ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 moves on to discuss the identity of Yeeyaners, asking questions of who they are and how they think about themselves through analysing collaborative translation as a knowledge exchange experience. Yeeyaners, along with a large number of unaffiliated individuals translating in the digital space, have been contributing to the production and circulation of knowledge, irrespective of whether they have formal training in translation. These individuals and their practices have been referred to in the literature as ‘non-professionals’ and ‘non-professional translation/interpreting’, respectively (e.g. Pérez-González and Susam-Saraeva 2012). But are user-translators really ‘non-professional’ translators? Is it productive to refer to their practice as ‘non-professional’? Do these unaffiliated translators think of themselves as ‘non-professionals’? In this chapter, I will argue that the line between ‘professional’ and ‘non-professional’ translators is difficult to draw in the digital space where user-generated content is becoming increasingly evident and influential. An in-depth analysis of seemingly mundane yet critical exchanges between twelve participants in two medical collaborative translation projects will reveal not only how multiple translators co-produce the translated text, but more importantly, what knowledge is shared and created through their collaboration and how the process of knowledge exchange is entangled with their professional identities. An online translation community like Yeeyan is formed by users with different occupational and disciplinary backgrounds and with varying levels of participatory experience. These user-translators’ self-positioning and competence are intricately tied up with the exchange of knowledge in various forms, including challenges to knowledge that has been canonised through ‘professional translation’. The analysis shows that Yeeyan members are not particularly concerned with the professional status of their fellow translators against translation professionalism, especially not concerned with what ‘professional’ translation discourses are on the concept of translation professionalism. Instead, they prioritise the delivery of a professionally executed translation based on the knowledge that users contribute and exchange during the translation process and at the stage of post-translation publication.
