Interview of the month – Olga Patrounova

Interview of the month – Olga Patrounova
(professional translator and interpereter)

What is your relationship with the Greek language? How and why did you start learning it?

When I was younger, I spent a few years with my parents and sister in India, where my father, an engineering professor, was posted as a UNESCO delegate. On our way back to Moscow we travelled around Europe, stopping in Athens. After having lived in India, I was very impressed by Greece; I fell in love with it. When I got back to Moscow, I found out about a Greek language course at the Pioneers Palace, which is a large children’s club, and started attending classes there. I was 13 years old.  I was fascinated by the Greek language and I continued learning it by myself. I studied English at university, but I ended up working with Greek. I worked as a Greek language editor at “Progress” publishing house and as a lecturer at Moscow Linguistic University and at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow. At the same time, I occasionally took jobs as a conference interpreter and as a translator.

In your opinion, what are the similarities and differences between Russian and Greek?

There are definitely both similarities and differences, mostly in grammar. Both are inflected languages. For example, nouns in Greek and in Russian have three genders; Russian has 6 cases. On the other hand, there are no articles in Russian. That explains why Russians often make mistakes in the use of articles in Greek. They have the tendency to either not use them at all or not use them enough. Word formation in Russian is more complex, as there are many suffixes, prefixes, etc. Verbs are also more difficult, because they have perfect and imperfect tenses. Another difficult chapter of the Russian language is accentuation. Even Russian themselves make mistakes when stressing words. There are many cases where the stress moves from one syllable to another and it’s practically impossible to memorise all the rules. How are you supposed to explain to a foreigner why Russians say «нога» (leg) stressing the second syllable, but they accentuate the first syllable when they talk of «ножка» (diminutive of the word leg)? Russian uses some consonants that do not exist in Greek, which makes them very difficult to pronounce for a Greek person. Voiced consonants can become voiceless depending on their position in a word. Voiceless and voiced vowels are pronounced in different ways. I think that the fact that the Greek language uses accents on words helps avoid mistakes. I would say that the greatest difficulty of the Greek language is the use of words from ancient Greek and from katharevousa (a form of compromise between ancient Greek and modern Greek conceived in the early 19th century), leading to the parallel use of two words with the same meaning, one of which derives from ancient Greek and the other from the modern form of the language.

How did you decide to become an interpreter and what do you enjoy the most about your job?

My interest in interpreting started from my desire to improve my Greek. When I was a student, I went to a school for tour guides and during my student years I worked with groups of Greek tourists. Later I started working with the Central Committee of the Komsomol, syndicates, etc, as an interpreter for official delegations. At some point, while I was working with a delegation of Greek syndicalists-filmmakers, they asked me to do chuchotage (which I now fear more than anything). That’s how it all started. Somehow I ended up in the interpreter’s cabin…Interpreting is a very challenging profession. You are constantly being challenged; it’s like taking an exam or running a race. Two years ago, two of my colleagues and I taught a class called “Introduction to Interpreting” to a group of female students from Kazakhstan who were interested in becoming interpreters. I told them that the first time you enter the cabin is similar to the first time you get behind the wheel. Some conferences are an opportunity to get informed and learn new things. Others give you the opportunity to travel. 

What are some specific characteristics of conference interpreting and interpreting at business meetings? 

I think that contacts are very important to get interpreting jobs at business meetings.  As far as I’m concerned, the greatest difficulty of business meetings are the working conditions: the endless hours, the total lack of organisation (you are seated at a table where everyone is talking at the same time). My permanent business clients generally don’t offer me conference interpreting jobs, but rather translation assignments.

Can you think of a particularly challenging or interesting interpreting job?

I have worked at countless conferences, but there are two jobs I would like to mention. The first one was a lecture by the Director of The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, I. Antonova, which was entitled “Priam’s treasure”. It required an art history background. While I was there I met some colleagues from the Panhellenic Association of Conference Interpreters, who suggested that I become a member. I joined the Association, I met more colleagues and got many jobs thanks to them. Unfortunately, that Association no longer exists. Another interesting job was the Synaxis of the First-Hierarchs of the Orthodox Churches in Istanbul, followed by the Pauline Symposium. I was accompanied by great colleagues and we had a wonderful trip in the footsteps of Apostle Paul.

Finally, is there any advice you’d like to give to your younger colleagues who are interested in interpreting?

Interpreting is a hard and really demanding job where you can never drop your guard. It requires studying, reading, knowledge…Unfortunately, the quality of your work is not the only thing that matters; there are many swindlers who try to take advantage of us. Sometimes the clients’ demands are unreasonable. Lately it happens quite often that the potential client wants to meet me. I consider it a bad practice that adds nothing to the process. Everything can be discussed over the phone. We must be very careful when negotiating working conditions and the terms and conditions of a job. Another serious problem are delays in payment. It is difficult to make a living from interpreting alone; usually you must also have another occupation, be it translation, teaching or something else. Finally, I would like to wish good luck to all my colleagues, whether they are new at the job or experienced professionals. May they get many interesting and well-paid jobs!