You’ve had to wait too long for this.
But it is finally here. The Russian Spectrum – translating everything worth translating from the Russian media.
I’ll keep it brief.
(1) We need translators! If you can proficiently translate from Russian into English, I will be very happy to have you on board.
First, the bad news:
- You’re not getting paid, as I’m currently running the site out of my own pockets and spare time.
Ouch! That’s pretty bad. What’s the good news, then?
- Each post has the translator’s name attached to it, allowing you to quickly build up an online portfolio of your work (e.g. here’s mine).
- Hundreds of daily readers from the get go! Vast publicity! Or at least more publicity than they’d get if you post your translations in various discussion threads with hundreds of comments. (you know who you are…)))
- As I’m not paying the piper, you get to call the tune: Translate what you like, when you like, however often you want to.
- Let the world know about the diversity of the Russian media, and points of view that are ignored in the Western media.
- Get paid after all! Well, as soon as I get funding, which I honestly think is more likely than not. Loyal, reliable, and competent volunteers will get first dibs on any paid positions.
If you are interested, please contact me and I will make you a Contributor account at The Russian Spectrum. You’ll be ready to go in no time.
(2) Explore the site! There are already 36 translations of the site. Some of them you will be familiar with from here, but almost half are unique to The Russian Spectrum. Furthermore, my aim is to add at least two translations a day, with output set to expand if volunteers join in.
(3) While I don’t like to beg, and usually don’t – at least not on my regular blogs – I will make an exception for The Russian Spectrum. To ensure the reliability and security needed to foster its smooth growth and development, I decided to go with the best hosts and software for a small media organization. Total projected costs for a year at its present scale are on the order of $400.
So to cut to the chase, yes, I’d appreciate some change. Thank you.
Have you included that Kommersant interview with Konstantin Lebedev and which Yalensis translated and posted on Kremlin Stooge? I’m sure Yalensis won’t mind it being posted on RS. As far as I know, it’s never appeared anywhere in the West apart from my posting of it at Yalensis’s suggestion in the Guardian, which action slammed down a white-ribbonist and his supportive chums in the UK who were commenting at the foot of a Moscow Miriam column. That action of mine was the first posting I’ve made to the Grauniad in almost a year: I just got sick of their “comment is free” hypocrisy.
I’d translate something, but I don’t read Russian media other than blogs. 🙂
Is there anything good, especially about Russia’s relations with the US or Europe, anyone wants translated? I can try it at least once.
This also gives me an idea, AK… Maybe you should create a topic on inoforum or some such place where Russians can suggest articles that should be translated to English. Or point them to your forum for that.
There’s gonna be blog translations too, so you’re in. I mean it’s not like we can leave the likes of Politrash and Starikov out of the picture in good conscience… 🙂
I created an account for you at TRS. If you happen upon something that you really like and feel should be translated and publicized, then go for it! It will always be an option, at least.
Articles suggestions forum… yes, that’s a good idea longer-term, but right now not a priority, as I won’t have time to fulfill requests anyway. The main task now is to (1) keep it going and (2) get money for it.
I seriously can’t find anything recent I think should be translated… If you don’t have any specific suggestions, do you have any idea which topics should be covered and where to find articles on that?
I suppose articles about the US would be of most interest, but that will only deepen the mutual butthurt. I’m not sure if I want to contribute to that.
In short: Anything you wish. Anything you’re interested in. Anything you think would be of interest to a Western audience – in particular, I think topics on which Russians think one way but Westerners think another way (or don’t think about at all) are particularly interesting.
Longer: Later today, hopefully, I will finish making a guide for new translators, and will email it out. There are already a dozen volunteers, so a more centralized communications format will soon have to be implemented. I’m thinking of creating a Google Group or Hangout for that. What do you think?
I think I found a perfect resource for that. The political slant on Odnako should cause quite a bit of butthurt, but maybe it will improve the quality of the dialogue at some point. Not to mention, their views represent majority Russian opinion, which western pundits have been trying their best to ignore all this time.
And man, I’m so rusty with this. I remember I used to be able to go much faster when translating.
Anatoly, did you see the message I sent you through the contact page? I’d donate a bit if there was an anonymous way for me to do it.