work-related discussions and experience sharing by its users. The dynamic of the board inspires the current study to explore and analyze the platform in terms of the types, prices, and languages of translation, the success rate of users finding what they seek, as well as the backgrounds and characteristics of the translators seeking job opportunities on the board. Past studies on translation networks focused mainly on discussions within these networks, leaving the business side of the networks largely uninvestigated. Furthermore, macro-scale studies on the translation industry in Taiwan have been conducted but there are not many micro-scale investigations into the market. The BBS board is a good example of a micro translation market that deserves a deeper look. This study aims to explore the translation network from a dual perspective: discussion contents and business aspect, by a mixture of approaches including secondary data analysis, surveys and interviews to gain insight into the backgrounds and experiences of translators to arrive at a comprehensive analysis in the four areas: purposes, users, management, and contents. The study result shows that the board faces competition from other online translation networks, that internet anonymity has led to a lack of trust among users, and that the board faces increasing difficulties in retaining more experienced translators.