Russian is an important language and is also one of the 6th languages in the United Nations. The language comes from a European family however it is an East Slavic language and quite different from other Indo-European languages. The Soviet Union had Russian as the official language and was de facto. Interestingly, Russian is an important language of Ukraine and has always had a great influence on the language despite the Russian intrusion into Ukraine.

There are up to 258 million speakers of the Russian language. Russian is the most spoken Slavic language and also one of the most native languages in Europe. It also holds the status of being one of the two official languages aboard an international space station. The Russian economy is one of the most promising economies of the world and hence many businesses globalize and expand their operations to other English-speaking countries. For that process, they have to initiate Russian-to-English translation services.

It is important that a professional translation company is hired for the purpose of the Russian translation. The businesses should also ensure that they know enough about the language pair they are looking to translate from and in. Also, translators should be checked for the following skills.

Language skills 

Nothing can beat a native speaker as a translator. Hence, as a Russian-to-English translator, you should have native or near-native fluency in both languages. This helps translators to understand the nuances and dialects of the language as per the demand of the target audiences. Also, they understand and use both languages fluently, without any difficulty. Moreover, they are usually also familiar with the different dialects and slang of both languages. As the slang and humor elements in a language often pose a great challenge for translators. Russian, for instance, is a different language. It does not share many similarities with other languages and also ranks higher in the difficulty level as suggested by the foreign services institute (FSI). 

Subject matter expertise

Translators cannot excel in translation without subject matter expertise. It is crucial for technical, legal, and medical translations. Translators with the right language skills and subject knowledge can do wonders. It helps them to bring accuracy, precision, and consistency into translated content. This skill is significant for the translators to take care of the translation work vigilantly. The translation task can get more challenging when the language is Russian and the subject is medical translation. Medical translators have to confront many challenges and many languages don’t have the exact words to translate so they have to look for alternatives. This is why an experienced translator with subject matter expertise and the right language knowledge can nail the translation more professionally. 

Sticking to deadlines

Deadlines are the main concern of businesses. It is important that as a business you hire a professional translation company that sticks to deadlines. Businesses often come with tight deadlines and quick and efficient work is inevitable without compromising quality and accuracy. The translators should be good enough while working on Russian to English translation services and should ensure that they consider all the major differences between both languages. Russian differs from English on a larger scale and the lack of knowledge can cause the unnecessary delay. Language knowledge should not be the reason to cause a delay in the overall delivery process. They should be good at time management and prioritizing tasks.

Attention to detail

The translation is a complex and challenging task. It asks for a good attention span and is a detail-oriented task. The translators need to be good at scanning errors, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Also identifying and rectifying the errors in the cultural and linguistic nuances is another special attribute that can help the translators in delivering quality Russian to English translation services. It should also include the cultural factors and the relevant facts as well as considering the impact of language dialects and nuances. The Russian culture is quite different from that of English-speaking countries. Therefore, it is important to be mindful of the similarities and differences. Translators should particularly avoid topics that can spark controversy or conflict.  

Willingness to learn

A translator can excel even more in his field when he is always willing to learn. The translation field is constantly evolving. Also, there are new technologies and techniques that are hitting the real world at a faster pace. Many new theories negate the previous ones. Hence it is important that translators keep themselves up to date and keep reading about the content that is relevant to their field to upgrade their knowledge. Also, they should be open to adapting new technologies and should implement them in their work. For instance, in case the subject addresses Russia and the Russian language, a brief knowledge about the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine can help to create information that will make readers believe that the writer and translator have the relevant knowledge and are updated on recent happenings.

Conclusion

Russian is a challenging language and when it comes to translating content from Russian to English language, it is important to consider the important attributes of translators. They should have the relevant language skills, preferably should be native speakers, should be subject matter experts, good at time management, attention to detail, and are open to learning.