TermWiki’s (TW) iPad 2 winner: An Interview with Dmitry Kornyukhov

Last week, we offered our congratulations to Dmitry Kornyukhov, the winner of TermWiki.com‘s (TW) most recent contest. Aside from rallying up his fans, working on translation projects, and helping build TermWiki’s database of terms, Dmitry was also kind enough to spend some time with us answering a few questions for our curious readers. Read on for some insightful thoughts from our TermWiki iPad 2 winner, Dmitry Kornyukhov!

Born in Kharkov, Ukraine, Dmitry spent most of his early childhood in Urals, Russia and much of his life in a small town not far from Nizhniy Tagil due to his father’s military background. During his college years at Belgorod State University in Belgorod, Russia, Dmitry spent a lot of time traveling. In 2008-09, he was given an opportunity to live in the United States, which was a great  experience that helped him understand the language and culture better.

He currently lives in Odessa, Ukraine, working as a freelance translator for clients all around the world. He is always looking for new clients and is always available for interesting projects. He prefers working in the legal and medical fields, but also has experience and knowledge in marketing, economics, business, food services, hospitality industry, tourism and management. Since he was younger, Dmitry dreamed of becoming an interpreter, and now that his dream has come true, he hopes to someday live in Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and maybe even China.

How did you originally hear about TW? About the contest?

Dmitry: I heard about TermWiki at ProZ.com, a professional networking portal for translators. There was a posting for TermWiki there. I started visiting the site, adding and translating terms, and one day,  I saw an announcement about the iPad 2 contest. And I thought: “I should try it, I can do that.”

What were your original thoughts about TermWiki? How have those initial thoughts changed as you became more familiar with TW?

Dmitry: At first, I thought TermWiki was just another clone of Wikipedia: no registration fee, created by the people and for the people. But then I realized that TermWiki is something quite different: it’s more specific and is like a big social network for linguists across any and all languages. It’s much more of a community effort than just another commercial project. I’ve become very interested in TermWiki through the contest.

What do you think about the social networking aspect of TW?

Dmitry: I think the social networking aspect of TermWiki is going in the right direction. One of the main goals of TW so far is to attract quality translators. Of course you won’t attract that many translators by paying a low fee, but you can attract translators by creating and giving them a workspace they like. What does an average translator need? The first thing a translator needs is a place where (s)he can feel comfortable, meet friends, share pictures, videos or songs, publish recent news, spend time discussing translation problems, etc. TermWiki offers all of this through its profile pages, BuzBea, forum, etc.  Translators and linguists need some sort of social network or community where professionals from all over world can gather and talk about global problems, share experiences, find jobs, etc. With the TermWiki community, translators and linguists can do all of this while helping advance the community by adding and translating high-quality terms.

What do you enjoy about TermWiki?

Dmitry: What I really enjoy about TermWiki is that it’s only 1 year old. I’m really excited, and think you guys are excited too. :)  There is so much potential, and I truly believe that TermWiki has a bright future. It’s a pleasure to wake in the morning and to find that some new feature went online. The TermWiki team should keep on doing what they are doing: entertaining and attracting people by adding new and interesting features. That is TermWiki’s main weapon, but it requires hard work and dedication from the entire team. So far you guys are doing a great job! It’s better to visit a website with a team that cares than to visit a website with a team that doesn’t care.

Would you recommend TW to a friend? Why?

Dmitry: I would definitely recommend TW to all my friends, and in fact, I already did when I decided to build my fan base! The uniqueness of TW is that it’s a fantastic learning platform, which really helps people discover new things in any specific field. Users don’t necessarily have to add or translate terms. They can simple use the definitions to learn. And once again, users should pay attention to the social networking aspect. If I decide I want to learn about something new, the best approach would be to find someone knowledgeable about that specific topic on TW and ask for some advice. TermWiki is a community of learners and teachers.

Anything you would like to see on TW in the future?

Dmitry: Plenty of things! In fact, I could even make my own wish list. :) As I already said, I think it would be beneficial for TermWiki to pay more attraction to translators. Create a unique workplace where linguists can relax, have fun, share photos, videos, songs, leave comments for other linguists, easily access quotes for translation jobs, and take part in interesting contests.

Each user should also have access to a unique workplace for his/her portfolio, where (s)he can add jobs that are visible to all users, including potential customers, with the possibility of including all necessary information, such as rates, working areas, daily word output, contacts, etc.

Perhaps some day the TermWiki team will create their own browser-based CAT-tool, which every translator could use for free, together with their glossaries! This is just a dream right now as it requires a lot of time and work to come true. The other thing that would be useful to have on TermWiki is a simple and effortless system for posting jobs to allow clients to post projects and receive quotes within a few clicks. I hope that TermWiki will become an interesting platform, attracting millions of professional translators and linguists from all over the world!

And finally, how does it feel to have a brand new iPad2?

Dmitry: I’m pretty much excited! It’s a great device. I hope it will help me with my everyday work. I also hope there will be plenty of contests at TermWiki and, who knows, maybe some day somebody will win an iPad 3! And, please, launch TW for an iPad as soon as possible! Thank you, TermWiki, for making my dreams come true.

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