I fell in love with the Russian language in 2000 when I first visited Moscow as an exchange student. It amazed me and I decided after college to live in Russia indefinitely so I could master the language and learn to think like a Russian. I improved my speaking and listening skills through talking with people and everyday life, but I knew I needed to work on my reading/writing skills.
In 2003, I began working as an editor at Interfax Information Services, Russia's biggest news agency, and I was quickly promoted to the position of translator for financial and economic news in one of the world's most rapidly emerging markets.
During my five years as a translator, I learned what makes the economies of Russian/CIS/Eastern European countries tick in addition to the major players and trends on these markets. More importantly, I learned how to process such information in another language and make it clear and informative to non-Russian speakers. I took great pride in my work and always looked for ways to improve the quality of our department's translations.
I also kept up active reading of Russian literature on the side (mainly 20th century) and even wrote a few short stories in Russian to test my writing skills. I very much enjoy working as a U.S.-based freelance translator now. While my strongest areas are financial and economic news, I continue to branch out and explore different realms of the Rus>Eng translation world and will hopefully continue to do so for a very long time. Learning a language is a never ending process.