Languages

Russian Translation

Verbio Color Band

Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan

Russian translation (usually from English to Russian) comprises 7% of Verbio’s translation and interpreting work. Verbio produces Russian translations, such as technical manuals, legal and financial documents, eLearning modules, marketing campaigns, and identity paperwork for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). All Verbio’s Russian translators are professionally qualified, native speakers. The ISO 17100:2015 Translation Standard requires that we measure and assess translators’ competence and professional expertise along 6 vectors before we consider working with them: linguistic and cultural competence, technical subject matter expertise, ability to use the technology and conduct cross-cultural research. They must pass relevant background checks and knowledge of privacy protocols. We also verify their cultural familiarity with the target audience (usually gained through intercultural communications studies and cultural immersion in both source and target settings).

Russian interpreters support the local Slavic community in their conversations with educators, medical professionals, and housing management. Verbio’s interpreters are court-certified with Washington or Oregon Judicial Department, or the medical interpreters are health care certified interpreters approved by WA DSHS or OHA.

How common is the Russian Language?

The Russian language is spoken by more than 258 million total speakers worldwide, or 2.4% of world’s population. Russian is certainly spoken in Russia. Yet, it is also the official language of Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Russian is unofficially used and very well understood in many other former Soviet countries, such as Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and a few others. Roughly one-third of the population of each Ukraine, Estonia, and Latvia speaks Russian as their first language.

Many Russian speakers emigrated to the United States and Canada, particularly during the 1990s. The estimate is 6 Million Russian-speakers now call North American home, making this one of the top non-English languages spoken in 47 states. These are the states with the largest percentage of Russian speakers compared to total state population:

  • North Dakota 2.46% 2.46%
  • New York 1.85% 1.85%
  • New Jersey 1.65% 1.65%
  • District of Columbia 1.56% 1.56%
  • Connecticut 1.36% 1.36%
  • Massachusetts 1.31% 1.31%
  • Pennsylvania 1.25% 1.25%
  • Alaska 1.11% 1.11%
  • Vermont 1.09% 1.09%
  • Washington 1.06% 1.06%
  • Maryland 1.02% 1.02%
  • Oregon 1.01% 1.01%

Fun Facts about Russian:

  • The Russian alphabet has two characters that represent no sound: ь and ъ.
  • Did you know that the Russian rainbow has seven colors? This is because the Russian language distinguishes between darker blue (синий) and lighter blue (голубой).
  • Astronauts that go to the ISS have to have a working knowledge of Russian: the computer systems onboard the space station use both English and Russian, but in case of an emergency the instructions are given in Russian. Astronauts (or should we say cosmonauts?) also stay in Moscow for a while to help them master the language even better
  • The Russian word for red (красный) used to mean “beautiful”. Doesn’t this add an intriguing layer to the symbolism of Red Square?

Practical Facts about Russian:

  • When translating text from English to Russian, you can expect the Russian text to expand by 15% more than the original English. Similarly, when translating from Russian into English, the final translation will be about 10% less text than the original Russian.
  • The Russian language tends to favor longer sentences. One Russian sentence is often divided into two English sentences, just as two English sentences are often merged to form a better single sentence in Russian.
  • Russian uses more nouns and noun phrases – those get “translated” into verbs to avoid multiple “of-phrases” in English.

 

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