Neotech visits students at Higher School of Translation (Moscow State University).

For the third year in a row Neotech has conducted Project Gain&Share at the Higher School of Translation at Moscow State University. Several events are planned at once for spring and summer of 2008.

The first of these was the April 9^th lecture of Vladimir Bakanov and Ekaterina Dobrokhotova-Maikova, the theme of which was: “The Role of the Translator in Perception of Foreing Literature: Mirror Image or Co-Authorship?”  The lecture was yet another gift from Neotech to the students from the Higher School of Translation, and was included in the official program of the annual Lomonosov 2008 international academic conference of graduates, students, and young scholars.

• What is the role of the translator in the perception of the translated text?
• Who is he – mirror or co-author?
• How conservative should the translation be?

These eternal questions are more current today than ever before.  They are the acid test of the degree to which a person who calls himself a translator is worthy of the name.  The question was presented at the conference just that harshly.  You want to be a translator?  You want to work with us, with the masters?  Then think!  Search out the answers – sweat it out!

Both Vladimir and Ekaterina expressed their own opinions, defining their stance.  This they are fully entitled to do, having earned the right by their magnificent translations and talented works.  V.I. Bankov is a journalist, translator, and publisher, a member of the Russian Journalists’ Union, the Russian Writers’ Union, and the Presidium of the Counsel for Science Fiction and Adventure Literature, and the director of the School of Fictional Translation .  In his translation we have read D. Adams, A. Asimov, A. Bester, I. Vo, F. Dick, R. Zelazny, A. Clark, K. Saimak, J. Tolkien, R. Sheckley, B. Shaw, and others.  Ekaterina Dobrokhotova-Maikova is a translator by calling, whose talents have earned her the right to translate S. Forester, G. Allen, and N. Stevenson.

The conference concluded with the announcement of a new competition for prizes offered by Neotech.  This time a fragment of a fictional text was chosen, packed with the linguistic forms of contemporary conversational language.  Textual task after textual challenge, the text is one that is impossible to cease working on once one has begun.  It was selected with the aim of simultaneously maximizing both the complexity and the interest of the task.

Why so much attention to such a seemingly simple event as a competition?  Because we want students to set about executing the translation with zeal, and for our task to sincerely intrigue them.  Only then can strong, beautiful results be expected.  Only in this way can we select those most worthy of being awarded not only gifts and prizes, but also the earned right to go through a summer internship at Neotech.