Since I am going to be teaching both English and Spanish next year, it is very important to me that I find ways to become more proficient at both. As I was investigating different kinds of online communities I could join I purposefully searched for an online community that would allow me to interact with both lovers of English and Spanish. I found a very useful website that allows me to both edit work of non-native speakers of English, as well as post my own questions about Spanish for native speakers of Spanish to respond to.
Part of what was so interesing about this website is that it is not just a translation service, in fact they have specific rules against posting documents to be translated by other people. The purpose of the website is to deal with questions surrounding the ambiguities of language. I posted a question asking about when it is appropriate to use the phrase "Que onda" which literally translated means "what wave." I have used that phrase with my Mexican friends for a long time, and I was wondering whether it was OK to use the phrase with a respected adult. Within a day I had a response from an Argentinian saying they had never heard that phrase and would be confused by it and also a response from a Mexican saying that although it wouldn't be rude to say it to a professsional, it would be the equivalent of saying something like "what up?"
I also really enjoyed that there is a section where you can post about "jargon" related to your profession. There have been many times when I have wanted to say something like "self esteem" in Spanish and not known the right words for it. Instead of just calling my mom and getting her opinion, it really is helpful to have the input from millions of other users on the site. I definitely enjoyed using the forum and got some really helpful feedback and I look forward to the chance to continue posting my questions as well as answering those from other members.
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What a valuable resource you found! I especially appreciated your comment about the community's rule forbidding requests for document translation. What was their rationale for it? My interpretation is that that's a paid job, and such requests would seriously hinder the natural dialogue about genuine questions. That's the whole point of having this community-- being able to ask real, live people (all over the world!) questions about linguistic subtleties that vary with location, culture, and time.
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