Initially, the Russian translation market was driven by the oil industry, aerospace and similar joint ventures. Perestroika in the 1980s created a surge of commercial work, which eventually declined slightly. More recently, the dissolution of the Soviet Union not only resulted in more official languages in that area of the world (see Figure 1), but also allowed business reprivatization to occur. There is much to be sold to and bought from the West, and every Fortune 500 company has a presence in Russia.

The market is there, the work is there, and so are the translation companies to do it. Challenges — especially regarding marketing, communications, and translation technology such as machine translation — do exist, though.

In the past, US businesses hired US or Western European translation firms to produce Russian documentation from the English originals. To do the work, the firms hired native Russians who had emigrated to the United States or Western Europe. This approach had several disadvantages. Since English was their second language, the Russians were unlikely to be fluent in the source language, which could affect the quality of the translation. After living in the West for a while, their vocabulary, particularly technical terminology or slang, might also have become outdated. And they were often being paid Western rates, about 25 cents a word for word-processed work. Meanwhile, Russian businesses that needed translation work approached Russian translation firms.

Now, US and Russian businesses are both looking to those Russian translation firms. “Being a language professional, I can tell you that Russian is too complicated to be handled abroad,” says Dimitry Postnikov, technical director for Neotech, one of the top Russian translation firms in Moscow. “Russia is progressing quickly, trying to build a market economy, so the Russian business and technical language is changing dramatically. I hope you don’t want to look funny with some commercial proposal or letter written in the Russian language of the 1970s.”

The higher quality of the resulting Russian documents, along with lower costs for human translation, is attractive to Western firms. Those who pursue a working relationship, though, must often invest in software to make the two companies’ systems compatible. They also need to have communications processes in place that rely on the Internet, e-mail and overnight package delivery in order for the arrangement to work. Even then, Western companies will find that the translation business in Russia is considerably different from what they are used to.

State	Language	Family	Alphabet	Comment
Azerbaijan	Azerbaijani	Turkic	Roman	The first to switch from Cyrillic back to the Roman alphabet. Business can still be conducted in Russian.
Armenia	Armenian	Armenian	Armenian	The language is 2,500 years old with heavy Iranian influence. The unique alphabet dates to 400 AD. Business can still be conducted in Russian.
Belorus	Belorussian	Slavic	Cyrillic	Sometimes considered a dialect of Russian rather than a separate language, it is the official language of the country.
Estonia	Estonian	Finno-Ugric	Roman	Similar to Finnish
Georgia	Georgian	Caucasian	Georgian	A language with an ancient literary tradition, the written language dates to the 5th century AD. Business can still be conducted in Russian.
Kazakhstan	Kazakh	Turkic	Cyrillic	Business can still be conducted in Russian, but use of Kazakh in business is increasingly advantageous — it’s crucial to monitor the situation. Expected to switch to the Roman alphabet.
Kyrgyzstan	Kirgiz	Turkic	Cyrillic	Business can still be conducted in Russian. Expected to switch to the Roman or Arabic alphabet.
Latvia	Latvian	Baltic	Roman	Latvian going through rebirth.
Lithuania	Lithuanian	Baltic	Roman	Considered the oldest modern Indo-European language, it has similarities to ancient Sanskrit.
Moldavia	Moldavian	Romance	Cyrillic	A dialect of Romanian, but the Cyrillic alphabet was imposed by Stalin.
Russia	Russian	Slavic	Cyrillic	The dominant language of the former Soviet Union is likely to be the lingua franca for a long time to come.
Tajikistan	Tajik	Iranian	Cyrillic	Business can be conducted in Russian. Expected to switch to the Roman or Arabic alphabet.
Turkmenistan	Turkman	Turkic	Cyrillic	Business can be conducted in Russian. Expected to switch to the Roman or Arabic alphabet.
Ukraine	Ukrainian	Slavic	Cyrillic	The second most widely spoken language in the former USSR, with a long literary tradition dating to the 10th century AD.
Uzbekistan	Uzbek	Turkic	Cyrillic	Business can be conducted in Russian. Expected to switch to the Roman or Arabic alphabet.

Figure 1: States and Official Languages of the Former Soviet Union

What a Western Company Faces in Russia

As far as business is concerned, Russia is Moscow, and Moscow is Russia. In Moscow, a variety of translation options exist:

• Legitimate, established international translation firms with multiple staff members offer numerous language options, editing, peripheral services, and some degree of computerization (at the very least, for communication purposes). Some of these firms may also work as subcontractors through Western agencies.
• Walk-in offices with signs on the street are the most visibly apparent. They may comprise no more than two multilingual translators with a typewriter and may specialize in short, one-time jobs, such as translating birth certificates for visa applications, paperwork for importing a second-hand car, and other similar documents. As you might expect, the quality of such work is generally low.
• Some companies base their growth around one or two clients. “Many companies of this type are like Soviet collective farms, without bank accounts, working for black cash,” explains Postnikov.
• Many people work as freelance interpreters and translators.

Not all options are equal, so language and documentation managers must tread carefully when looking for a service provider for a long-term relationship.

Of the 74 translation firms listed in the Moscow Business Telephone Guide, Postnikov estimates that 15 or 20 seem to be viable, with about half of those actively marketing. About 20 to 30 he considers weak (for example, research institutes who have a few translation clients on the side), and about 30 exist only on paper.

How to avoid this latter group? Postnikov explains, “With better companies, they can do any job, regardless of word count, with any deadline, and if you ask them about pictures or table formatting, they will tell you, ‘Okay, we’ll connect you with the translator, and you will be able to explain your needs.’”

A high degree of organization and communication is typical among Moscow’s legitimate translation firms. Neotech, established in 1991, is among the largest in Russia, with clients including Motorola and Lucent Technologies. The firm is structured so staff members with the appropriate expertise work as a team for a given project. A project manager heads the team and serves as the client contact.

Neotech’s Postnikov, who has worked in the United States, brings his first-hand knowledge of Western business systems to the operation. The firm translates 2,000 pages a month. More than 90 percent is in Russian and English, with the balance being made up by German, French, Ukrainian, and Japanese.

Translations have undergone the same transformation as in the West; technology has become more important in the last decade. A Russian translation firm may use computers on a LAN, multiple phone lines with a dedicated fax, dial-up Internet connections, one or more laser printers, scanners, copiers, and even some small-quantity printing and binding equipment. Office supply shortages and delays in equipment maintenance and repair are no longer the problem they once were. Cellular phones and e-mail have streamlined communications. Although telecommunications services are expensive, it is a major improvement on the days when one had to queue for access to an international line, which might have to be assigned after business hours.

As recently as 1995, most source documents arrived as hard copies. Now, however, Neotech receives 45 percent in electronic form, 35 percent by fax, and only 20 percent as hard copies. Almost 80 percent of the completed work is returned to clients via e-mail. The few jobs returned in hard copy form generally involve formatting and printing, for example, small quantities of passenger car owners manuals and workshop manuals for auto dealers.

Depending upon the variety of its clients’ languages and industries, a firm is likely to develop or acquire text-based and CD-based glossaries. Machine translation software, though, is not as likely to be part of a firm’s technology arsenal. Low-level MT software, available for less than $200, is intended for Internet surfers or people reading help screens and is not suitable for serious translation work. High-level MT is not widely used for several reasons:

1. Insufficient workload doesn’t justify the purchase. Even large-volume clients tend to consider translation a secondary task rather than one that should be integrated into its business documentation processes.
2. The software has been unavailable or unaffordable. Software piracy has a long tradition; under Communist rule, there were no legal sources from which to buy software. Now private companies sell it, but at Western prices and without comparable customer support in some cases, making purchase realistic only for big businesses.
3. The pricing structure for translation favors the use of humans. Machine translation costs 8 cents a word, plus 8 cents a word for editing, for a total of 16 cents a word —the same cost as human translation work in Russia.

Rates and Marketing Slowly Increasing

Rates are beginning to increase slowly, but translation services are sold at a relatively low US $20 for 250 words. Although some multinational companies outsource their entire volume of translation work —everything from half-page faxes to large manuals—others do their own day-to-day work and outsource only the most urgent or complicated work to a translation firm. Some also cut corners by hiring local engineers with some knowledge of foreign languages, believing they will serve as translators for their manuals and brochures, as well as for their business correspondence.

Pricing pressure is strong, so smaller agencies spending no time, effort, or money editing and proofreading are more profitable and can ensure shorter turnarounds. Russian accounting processes can also be complex, costing effort, time, and money.

Neotech is finding marketing to be an ally in the fight for profitability, says Postnikov. “We are aggressive in marketing add-ins, such as formatting, DTP, electronic publishing, color DTP, and printing, which can end up being 50 percent to 80 percent of the total price.”

Most other firms’ marketing efforts simply involve free ads in the Moscow Business Telephone Guide, the Moscow Yellow Pages, and the Moscow Times. Some, including Neotech, have Web sites, but without ads elsewhere promoting their URLs, sites may not gain much attention.

Unreliable mail delivery and security concerns affecting courier package delivery make direct mail difficult, so many firms get their best results through direct marketing by a salesperson. “Our salesperson keeps calling about 200 prospective clients at least once per month, bringing us one or two clients each month,” Postnikov says.

But other methods can work, too. In 1994, one marketing communications firm developed a way to reach Western firms operating in Moscow with something less fleeting than phone calls. It created a fax campaign directed at the Western managers, who often didn’t speak Russian. The faxed “package” included background information about the translation company with an invitation to subscribe to a free Guerrilla Linguistics Manual. Each chapter of the manual provided useful information about Russian culture and language. Topics included money, time, family, food and drink, gender, government, and religion.

Of the more than 290 faxes sent, 43 responses were received. Of those who responded, eight companies, most notably IBM, became clients of the translation firm. The lesson? Companies looking for translation services and those providing the services must be willing to invest some time and money to develop relationships — and a little creativity may also help you gain a stronger foothold in the market.

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What a Western Company Faces in the CIS

Just when companies had figured out how to handle business in the Russian language, the Soviet Union collapsed. Instead of navigating through one language, companies now face the prospect of dealing with 15 individual countries—each with its own language and regulations.

The situation is very dynamic, and companies would be well-advised to monitor language use and regulations carefully and continuously. It is not impossible to prepare a proposal in what was an appropriate language and be told on the presentation day that your company submitted materials in the wrong language and is therefore prohibited from participating.

Cable and Wireless, the British telecommunications firm, encountered such a situation almost immediately. When the firm submitted its proposal to the Government of Latvia to modernize the phone system, it was informed in late autumn 1992 that the proposal had to be in Latvian. Christmas was approaching, and no Western-style translation firms were located in Latvia. What to do? The company enlisted the help of expatriates in the United Kingdom and United States to finish the task.

This scenario has been repeated all over the former Soviet Union as Western companies race to do deals while the language situation is in flux.

In 1992, Latvia had already passed a law requiring any company registering in that country to have a Latvian name--a name that must be approved by the Latvian Language Board. Conducting business in Russian, rather than the language of the republic, is considered highly offensive in the Baltic republics, Moldavia and the Ukraine. And although Russian serves as an acceptable lingua franca for the time being in other areas, when in Armenia and Georgia, businesspeople would do well to acknowledge in conversation that Russian is only being used for expedience. The Central Asian republics (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, and Kyrgyzstan), which have a wealth of raw materials of interest to the West, present greater challenges. With the exception of Tajik, which is essentially Persian, the languages of these primarily Islamic lands are related to Turkish.

In Kazakhstan, for example, a rather stringent language law was proposed last autumn, which would change the language provisions in the country’s 1993 constitution. Under the constitution, Kazakh is the official state language, but in acknowledgement that nearly one-third of the country’s inhabitants speak Russian, the Russian language has special status among citizens whose mother tongue is not Kazakh. The new law, however, would require that:

• at least half of television and radio programming be broadcast in Kazakh
• ethnic Kazakhs become proficient in Kazakh by 2001
• speakers of other languages, including Russian, become proficient in Kazakh by 2006.

As if that weren’t enough, talk exists of a plan to switch the language from Cyrillic script, imposed by Soviet authorities in the 1930s, to Latin script. No timeframe is in place for such a switch, but it is indicative of the type of language issues authorities are addressing in the former Soviet republics. Figure 1 outlines language usage and possible changes to come in all 15 CIS countries.

In the meantime, Western governments have started to help. In November 1997, for example, the Canadian International Development Agency granted Latvia more than US $1 million to help develop Latvian terminology which will harmonize with that of European laws and regulations.

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John Freivalds
JFA
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E-mail: JFA@worldnet.att.net