Currently there is much talk about “Asia pivot”, and it is clear that the Arabic language has good prospects. And what will happen to English as the language of international communication?
Vlad Belousov, member of the Union of translators of Russia, author of text-books and training courses for oil and gas translators and interpreters.
Recently scopes of work for interpreters and number of requests for translation in the English-Russian pair of languages have significantly reduced. The reason of that is quite clear. Big number of companies from English-speaking countries left Russia, physical number of expats drastically dropped. We can hear declarations at very high level that the English language “now for us is history”, because business relations with many western countries and companies have been broken off. Does that mean that English-Russian translators will have no more work? Let us try to figure it out.
Translators and teachers of foreign languages in their community often discuss the necessity to study oriental languages, which is right by its essence, because Arabic and Chinese are more and more demanded languages as commercial relationship between Russia and China and Arabic countries becomes stronger. Many translators have urgently started to investigate new areas. Institutes open or plan to open new departments for training of translators in oriental languages. More and more schools of the Russian language are opened in BRICS countries.
In this relation I have some comments to make.
First, in one year it is not possible to learn Chinese or Arabic language to the level at which you would not be embarrassed to call yourself a translator. That concerns colloquial language. And for work as a technical translator from these languages you will need to study and gain experience much longer. The same can be said about training of translators of oriental languages at institutes. That is replenishment of the existing army of Chinese and Arabic translators will start in our country in about five years, and from the ground level of practical work of graduates. And only already practicing translators will work until then.
Second, Chinese and Arabic companies wishing to enter the Russian market definitely are not going to wait. No doubt, already existing Chinese and Arabic translators, both in Russia and in those countries, will be occupied in full scope. But as long as before these languages were considered as rare, there will be a lack of translators in the market.
Here are some interesting facts. Let us review oil and gas industry as an example. Just a few Chinese companies were represented at International Moscow Oil and Gas Exhibition in 2022. However in 2023 there were over 300 Chinese companies at the same exhibition. I talked to some representatives of those companies and found out that only a few of them spoke perfect English. Significantly more of them, but not all, could speak broken Russian and many spoke only Chinese using a special translation program in their phones for communication. Definitely it can be used for translation of general phrases, but is absolutely unsuitable for professional technical language.
Most of those to whom I managed to talk did not find what to say in response to my question of how they are going to develop their business in the Russian market with evident presence of language problems. Obviously many Chinese can quickly learn Russian, but I doubt that they can do it at good technical level.
From this point of view, the English language, as a tool of international communication, can be used to resolve the problem. It is not the question of politics or what countries speak English or how hostile or friendly they are to Russia, it is the question of language as a communication tool. Even in normal conditions, practically at all international oil and gas projects the official language of negotiations and documentation is English, because most people speak it, as specialists from many countries are involved in any project. However it is quite normal to duplicate documentation in languages of partners, for example, Russian, Chinese, Arabic and so on.
In addition, big quantities of materials and equipment are delivered from different countries and use at international projects. Operating instructions, certificates and standards, working documentation and correspondence – all that is in English and requires translation.
Western oil and gas companies left Russia. However it does not mean that field exploration and development, oil and gas production and refining will be stopped. For some time we can do it independently, but not infinitely. Industries of each country are integrated into global economics, and in order to keep up with the times, we will inevitably need both technologies and investments from other countries. Therefore we will definitely see new international players coming into the Russian oil and gas sector, and also with continuation and expansion of operations of Russian oil and gas companies in markets of such countries. Even now it is quite probable that Arabic countries, China and India will be among them.
For that reason it is possible to predict that along with significant increase of demand for Arabic and Chinese, the English language will remain at all international projects, and not only in the oil and gas industry, but also in nuclear power engineering, machine-building and many other areas.
Only time will show how actual and correct can be such forecast, however, if English remains the language of international communication, which is almost inevitable, then at any international project translators will have to use it.
