The Russian language as the most geographically spread language in the world is spoken both in Europe and Asia by more than 170 million people living in countries like Russia, Moldavia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan etc. So finding a Russian Translator often becomes an imperative for many businesses, which are keen to trade in that region.

Basically, the Russian is one of the three surviving East Slavic languages from the Indo-European language group; Ukrainian and Belarusian being the two others. The language has a long history, its earliest traces are found in Novgorod in 11th century.

Though the language seems to have a heritage of almost 10 centuries, the written Russian started to gain significance only in 17th century during the reign of the Peter the Great.  It is during his reign that a new alphabet was introduced and the new language started to develop.

Later, famous 19th century writer Aleksander Pushkin developed this language further. In recent times, the language has become almost identical with the spoken Russian. In fact, during that time, the Russian language and literature flourished magnificently in the hands of world class writers like Tolstoy, Dostoyevskiy and Gogol. The Russian language was the only official language during both Russian Empire as well as the USSR.

However, these days when the world has become a global village, the culture and language of Russia can no longer remain restricted in that country alone. This is why the Russian translators are eagerly looked for. “It’s not just having the language skill. It’s also having the expertise in the subject matter,” said Dahlberg, whose story was striking enough that Nicholas Hartmann, president of the American Translators Assn., retold it during the group’s 50th convention in New York last month. There is a wealth of knowledge and background you need in your area of specialty. “It’s so easy to communicate, but once you find someone you want to communicate with, you find they don’t speak your language,” Hartmann said. And it’s not enough to simply speak another language. “Translation is far more than words,” said Hartmann. It requires understanding of not only the context of words and phrases, but also the technical and legal issues involved. And the spelling has to be impeccable.

It is not an easy business to find a good Russian translator who can meet all the above mentioned demands. References and certificates can help you to find one, but experience is crucial.

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I watch the developments of the situation on the translation scene. From one side, there is a growing demand in professional translators, especially Russian translators; from the other side, the rates are growing down. The reason partially is in possibility to grab a student from the street to cut expenses. I wonder where the boundaries are? And what happens to a professional translation?

In Scotland recently translation companies have undercut market rates to win the contracts to supply interpreters to Scottish courts and other government services. A court interpreter said the new conditions meant interpreters were effectively being forced to work for less than the minimum wage. It takes many years of practice and training to get to a level that is sufficiantly competent to carry out intricate work in a high pressured environment like court. A lot of interpreters and translators are forced out of the profession because of the low rates of pay.

For better value for money and greater efficiency a professional translator should be engaged.

I, as a professional English Russian translator, am supposed to provide a high quality translation, carry out all the stages of translation myself and as a result to receive less than a minimum payment. I think, OK, at least I have an experience and I am in demand. But I would rather take part in projects for non-profit organisations for free. At least I have a feeling of fulfillment and commitment. And I do what I personally love – translating from English to Russion and from Russian to English.

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There are few interesting tendencies to observe in today’s post.

Everybody is following the collisions in the web. Two media: internet and publishing business are watching each other and waiting for any blunder from each other’s side to grasp the situation and act immediately. If there is an article missing in a magazine; there is an immediate campaign on internet to publish the notorious article in translation, so that the readers can still read it.

So you can see the words ‘Russian translation’ everywhere nowadays. Russia achieved the pick of its popularity; I mean there is a lot of interest in what happens in Russia. It arouses many questions. So I guess, that Russian translators, like myself, are facing a new era.

And another tendency.

As the world gets smaller, readers are turning toward foreign fiction to understand other viewpoints. Far from being just the province of small independent publishing houses, literature in translation has become a mainstream phenomenon, with books that inspire huge bidding wars and literary debates.

There are very talented works of today’s young Russian writers, who speak modern Russian life to the world. And their stories are not lost in translation. Smart translation.

It is nice to believe, that people’s interest in Russian modern literature is growing. So the question is: can a philosophical novel, exploring the question of whether good can exist without evil, like “The Master and Margarita” be translated in such a way that it reads smoothly and fluidly like a bestseller?

Can we talk about a new translation, when, each phrase used in it appeared easily accessible and had a good rhythm. The characters are readily distinguishable from one another.

And the last but not the least. The top 10 countries ranked by Common Sense Advisory’s report “Countries That Matter Most Online in 2009″: U.S., Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Canada, Spain, China and Australia. The top 10 languages that provide the biggest bang for a business’ buck are: English, Japanese, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Simplified Chinese, Portuguese, Korean, Russian and Swedish.

Even in far New Zealand there is a growing interest in the Russian phenomenon. I happened to be one of the first readers of the science fiction novel where the author tries to penetrate the Russian psyche in order to understand the modern history of the western mankind. The translation of this talented book would become a highlight of my carrier as a translator.

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