Broadening my horizons

At work, I have been receiving a steady stream of files every day for translation or editing. Sometimes people need things done right away or in a few days time, but people have been reasonable about what one person can do, so even though I receive assignments from a total of about 40 people, some of whom are in the office and some of whom email requests from our overseas offices, I have been able to coordinate all of it reasonably well; I keep a spreadsheet file of my "to do" list with the basic facts of each assignment.

The real challenge is keeping up with the jargon and situation/conditions for all the different projects. I get documents for a new waste disposal contract in Thailand or a capacity building project for a mineral analysis lab in Laos or a geo-spatial mapping study in Montenegro - the range of projects is pretty wide! Some of these documents seem so complex and foreign at first glance that I can hardly imagine how I will comprehend the contents at all. But after some investigation into the scope of the project and a few searches on the internet (Google Scholar searches and digitized book searches, not to mention the always handy open-source wiki entries for quick explanations on just what things like "arc welding" are all about) I have been navigating my way through some very intriguing reports.

When I first accepted this job, I was pretty sure I would have the opportunity to learn more complex Japanese, but in addition to that, I'm finding these previously intimidating subjects I knew nothing about to be the real eye openers. Hmm, or it could be the coffee. :)