A portrait of the Russian interpreter

Portrait of the Russian interpreterBrigitte Evinyan is graduating soon as master in interpreting at the University of Ghent.

During her internship at De Taalsector (thelanguageindustry) she called a few dozen interpreters in Russia. She lets them talk freely about their work, the market, the industry, their aspirations and expectations. Thus she has a mountain of information to process: lots of facts and figures, but also a valuable collection of personal experiences.

With all that material, she then outlines a portrait of the Russian interpreter. Not in the form of a journalistic article, but in the form of a good old-fashioned letter. A letter from interpreter Nikolai to his old Belgian comrade and colleague Mark.

Read along over Mark's shoulder and get a fascinating glimpse into the life of the Russian interpreter.

 

Mark,

Dear comrade, how many summers and how many winters has it been! Remember how we promised each other to always keep in touch? I think that the time has come to share with each other what we have experienced in recent years.

I am a trained angineer, you probably remember that. But I already had a lot of love for languages as a child as well. That is why I decided at some point to return to university and become an interpreter. Let me briefly tell you how that went.

In Russia, every student candidate must take an entrance exam; Only a limited number of students are admitted into higher education. Only the students who pass, get a place in the faculty.

I was lucky, because after my entrance exam (1) I was admitted to the Moscow State Linguistic University MSLU with the help of some acquaintances, which is one of the largest and most prestigious universities of Russia in the field of linguistics. I studied five years for my second job. I got student benefits, but I was not free to choose the languages in which I now interpret. The university decides who studies what languages. English and Dutch were chosen for me.

In the last year of my studies, the university organised a competition for interpreters (2), I went through to the finals and immediately got an (albeit temporarily) offer to work as an interpreter in Belgium for a large Russian engineering firm that was working on the acquisition of a Belgian office. During this job, we always worked with two interpreters, so myself and the interpreter of the Belgian bureau – so you. The Belgians found that a waste money, I still remember – "Isn't an interpreter always neutral?" – but my Russian client thought it was better to get his own interpreter. That is not unusual in Russia. And so that's when I met you. How long has it been?

In the meantime, I have travelled a lot and met a lot of interesting people. I think that is important, and the profession of interpreting gives me that possibility.

However, I am also glad I can also start working as an engineer in Russia if it is necessary, because in Russia, the winters are long and in the winter there is little interpretating work. And if there is work, it is mainly in Moscow, St. Petersburg or Sochi. The offers of interpretation work are very irregular and the work is not easy, but if you do not give up, you notice how interesting and versatile this job is. Thanks to my job as an interpreter I'm always learning new things, I find that you are never too old to learn. Maybe you know that my motto is an old Russian saying: "Live a century - learn a century".

However, there are also things that bother me. Higher education in Russia is not a must in order to work as an interpreter. I am a member of the National League of translators and interpreters and I'm noticing lately that there are more and more "interpreters" with only a secondary school diploma or a certificate of a translation course. In these cases, the quality of the interpretating cannot be equal to that of a professional interpreter with a university degree. They work just as an interpreter to make money and they even try to work as a simultaneous interpreter, since that gets them more money. Whereas money is not the most important thing for me, because my job is my life. I do both simultaneous and consecutive interpreting and I'll occasionally interpret over the phone or Skype, but I can't say, that I love doing that.

I am now back in Belgium and trying to get my Russian interpreting diploma homologated in Belgium, I have submitted all the necessary documents: diploma, study program, thesis and so on. If I understand correctly, a consultant will now decide if my degree is equivalent to a Belgian diploma on the basis of four criteria: quality, learning outcome, study duration and level. I'm still waiting for the answer, and if the answer is positive, it could be that I'll stay here longer because I think I might have more opportunities on the European labour market then.

You know I'm a workaholic, Mark. If you know a language almost as good as a native speaker and are an interpreter who can translate the meaning of what is being said instead of translating word-for-word, your client will find that pleasant. Fair: all those word-for-word translations make a fluent conversation incredibly difficult. I find: only if your work meets the expectations of the client, will you earn respect (3). For me, quality is very important.

You see how much has changed in my life. I have achieved a lot that I am proud of. To say it in the words of the esteemed interpreter Tarkin Andrej Emiljanovich (4) : "I am a happy man because my hobby and my profession are one".

I am eager to hear how you're doing.

See you! Let me know more!

Your comrade

Nikolai


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(1) Places funded by the government: free form of education in which the study is paid for by the government. Other places are contractual places: education which you need to pay for yourself.

(2) Interpreters' competition - In the translation Faculty of MSLU under the leadership of the department of theory and practice of translation, a competition for interpreters was organised. The jury consisted of professional interpreters and professors of the department of theory and practice of translation No. 1.

(3) Kovaljovskaja Tatjana Vjasechslavovna, consecutive and simultaneous interpretater of English: "The status of an interpreter depends on the interpreter itself, respect is earned."

(4) Famous simultaneous interpreter, has interpreted on grand occasions in Russia and beyond. 

 


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Author: Brigitte Evinyan

Machine translation: SDL Machine Translation (previously SDL BeGlobal)

Post-editing: Quick Post-Editor 7

Source language: Nederlands (nl)


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