My 2 Years with GV

I got to know GV just over two years ago, in the spring of 2012. I first came across the German version of GV while looking for volunteer translation opportunities with German. I filled in the form on the GV German site, and I still remember how excited I was when a couple of days later I received a response from Katrin Zinoun (which I read on my mobile in the middle of the night, as I didn't want to wait till the morning). Almost at the same time I got in touch with Ekaterina Golubina at the Russian Lingua. So now I try to translate for both Russian and German Linguas – and this July I braved a post for the RuNet Echo in English.

My first translation was a post about the movie “One Day on Earth” by Juliana Rincón Parra. Thank you for your contributions, Juliana – your posts never fail to stand out, catch one's eye immediately and are so warm and well thought out, not to mention very interesting. I hope for more stuff to translate from you!

GV has opened up a new world for me, and starting to translate for Lingua has been an important turning point, both professionally and personally. Prior to this, I used to volunteer for the UN via onlinevolunteering.org, but GV quickly replaced that :) Apart from GV, I currently support a Russian charity benefiting cancer patients with my translations.

GV means a lot to me for different reasons. Starting from the format, the fact that you can choose exactly what and when to do, work at your own pace and hone unlimitedly on a translation from wherever you are as long as you stay online. Another thing that never ceases to amaze me is how our (huge, really) newssite works seamlessly under the guidance of a newsroom that is completely virtual! Quite a separate point are the articles – GV does offer unique insights, which are never trivial.

But its greatest asset (and what makes GV what it is) are, undoubtedly, the PEOPLE behind the project. I've yet to meet another community that would be so intellectual yet so modern, so much fun and so tolerant. On diversity, I think, with a little effort, we could beat the UN, people! :)

My special thanks go to my two editors – Ekaterina Golubina and Katrin Zinoun (cool that you share the same name, incidentally!). Thank you for your patience with my posts and my questions, which were incessant at the beginning, thank you for your ideas, thank you for hearing me out on whatever (rubbish) I had to say. You opened the doors of GV to me.

To sum up, it can be safely said that my experience with GV has exceeded expectations. When I joined, I thought it was about the stories – it turned out to be as much about the people you get to know. When I started translating, I thought it would be work – it turned out to be a lifestyle. Happy Birthday GV, and many happiest returns.

2 comments

  • This is really nice, Gulnara. I chuckled when I read the part about reading your mobile phone in the middle night. I am interested in seeing how many community members can work in many different languages (i.e. German and Russian). Do you ever translate from German into Russian or vice-versa bypassing the English translation?

    • Hi Eddie,
      yes, at times I do translate from German into Russian without the English translation being involved. Haven’t yet done vice versa, though – I should try it :) I hope that one day I’ll be able to add another language (Italian, Spanish or French) to my GV ones. There are a lot of interesting posts on Latin America and Africa that would be interesting to translate into Russian (German) directly from Spanish or French, correspondingly.
      Happy holidays!

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