Any of you NOT in academia?

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Jolanta Davis wrote:

> I'm just curious, are any of you not in academic positions? I know
> this is the recurring theme--what can one do with a degree in Russian
> or other Slavic languages and literatures--but I'd like to hear some
> personal stories, if anyone is willing to share. I understand that
> this may not be the best list to ask this question, but I wonder if
> any subscribers to SEELANGS are not teachers, professors, and
> educators.
> thanks
> Jolanta

Well, now that your message is only five minutes from being sent ;-)
(system clock off by an hour?), I guess I can respond...

I'm a translator, and without meaning to blow my own horn, I've been
successful at it.

My impression is that most translators don't hang out here, but I know
that there are at least 400 serious professional Russian/English
translators in this country, and most likely a few thousand more that
don't show up at places like the ATA. Most of the pros hang out on other
lists because SEELANGS really isn't oriented toward that end of the
profession. No objection implied -- academics should have a list, too.

I got my BA in 1978 from SUNY Stony Brook, double majoring in Russian
and Linguistics (Russian profs that were instrumental: Phil Radley and
Liz Vogel), then went to grad school for linguistics at Ohio State. I
didn't know in the crib that I wanted to be a translator; it was
actually a voyage of discovery that took me well into grad school. I
eventually came to the realization -- and not everybody will, because
we're all made of different stuff -- that I love reading science, and I
love reading about language, but I don't have the dedication to do the
research to create the knowledge. What I do love is doing research to
find knowledge that already exists, and working with language to
discover what things mean and how people use it. And I love playing with
language. But I would have gone stir-crazy in the publish-or-perish
world of academia, focusing more and more energy on a smaller and
smaller topic. As a translator, I get exposed to a wide variety of
content, from today's appeal of an arbitration court ruling to last
week's piece on desertification to a piece on banking practices the week
before. And I don't have to produce the answers, I just have to
understand them and find a way of saying them in English.

The bottom line is that I have some ability in this area and I can be
really passionate about it, and without passion, what's the point?

--
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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